Orion Minerals (ASX/JSE: ORN) has announced an update to the deep sulfide mineral resource estimate at its Prieska zinc-copper project in the Northern Cape, South Africa, providing a strong foundation to its ongoing bankable feasibility study and fast-tracked development strategy.

The company reported an additional 60,391m of drilling resulting in 50 new intersections and validation of 105 historical drill holes since the last resource announcement in April 2018, has successfully increased the total deep sulfide resource to 28.73Mt grading 3.77 percent zinc and 1.16 percent copper, with 18.51Mt grading 3.60 percent zinc and 1.17 percent copper upgraded to the higher-confidence Indicated category, available for inclusion in estimation of ore reserves by the BFS currently underway.

Managing director of Orion, Errol Smart said:

“This pivotal resource upgrade provides a strong foundation for our strategy to fast-track the development of a state-of-the-art base metals operation at Prieska next year. This is an outstanding result for our shareholders, which demonstrates the success of the 85,000m infill drilling program completed over the past 18 months.

The higher-confidence indicated component of the resource has increased from zero to 18.5 million tonnes, a result which has exceeded our expectations for the area where we completed infill drilling. This very high conversion rate is testament to the exceptional quality and consistency of this deposit, and the indicated resource will now form the cornerstone of our bankable feasibility study due for completion in Q2 next year.

However, it is also important to note that the thick, high-grade intersections on the margins of the resource area present compelling expansion targets. This near-mine exploration upside, when combined with the opportunity to upgrade additional inferred resources with future underground drilling and the broader potential of the emerging VMS field, puts Orion in an outstanding position to realize its objective of becoming a significant new player in the global base metals industry, with the development of the Prieska deposit and exploration of the Areachap Belt.”

Click here to read the full Orion Minerals (ASX/JSE:ORN) press release.