Page 18 - Sundance Resources 2014 Annual Report

16 SUNDANCE RESOURCES LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2014
2) Stage Two:
Exploitation of the “Itabirite”
Itabirite directly underlies the DSO and is the hard, lower grade
hematite mineralisation that will require grinding and processing to
remove the silica component. Infrastructure for this Stage of the Project
will be constructed towards the end of Stage 1 to provide a seamless
transition from a simple DSO product to an Itabirite operation.
RESERVES AND RESOURCES - HIGH
GRADE HEMATITE
The Mbalam-Nabeba Iron Ore Project has two distinct types of Iron Ore Mineralisation
that essentially define the Development of the Project into two distinct Stages:
1) Stage One:
Exploitation of the “High Grade Hematite Resources”
Commonly referred to as “DSO” (Direct Shipping Ore), this
is the near-surface iron ore mineralisation that in our case, is
represented by soft, high grade supergene ore that will be
mined for at least the first 10 years of the Project.
As more than sufficient Iron Ore Reserves have already been estimated and incorporated into the Project financing strategies,
there has been no additional drilling or change to the Company’s Mineral Inventory. Sundance’s exploration programme throughout
the year focused on developing a better understanding of the geology and mineralisation of the area, through the Trial Mining
excavations at Nabeba, and feeding this information back into exploration efforts on prospective areas within the tenement holdings.
The recent exposure of geology and iron ore types at the Nabeba Pit has provided an excellent training and development
opportunity for our in-country workforce. For many of the Company’s employees, this has been their first experience with Mining
Operations and it has emphasised to them the size and diversity of the Project.
High Grade Hematite Ore Reserves
The High Grade Hematite Ore Reserve for the Project is currently 436.3 Mt grading 62.6% Fe.
This Reserve underpins more than 12 years of High Grade DSO production at 35 million tonnes a year, as planned under Stage
One of the Project.
All Iron Ore Reserves and Resources have been estimated in accordance with the JORC Code 2004 edition. Note that there is no
requirement to report the Reserves or Resources to the new JORC Code 2012 requirements until a ‘material change’ is made to
the existing estimates. The Mineral Reserve was originally reported under JORC 2004 edition guidelines which were in effect on
24 December 2012 when the Reserves were first reported to the ASX.
The Reserves are the result of iron ore contributions from two separate Mining Areas - Mbarga and Mbarga-South in Cameroon, and from
the Nabeba-Main, Nabeba-Northwest and Nabeba-South pits in Congo. The two areas are approximately 45km apart but will be mined
simultaneously to allow on-site blending and optimisation of ore quality from the pits to achieve the most efficient and profitable output.