JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Coal junior Beacon Hill Resources reported a 31% increase in the Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant coal resource at its Minas Moatize coking coal mine, in Mozambique’s Tete province.
The resource increased from 66.4-million tons to 86.8-million tons.
The upgrade, which was the result of an infill drilling programme undertaken in 2012 to prove previously unclassified tons in the upper and middle Chipanga seams, also included a 15.4% increase confidence in measured and indicated resources.
All geological modelling was completed on an on-site raw coal basis to produce a geological model suitable for classification and reporting of coal resources in accordance with the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.
A revised mine plan and an updated Jorc-compliant mineable reserve statement, which represented the portion of the geological resource that was economically mineable, were being finalised.
"We believe the resource is capable of further material enlargement and look forward to the Jorc-compliant reserve statement, which will be published and announced by the end of the first quarter of 2013," MD Rowan Karstel stated.