Brilliant sees new nickel zone develop at Lanfranchi

Vancouver – Underground drilling on the newly discovered Deacon zone at Brilliant Mining’s (BMC-V) Lanfranchi mine joint venture in Western Australia’s Kambalda region has cut additional high-grade nickel intercepts.

The first couple holes in the 16-hole resource definition program on the new zone returned intersections of 11 metres grading 2.25% nickel in HS251 and 17.1 metres of 4.12% nickel in HS236, with true widths of the intercepts calculated at 9.16 metres and 17.1 metres respectively.

The Deacon zone, situated just west of and adjacent to the currently mined Helmut South orebody, was recently discovered by five holes returning long intercepts of nickel sulphide mineralization (up to 111 metres of 2.9% nickel). Brilliant was quick to point out that hole orientation was not optimal and expected them to have a considerable down-plunge component but was none-the-less excited at the new zone’s potential to add significantly to the resource base.

The company fast-tracked its new hanging wall exploration drive from Helmut South into the Deacon zone to facilitate the planned 2,400-metre drill program. The 16 holes are expected to be completed by year-end.

Brilliant acquired its 25% interest in the Lanfranchi mining operations earlier this year by taking over private Australian company Donegal Resources, which held a one-quarter interest in the JV. Project partner Sally Malay Mining (SMY-A) holds the remaining 75% interest.

In its fourth quarter ending September 30th, the mine produced a record 55,547 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 2.29% nickel for about 1,272 contained tonnes (about 2.8 million contained lbs.) of nickel.

Ore from the mine is directly shipped to BHP Billiton’s (BHP-N) nickel concentrator at Kambalda, located 42 km to the north, under a long-term ore tolling and concentrate purchase agreement whereby the major’s subsidiary Nickel West buys up to 350,000 tonnes of ore annually for processing. The agreement also includes guaranteed recoveries, mitigating any metallurgical risks that may arise.

Kambalda-type nickel deposits are komatiitic in origin, where high-grade massive sulphides are concentrated in footwall embayments of ultramafic flows. The mineralized lenses at Lanfranchi range from 50-to-500 metres in length, 30-to-80 metres in width and from 0.5-to-30 metres thick.

Shares of Brilliant Mining gained 6 on the news to close at 77 apiece on trading volume of over 400,000. The stock has a 52-week price range of 18-to-$1.15.