JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Joint venture company Agata Mining Ventures (AMVI) has started with an exploration programme aimed at defining a National Instrument (NI) 43-101-compliant resource estimate at its Agata limestone project, in the Philippines.
The NI 43-101 report was expected to be released following the completion of the exploration programme in mid-2015.
TVI Resource Development (TVIRD), which held a 60% stake in AMVI and was the project operator, said that, once an initial resource had been developed and product markets had been identified and confirmed, AMVI would evaluate the feasibility of starting a limestone direct shipping ore (DSO) operation using the same infrastructure developed for its current nickel laterite DSO operations.
The Agata limestone project was situated to the south of TVIRD's current Agata nickel laterite DSO operation and immediately adjacent to the causeway facilities that were built to support the DSO operations.
The limestone project comprised a number of separate deposits, of which only one – the Payong Payong deposit covering about 27.7 ha – had been drilled to date.
It was planned that other nearby deposits would be explored in stages in the future.
"We are very pleased to see exploration work starting at the Agata limestone project as it potentially represents another source of long-term cash flow for TVIRD, using essentially the same infrastructure created for the laterite DSO operations," TVIRD chairperson Clifford James commented.
He added that TVIRD was growing its investment value through the advancement of its projects, as would become evident when the company listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, which was planned for 2015.