Mineral Resource
Rox has recently announced the maiden JORC compliant mineral resource estimate for the Myrtle zinc-lead deposit, located approximately 20km south of the McArthur River zinc-lead mine in the Northern Territory, of:
- 38 Million Tonnes grading 4.2% Zn, 1.0% Pb (5.2% combined Zn+Pb)
The resource is classified as Inferred and is estimated at a 3% Zn+Pb cut-off.
The mineral resource contains significant quantities of metal:
- 1.6 million tonnes of insitu zinc,
- 0.4 million tonnes of insitu lead,
- 2.0 million tonnes of combined insitu zinc and lead.
At a higher cut-off grade of 5% Zn+Pb the resource includes a higher grade core, with a grade of 7% Zn+Pb:
- 15 Million Tonnes grading 5.5% Zn, 1.5% Pb (7.0% combined Zn+Pb).
A higher grade continuous core of 8.2 Million Tonnes grading 6.4% Zn, 1.9% Pb (8.3% combined Zn + Pb) is present at a cut-off grade of 6% Zn + Pb.
Silver grades are low (about 1 g/t) and have not been included in the mineral resource estimate.
Geology and grade was observed to be acceptably continuous at the current drill spacing of about 400 x 400 metres. The mineral resource was estimated using the cross sectional polygonal method, the most appropriate estimation technique at this stage of the project.
Drilling to date, which is wide spaced but over an extensive area, has shown that the Myrtle deposit has the potential to be very large and the Company plans to drill out the deposit to determine its ultimate size as time and funding permits. Preliminary metallurgical testwork has commenced and is planned to establish the grainsize of the sulphide minerals and their response to the froth flotation recovery method. Initial observation is that sulphide grain size is coarser (>100 microns) than that at McArthur River (<10 microns).
The Myrtle prospect is shaping into what could become a very significant zinc deposit, just 20km south of the world class McArthur River zinc-lead deposit. On a regional scale, the Myrtle prospect is one of a number of known base-metal occurrences on the Reward tenement, with a number of other prospects such as Barney Creek Sub-Basin, Buffalo Lagoon and Berjaya having similar potential to Myrtle.
Tenement and Legal Information
The Reward EL 10316 was granted to North Mining Limited on 22 July 2002 and is current to 21 July 2010.
A Native Title Agreement, dated 29 October 2002, has been entered into between North, Local Aboriginal Groups, and the Northern Land Council. It provides a process for work program approvals.
The Agreement between Rox and North entails:
- An acquisition payment of A$1/tonne (indexed for CPI) of the Mineral Resource defined in a BFS, payable upon decision to mine.
- A 2% Net Smelter Royalty to North.