Hana Mining posts drill results for Banana Zone

Highlights from recent drill results from Hana Mining‘s (HMG-V) Banana Zone at its Ghanzi copper-silver project in northwestern Botswana include an intersect of 3.4% copper and 48 grams silver per tonne over six metres in hole 400-R, the company reports.

Seventy-one new drill holes have extended the strike length of the Banana zone by 10.2 km for a total of 58.7 km and mineralization remains open along strike and at depth, the company says. The Ghanzi project is in the center of Botswana’s Kalahari copper belt.

So far the company has drilled a total of 44,800 metres. The most recent results include intercepts of 2.51% copper and 36 grams silver over 4 metres in hole 401-R; 3.35% copper and 1 gram silver over 2 metres in hole 406-R; 2.79% copper and 37 grams silver over 3 metres in hole 412-R; and 2.30% copper and 24 grams silver over 2 metres in hole 415-R.

The property contains sediment-hosted copper-silver deposits with a demonstrated cumulative tested strike length of 58.7 km, and according to the company, “favorable geology extends over an estimated strike length of 600 km.”

Hana Mining released results of its most recent National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource estimate for the Ghanzi project on April 21, announcing an inferred mineral resource of 3.9 billion pounds of copper and 62.1 million oz. silver from 177 million tonnes.

This resource estimate consists of 73.5 million tonnes grading 1.5% copper and 19 grams silver per tonne in the Banana Zone, 13.4 million tonnes grading 1.7% copper and 12 grams silver per tonne in Zone 5; 6.3 million tonnes grading 1.5% copper and 7 grams silver per tonne in Zone 6; all at a cut-off grade of 0.75% copper.

Also included is 83.6 million tonnes grading 0.46% copper and 3.6 grams silver at a cut-off grade of 0.30% in the Chalcocite Zone.

Hana Mining says it plans to complete a revised resource estimate in support of an ongoing preliminary economic assessment.

“The Banana Zone exhibits certain areas of higher grade copper and silver mineralization … on both the North and South limbs, which represent an opportunity to locate starter pits and mine initial tonnages at higher than average grades,” the company states in its press release. “These higher grade pockets tend to be well within open pit depth parameters and represent opportunities to improve early cash flow and overall returns in development.”

The World Bank and the governments of Botswana and Namibia are funding a feasibility study to support completion of a rail link that would connect Botswana with the port of Walvis Bay on the Atlantic coast of Namibia. (The closest railhead to port is at Gobabis, in Namibia, about 550 km from our property.)

Construction has begun on the 600-megawatt expansion of the government-owned Moropule power plant, having secured US$825 million project funding in May 2009.

The Ghanzi copper-silver project is accessed by the paved Trans-Kalahari highway, which passes within 15 km of the property.

At presstime in Toronto, Hana Mining was trading at $1.74 per share and over the last year it has traded in a range of 30¢-$2.57 per share.

The company has about 74.8 million shares outstanding.