The company will publish a new reserve and resource statement during the second or third quarter, which will include 29,000 m of the 2011 expansion drill program at the hanging wall copper zone.
The company has intersected 2.83% copper over 22.7 m in the hole B-467, 3.08% copper over 15.1 m in the hole B-498 and 3.88% copper over 45.0 m in the hole B-502.
Nevsun specifically designed a phase II drilling at the hanging wall copper zone in order to outline the levels and continuity of a copper mineralization formerly discovered at the site contiguous to the Bisha mine. The drilling program included 9,400 m of diamond drilling and 82 holes completed in 2011. The mineralization at the hanging wall copper zone is considered to be the extra source for Bisha’s processing plant.
A new lens of supergene mineralized copper was identified during the phase I drilling, along with high grade intervals of 8.6% copper over 30 m and 8.3% copper over 37.5 m and outlines the level of the hanging wall copper mineralization. The phase II program was specially designed to infill the zone that was outlined during the phase I program in order to gather further information for resource calculation.
The company cut the supergene sulphide lens at the drill holes B-467, B-498, B-500 and B-502. The spacing of the drill hole is around 25 x 25 m. The sulphide lens seems to a northwest lens expansion of Bisha. The company blocked the holes B-480 and B-497 for normal functional reasons and drilled again as the holes B-489 and B-502, respectively.
Nevsun conducted sample preparation and testing at theCanada-based ALS Chemex laboratory.