Talga increases Nunasvaara Resource estimate to 7.6Mt of graphite
THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Talga Gold (ASX: TLG) has updated the JORC Mineral Resource estimate for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Nunasvaara graphite deposit in northern Sweden.
Talga tenement locations, graphite projects and established transport infrastructure, Sweden.
The Indicated and Inferred estimate for Nunasvaara now totals 7.6 million tonnes at 24.4 per cent graphitic carbon when a 10 per cent graphitic carbon cut-off is applied.
The new estimate also represents a 110 per cent increase in size (tonnage) over the previous estimate, with 5.6 million tonnes at 24.6 per cent graphitic carbon in the Indicated category.
The growth in the resource and upgrading of the majority of the tonnes to Indicated status comes on the back of a maiden drilling campaign Talga carried out in July and reflect additional mineralisation defined along strike and down-dip of historic drilling.
Total contained graphite at Nunasvaara has increased 123 per cent to 1.85 million tonnes, more than double the size of the previously estimate of 3.6Mt at 23 per cent graphitic carbon containing 828,000 tonnes the company reported in February this year.
“Our targeted upgrade in size and status of this major graphite resource to support a 20 year open-cut mine life has been exceeded by a considerable margin,” Talga Gold managing director, Mark Thompson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“The deposit represents a significant new source of graphite not only for Europe, which in 2011 had to import approximately 170,000 tonnes natural graphite, but is one of the largest amounts of contained graphite defined by JORC or NI43-101 codes anywhere in the world.
“The increased status and size of the resource will be utilised in preliminary economic studies due to commence in December.”
Talga indicated the graphite mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth, with geophysical data and mapping suggesting potential for further expansion.
The company is now waiting to receive the assay results from a recent rock geochemical program, which it said will be reviewed with the aim of defining drilling extension targets in conjunction with geotechnical drilling for mining studies.