Name: Manaila mine.

Location: The Manaila polymetallic mine is located in Suceava County, in northern Romania, 26 km from the town of Iacobeni.

Controlling Company: Vast Resources owns a 50.1% interest in the Sinarom Mining Group, which owns the Manaila mine.

Brief History: Production at Manaila started in August 2015 – four weeks after Vast assumed operating control.

The Manaila mining operation historically produced a 13% copper concentrate and a 3 g/t gold concentrate; however, the copper concentrate has already been increased to 21.2%, following recommendations by Vast before its acquisition of the mine. Vast hopes to enhance this further.

Brief Description: The Manaila orebody is relatively flat lying, dipping at an average of 25º to the north-east. It is between 1 m and 40 m thick, averaging about 8 m.

The mineral deposit can be mined in three distinct phases, with Phase 1 representing the continuation of the existing openpit mining method for a further three years.

Products: Economic mineralisation comprises copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver.

Geology/Mineralisation: Manaila is located within the Tulghes Terrane of the Carpathian belt. The Tulghes metamorphic unit is characterised by low degree metamorphism. The polymetallic mineralisation is associated with the Tg3-formation (meta acid volcanics) and quartz-sericite schist. The polymetallic sulphides hosted within the Tg3-formation are represented by pyrite- chalcopyrite disseminations. There is considerable exploration potential in the mine and satellite targets within the licensed area.

Resources: Total mineral resources estimated in accordance with the Russian Reserves and Resource Reporting System comprise 1.8-million tons in situ of lead at 0.95%, zinc at 1.86%, copper at 1.17%, gold at 0.63 g/t and silver at 45.97 g/t.

Mining Method: Openpit and underground.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The Manaila mine infrastructure includes a processing plant, comprising crushing, milling and flotation circuits, to produce copper, lead and zinc, with gold and silver credits. The plant has a current design capacity of 20 000 t/m.

A tailings storage facility lined with high-density polyethylene for deposition of flotation tailings is also employed.

Prospects: In August 2015, Vast conducted the first blast at the Manaila mine and started the first production of concentrate at its subsidiary Sinarom Mining Group’s processing facility, in Iacobeni.

Meanwhile, the company’s application to renew the Manaila mining licence for a further three years has been granted. The renewal enables the company to apply to extend the perimeter of the existing licence area, which, in turn, will enable Vast to conduct drilling to confirm the expected increase of the resource, which is considered to be amenable to openpit mining and constitutes Phase 1 of the Manaila operation.

Phase 1 will result in the continuation of existing openpit mining for a further three years.

Owing to the undulating topography and faulting on the Manaila orebody, Vast is considering the economics of an underground operation. Further detailed work might reveal that an openpit mine is feasible on portions of Phase 2 or the Phase 2 orebody.

Contact Person: CEO Roy Pitchford.

Contact Details:
Vast Resources,
tel +44 1622 816918,
email info@vastresourcesplc.com, and
website http://www.vastresourcesplc.com.