Breaking News: Trevali and South Boulder Hit Milestones

Companies started the week with a bang after Canada’s Victoria Day long weekend, with both South Boulder Mines (ASX:STB,OTCMKTS:SBMSF) and Trevali Mining (TSX:TV,OTCQX:TREVF) releasing positive results from their respective projects. 

For its part, South Boulder released a JORC maiden resource estimate for its Colluli potash project in Eritrea, East Africa. It points to a potassium salt ore reserve estimate of 1.1 billion tonnes at 10 percent K2O equivalent.

Other highlights are as follows:

• 287 million tonne Proved Ore Reserve
• 820 million tonne Probable Ore Reserve
• Over 85 percent of Measured and Indicated Resource included in Ore Reserve Estimate
• Ore Reserve estimate based on JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate and Colluli Prefeasibility Study released in February 2015
• Substantial project upside and capacity potential
• More than 200 year mine life at modelled sulphate of potash (SOP) production rates
• Colluli potassium salt combination capable of producing a diverse range of potash products including (SOP), potassium magnesium sulphate (SOP-M) and potassium chloride (Muriate of Potash or MOP)

Paul Donaldson, South Boulder’s managing director, is very pleased with the results, as they reaffirm the significance of the Colluli resource.

“The shallow mineralisation of the potassium bearing salts in combination with highly favourable ambient conditions, allows open cut mining of the resource, giving high resource recovery,” he’s quoted as saying in Tuesday’s press release. “The very large Mineral Resource and associated Ore Reserve estimate allows the project substantial growth and product diversification over time. Once the definitive feasibility study for the two phase production of SOP has been completed, work will commence on the logical pipeline of projects that will grow the project to its full potential.”

South Boulder’s share price reacted favorably to the news and was up 7.58 percent, at AU$0.355, as of 11:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday.

Trevali starts mill commissioning at Caribou

As mentioned, zinc-focused Trevali also revealed positive news Tuesday. It reported that mill commissioning at its Caribou zine mine in New Brunswick has begun. The initial operation will begin with low-grade materials as the company works to bring the grinding and flotation circuits up to spec.

The strategy for the Caribou mine is as follows:

• In order to ensure sufficient feed is available for commissioning, mining has produced an approximately 75,000-tonne surface mineralized mill-feed stockpile from underground (“UG”) development and production stopes with an additional 28,000 tonnes of mill-feed drilled and readily available for blast and mucking through the new ramp system. UG development and production has been going exceptionally well, additional details are discussed below.

• Initial commissioning will commence with low-grade material as the operators bring the grinding and flotation circuits up to specification. Positive-loop iterative optimization will occur during night-shift based on results obtained during the day with input from DRA and the various metallurgical support teams. Flotation and subsequent concentrate production will focus on the established Zn and Pb (Ag) circuits, with Cu (Au) circuit commissioning scheduled to commence later this year.

• Once sufficient operational data is obtained, tentatively during July-August, Trevali will mobilize its senior metallurgical consultant to site to provide additional technical and metallurgical support capacity. Glencore will also make available several of their Australian IsaMill specialists during this period if required.

• Concentrate trucking has been tendered and awarded with site specific training and orientation in progress. The Company will build a stockpile of concentrate on site prior to shipping and sale to Glencore at their adjacent Belledune smelting complex tentatively anticipated in late-Q2 to early-Q3.

Trevali expects that sufficient operational data will be obtained by July or August. That will allow the company to start mobilizing its senior metallurgical consultant to the site to provide additional technical and metallurgical support. Dewatering at the mill is ongoing and continues to progress following a heavy spring melt.

Securities Disclosure: I, Kristen Moran, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 

Editorial Disclosure: South Boulder Mines and Trevali Mining are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.