Element 25 (ASX:E25) has begun infill drilling at the Butcherbird Manganese Project in Western Australia as it looks to re-estimate current reserves at the project.
Butcherbird currently hosts a resource of over 260 million tonnes of manganese ore. However, this is limited to areas which have been sufficiently drilled-out to support measured and indicated classifications.
Some 209 percussion drill holes — totalling 6,270m and expected to take four weeks to complete — will provide infill data aimed at converting the inferred resource to indicated or measured categories to support the re-estimation of mine reserves.
Drilling samples will be submitted for assays and database integration, which will be immediately followed by a recalculation of resources and reserves.
“This drilling program will allow the global resource at Butcherbird to be recalculated with higher degree of certainty, which is expected to result in a significant conversion of inferred resources to measured and indicated, which will support project financing by increasing the reserve tail beyond that covered by the existing 7.2-year mine life,” Managing Director Justin Brown says.
Butcherbird is thought to host Australia’s largest onshore manganese resource, comprising large tonnages of near-surface manganese oxide ore in seven deposits.
Element 25 is focused on producing high-quality manganese from the Butcherbird Project, as well as building its first high-purity manganese sulphate conversion facility for electric vehicle fuel.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: ProjX
