North River Resources jumps after obtaining legacy commodities data

AIM-listed mining company North River Resources has reported making "considerable headway" in obtaining legacy information relating to the operations of its flagship project, the Namib Mine, which produced lead, zinc and silver from 1969 to 1991.

The company said that the legacy information included diamond drill data that was conducted during the period and prior to operations commencing in 1969.

The board said that it now believes that the mine produced approximately 700,000 tonnes of ore, calculated from North River's 3D models of the mine voids, producing over 100,000 tonnes of lead and zinc concentrate, and over 1.0m ounces of silver.

After net smelter returns, North River Resources said that this would have yielded revenues in excess of $100m at current commodity prices.

The company further revealed that surface diamond drilling programmes had been conducted at Namib in 1956 and 1966. Although bore hole logs and assay data was found, it said that the results of these programmes remained unverified as the core samples had not been located.

As such, the directors said that the information did not meet JORC compliance standards, and could only be regarded as legacy information at this stage.

However, it said that the drill data suggested a number of intercepts up to 100m below the base of the historic mine workings, as well as some high grade intercepts at the Northern ore-bodies, some of which were missed by the most recent drilling undertaken in 2007.

Claridge appointed Project Manager at Namib mineThe company also announced that it had appointed a new Project Manager, Dominic Claridge, for the re-opening of the Namib Mine.

Claridge was previously Group Executive of Project Development for Weatherly International, where he managed bankable feasibility studies on three projects in Namibia, notably Berg Akas, another brownfield lead, zinc, and silver mine.

Martin French, Executive Director of North River said "Dominic is uniquely qualified as Project Manager for the Namib Mine, having worked on a similar historic lead-zinc mine project in Namibia. In the short time he has been with us, he has greatly accelerated both our knowledge and detailed planning of the project."

North River Resources' share price was up 6.67% to 0.40p at 10:40 on Friday.

MF