Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. said Thursday it now expects to extract higher nickel resources from the Cagdianao ferronickel project in Surigao del Norte province of subsidiary Platinum Group Metals Corp.
FNI said the latest resource update for the Cagdianao ferronickel project was raised to 54.16 million dry metric tons of indicated mineral resources.
Based on data gathered after the completion of drilling activities at Cagdianao deposit areas 2 and 3, the indicated mineral resources increased by 3.846 million DMT from 50.314 million DMT with an average grade of 1.1 percent nickel and 31.4 percent iron.
“The updated exploration information is very encouraging as it continues to add great value to our assets,” said Global Ferronickel president Dante Bravo.
“Even as we are continuing to mine Caga 2 and 4, our exploration program allows us to successfully increase our resource inventory and continually upgrade resource confidence level. And we still have significant scope for further exploration. We expect to report new drill data for Caga 1, 6 and 7 in 2018,” he asaid.
Material mix from deposit areas 2 and 3 consists of 69 percent medium-grade, 20 percent low-grade and 11 percent high-grade.
Inferred resources also increased by 5.9 million DMT, from 18.081 million DMT to 23.982 million DMT, with an average grade of 1.2 percent nickel and 21.5 percent iron.
The Cagdianao nickel project is a 4,376-hectare project located in Sitio Kinalablaban, Barangay Cagdianao Claver, Surigao del Norte.
Divided into seven contiguous laterite deposits, it is connected within eight kilometers from two separate causeway facilities.
It is covered by Mineral Production Sharing Agreement No. 007-92-X, which was renewed in June 2016 for a period of 25 years and by Environmental Compliance Certificate No. 1007-0023 with a maximum annual production volume of 5 million DMT.