Hana Mining Reports Inferred Resource For Ghanzi

After 15 months of drilling in northwestern Botswana, Hana Mining (HMG-V) has released the first inferred resource for its Ghanzi copper- silver property.

At a 0.3% cutoff grade, the deposit hosts a resource of 163.5 million tonnes averaging 0.82% copper and 9.8 grams silver per tonne for total contained copper of 2.9 billion lbs. and 51.5 million oz. silver.

At a cutoff of 0.75% copper, the inferred resource totals 60.4 million tonnes of 1.51% copper and 17.98 grams silver for 2 billion lbs. cop per and 34.9 million oz. silver.

Peter Wilson, Hana Mining’s president, noted in a statement that the company initially had expected a resource of about 100 million tonnes grading 1% copper.

A number of companies have explored the property off and on since the early 1960s.

The drill program included 98 core holes totalling 15,000 metres and 50 reverse-circulation holes totalling 6,600 metres.

“The resource remains open along strike and downdip in the zones we have been working, offering further opportunity for resource expansion,” Wilson said. “These results confirm to us that we are on the right track for the discovery of a major new copper district in Botswana. . . Our next goal is to expand this resource to 200-400 million metric tonnes, and we are designing the current exploration program to achieve this result.”

Ghanzi is made up of five licence blocks covering 2,200 sq. km and is classified as a sediment-hosted copper- silver deposit.

As part of a financing in late May, the Vancouver-based explorer raised about $3.2 million and is poised to commission a metallurgical study along with power and infrastructure studies, and to expand the resource base through testing drill-ready targets.

The 15-month drill program attacked 16 km of strike length, while the total cumulative strike length of the property extends to about 600 km due to repeated folding, the company says.

Of the total target strike length, future drill plans call for work on about 20 km of the most prospective targets — or drilling on 6% of the property’s total known strike length.

Resource mineralization is confined to a redox horizon that occurs immediately above an oxidized sandstone sequence, the company says.

The current resource estimate included three separate zones: Banana, Zone 5 and Zone 6.

The project is well situated with power available from Maun, a nearby town of about 50,000 people. The property also passes within 10 km of the paved trans-Kalahari highway, which runs from Namibia to South Africa.

At presstime, Hana Mining shares traded at 35¢ apiece.

The company has a 52-week trading range of 16.7¢-$1.79 and 24.5 million shares outstanding.