Lead the way at Shan North
ASSAY results from the first hole to be tested at Myanmar Metals’ Shan North target have produced highly promising lead mineralisation results.
The site is within the world-class Bawdwin mineral field in Myanmar, currently under care and maintenance, and being developed by the Bawdwin Joint Venture, a consortium between Myanmar Metals (MML), Win Myint Mo Industries (WMM), and EAP Global.
MML holds a stake in the project under a production sharing agreement with WMM and Mining Enterprise No 1, a Myanmar Government business entity.
An updated Mineral Resource estimate is currently being undertaken, incorporating results from more than 7000m of additional drilling completed since the last estimate was announced in February this year.
This new resource estimate is planned for completion in August.
MML executive chairman and CEO John Lamb said the company currently enjoyed a 100pc success rate from target identification to the discovery of new mineralised zones.
“This is quite remarkable. Our exploration methodology has been validated and we believe our four high priority targets which remain untested by drilling have been further de-risked by the discovery of Shan North,” he said.
“Bawdwin already hosts the world’s largest primary lead resource but as drilling advances outside the historical mining envelope, we see the potential for material resource growth becoming clear.
“These latest results improve density and confidence within the known ore zones, demonstrate extensions in several places and, importantly, show continuity along strike, so that Bawdwin is beginning to look like a very large, continuous mineralised trend rather than a series of lenses or lodes.”
Initial scoping study of the project was completed in November 2017, while scoping study of the China Pit (Starter Pit) finished in August 2018.
A pre-feasibility study (PFS) of the project, focused on Starter Pit, proposed to begin pilot-scale mining activities in 2019 and full-scale operations in 2021.
Once operational, the Starter Pit is forecast to be the third biggest-producing lead mine and one of the biggest-producing silver mines.
“In October we will seek to start an intensive exploration drilling program but the focus for the next quarter will be the underground scoping study, an updated MRE and in-fill drilling in the Starter Pit,” Mr Lamb said.