Champion’s Farim project takes shape

Champion Resources (CHL-V) has received encouraging results from 17 core holes drilled at its Farim phosphate project in Guinea-Bissau, the West African country sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea.

The program, part of a due diligence program, confirmed the grade, thickness and continuity reported by French government-owned Bureau de recherches gologiques et minires in the 1980s.

Deleterious elements, such as cadmium, arsenic and magnesium, are at low levels, reports Champion, which drilled 10 confirmatory and peripheral holes in the 12-sq.-km Eastern block. The area is considered a prime location for an open pit. On the Western block, seven holes confirmed the continuity of the deposit from east to west.

All core samples were analyzed by South African-based Bateman Minerals & Industrial; the results are shown in the accompanying table.

Reserves at Farim are pegged at 105 million tonnes grading 29.8% phosphate.

Construction should begin sometime in the first half of 2000, with annual production of 1.5 million tonnes of phosphate concentrate slated for the third quarter of 2001.

The projected cash operating cost is US$20 per tonne; the construction cost, US$112 million.

The deposit is hosted in an Eocene-aged sedimentary sequence within a large basin that covered West Africa more than 50 million years ago. The flat-lying phosphate horizon extends over 40 sq. km and ranges in thickness from 1 to 6 metres.

Champion will next turn its attention toward process studies, reserve assessment and mine planning.