Thursday, December 10, 2009

Hana Mining Discovers More Copper In Ghanzi

Hana Mining has announced completion of 14 new RC drill holes at its Ghanzi copper-silver project in Botswana which extends total mineralisation in the Company's current focus area, Banana zone.

During an interview with Mineweb, Hana Mining CEO Marek Kreczmer said the findings will likely increase the overall resource to 80 - 100m tonnes. This also extends mineralisation by 1600m along strike for two sections in the Banana zone, the South Limb and Southwest Fold Closure.

The highlights of the recent drilling results show that four new holes in the South Limb extend mineralised strike length by 600 metres to 1.8km. Ten new holes in the Southwest fold represent new mineralised strike length of 1000 metres in an area never tested by any type of drilling.

The company said the results in the South Limb show continuation of mineable grade copper/silver mineralisation trending south from previously released results.

Results from the Southwest fold show lower grade, near surface mineralisation over large widths (16 to 48 metres) and at shallow dip. Hana said the main copper minerals in the Southwest fold are malachite and chalcocite, unlike other areas which are predominantly bornite and chalcopyrite.

Kreczmer said he has been spending the past weeks in Botswana's capital, Gaborone, meeting with government officials and looking at various office spaces. He said they hope to have an established office early 2010 in Gaborone.

In June, the company announced that its drilling results have shown an inferred resource of 2.9 billion pounds of copper and 51.5 million ounces of silver at its Ghanzi Copper-Silver deposit.

The company, which is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada and is listed on the TSX (Toronto Stock Exchange) Venture Exchange and the Frankfurt Exchange says it views Botswana as a very favourable area for conducting business and also commended the government's support for developing mining diversification.

The mineralisation at the Ghantsi Copper-Silver property is classified as a sediment-hosted copper-silver deposit. Among the best-known deposits of similar type is the vast Kuperschiefer deposit in Poland where mineralisation occurs to a vertical depth of at least 700 metres and is open.

The company said this type of copper deposit can generate a resource that is both very large and of attractive grade, making it viable for world-scale mining opportunities.

The Ghanzi Project consists of five licence blocks covering 2,200 square kilometres. The area is host to widespread sediment-hosted copper-silver mineralisation. The property has been explored intermittently since 1962 by numerous companies. Hana Mining said the exploration work was done when copper prices were lower than today and regional infrastructure was not as advanced as at present.

The company plans to get power from the Maun grid, which is situated on the northern end of the property and to use the Trans-Kalahari Highway which passes within 10 kilometres of the north end of the property as well.

Hana Mining recently raised about $3.2 million in funding as part of a financing package announced on May 29, 2009 and will now work towards enhancing the value of the deposit by completing power and infrastructure studies and expanding the resource base through testing of drill-ready targets.

Source: Mmegi Online

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