Jan 6 2011
Buchans Minerals Corporation (BMC-TSX-V) has announced that Wardrop., A Tetra Tech Company, has completed the detailed open pit mine plan for the Company's 100% owned Lundberg & Engine House base metal deposits located just outside the town of Buchans in central Newfoundland.
The open pit mine plan for the Lundberg & Engine House base metal deposits is based on a 5,000 tonne per day operation and is one of two key building blocks required to complete a preliminary economic assessment ("PEA"). The remaining key building block is the ongoing metallurgical testing that will determine the recoverability of the metals and grades of saleable concentrates.
The open pit mine plan developed by Wardrop captures 16.64 million tonnes of the existing mineral resource as described in the Company's press release, dated November 7, 2008. The average grades for the captured material over the life of mine is 1.637% Zinc (Zn), 0.698% Lead (Pb), 0.406% Copper (Cu), 5.97 g/t Silver (Ag), 0.072 g/t Gold (Au) and 1.254% Barium (Ba) for a combined base metal grade of 2.74% (Zn, Pb, Cu). It is estimated that the life of mine will be approximately 10 years and the average stripping ratio is estimated to be 3.20 : 1 with 53.26 million tonnes of waste material being moved. The open pit is located just west of the town of Buchans and the final open pit is anticipated to be comprised of 20 benches down to a depth of 200 metres and a final footprint having approximate dimensions of 800 metres north-south and 900 metres east-west.
The mine plan developed by Wardrop is based on the original resource estimate with an Inferred Resources of 20.7 million tonnes grading 2.78% combined base metals comprised of 1.68% zinc, 0.72% lead, 0.38% copper, 5.92 g/t silver and 0.07 g/t gold at Lundberg and 1.1 million tonnes grading 3.71% combined base metals comprised of 2.04% zinc, 0.85% lead, 0.82% copper, 9.79 g/t silver and 0.12 g/t gold at Engine House.
Warren MacLeod, President and CEO of Buchans Minerals stated that "The completion of the open pit mine plan is a key milestone in the development of the Lundberg & Engine House deposits and we look forward to continuing our metallurgical work towards making a decision to proceed with a PEA".
Qualified Person
Mr. Daniel Gagnon, P.Eng., a Senior Open Pit Mining Engineer with Wardrop, is acting as Qualified Person in compliance with National Instrument 43-101 with respect to this release and has reviewed the contents for accuracy.
Source: Buchans Minerals Corporation