Infill Drilling Set to Boost Kanyika

Kristie Batten
MiningNews.Net

GLOBE Metals & Mining has completed infill drilling at its flagship Kanyika niobium project in Malawi, intersecting high-grade, nearsurface mineralisation. Reverse circulation drilling intersected 23m at 11,331 parts per million niobium oxide, 561ppm tantalum pentoxide and 393ppm uranium oxide from 46m, including 9m at 24,119ppm niobium oxide, 1187ppm tantalum pentoxide and 838ppm uranium, and 2m at 84,428ppm niobium oxide, 4400ppm tantalum pentoxide and 2996ppm uranium oxide.

The company will use the latest results to prepare a revised resource estimate in the first quarter of 2010. The new estimate will be used for the pit optimisation, mine design and scheduling components of the bankable feasibility study, which is being funded largely by Globe’s joint venture, Thuthuka Group.

Kanyika has current resources of 55.3 million tonnes at 3000ppm niobium. Globe recently announced an exploration target 100-110Mt at grades of 2900-3200ppm niobium for Kanyika. The company is eyeing a 20-year operation to start in 2012, producing 3000 tonnes per annum of niobium metal, principally in the form of ferro-niobium.

Shares in Globe were last trading half a cent up at A19.5c.