Measured Resource more than Trebled
27 May 2008
SNR is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Elitheni Coal (Pty) Ltd (”Elitheni”), has confirmed a substantial increase to its measured coal resource at Indwe in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
SNR announced on 4 September 2007 that its measured coal resource for Elitheni’s Phase 1 and 2 coal prospecting areas had increased from 6.68 million tonnes at the time of listing to 10.1 million tonnes, an increase of 51%. The latest drilling results under SAMREC rules and confirmed by William van der Schyff from the Company’s Consultant Geologists, Golder Associates Africa (Pty) Ltd (”Golder”), have upgraded the measured resource for Elitheni’s Phase 1 and 2 coal prospecting areas to 24 million tonnes, which is a further increase of 137%. In addition, following early drilling results from Elitheni’s Phase 3 coal prospecting area, Golder has confirmed a measured resource for this area of 1.8 million tonnes.
This announcement follows the recent announcements that Elitheni has now obtained the necessary mining permit to commence opencast production for 1,5ha of Elitheni’s Phase 1 & 2 coal prospecting area and that the Mining Rights Environmental Management Programme (‘’EMP’’) has been completed and accepted by the South African Department of Minerals & Energy (‘’DME’’).
Jeremy Metcalfe, SNR’s Chief Executive, said “We have achieved yet another milestone. A measured resource increase of approximately 19 million tonnes in less than nine months is outstanding and given the successful progress of our Mining Rights application, I am pleased that we have even more to offer our shareholders”.
The information regarding Elitheni’s coal reserves in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by Willem van der Schyff BSc (Hons), Senior Resource Geologist and full time employee of Golder, the Company’s consultant geologists. Mr van der Schyff has 17 years industry experience in resource estimation and classification on coal, base metals, iron ore, heavy minerals and industrial minerals and is a Member of the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA) and the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (Pr Sci Nat). The block model size was 50m x 50m x 1m grid.
For further information, please contact:
Strategic Natural Resources plc
David Nel, Chief Executive Officer
+27 (0) 41 374 0842
Jeremy Metcalfe, Communications Director
+44 (0)7785 346 718
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