Drilling encourages Discovery

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Discovery Metals has released assay results for three diamond drill holes at the Plutus deposit, which is part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Boseto copper project in Botswana.

The company carried out the drilling in order to confirm the continuity of mineralisation between the base of a planned open pit and a series of deeper holes, which were reported to the market in June.

The Boseto copper project is currently under construction and is scheduled to commence production in the first half of 2012.

Discovery plans production of approximately 36,000 tonnes of copper and more than one million ounces of silver per annum over an initial 15 year mine life.

“The results from these infill holes at Plutus suggests a zone of high grade copper‐silver mineralisation exists, with potential for economic underground mining at depth over a long strike length of at least 1,400 metres at the Plutus deposit,” Discovery Metals managing director Brad Sampson said in the company’s release to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is our intention to leverage offs the results of the Definitive Feasibility Study for underground mining (currently being undertaken on the Zeta Deposit and due for completion in December 2011), to better assess the economic potential for an underground mining operation at Plutus.”

Discovery is confident these latest assay results complement those it received from the 11 hole deep drilling program in June.

These confirmed copper‐silver mineralisation at the Plutus deposit extended to approximately 350 metres in depth along the approximately seven kilometres of strike length the company tested at the time.

A zone of higher grades and thicker copper‐silver mineralisation was defined at the north‐eastern end of the Plutus deep drilling.

Three additional holes were then drilled to test the mineralisation at an intermediate depth of approximately 200m within this higher grade zone.

Mineralised intercepts from this drilling include:

–    7 metres at 1.4 per cent copper and 12 grams per tonne silver, including 5.1 metres at 1.9 per cent copper and 16 grams per tonne silver;

–    13.4m at 0.9% copper and 8g/t silver, including 1.4m at 2.1% copper and 27g/t silver; and

–    3.9m at 1.4% copper and 17g/t silver, including 1.9m at 2.1% copper and 28g/t silver.

All three drill holes intersected copper‐silver mineralisation at a vertical depth of approximately 200m below surface.

Discovery said that high-grade copper mineralisation that has been identified is open both along strike and at depth.

The company said it intends to assess the potential for underground mining at Plutus deposit follow completion of a definitive feasibility study for underground mining at the nearby Zeta deposit in late 2011.

“Successful delineation of economic underground mineral resources at Plutus will provide additional mining opportunities to those considered in the Boseto Development Plan and may contribute to increasing both the scale and/or life of operations at Boseto and also enable enhanced mine scheduling flexibility,” the company said.

Discovery will conduct further drilling below the 200m level at Plutus once the assessment for the potential of underground mining is complete.