TORONTO, ONTARIO – Lundin Mining Corporation has officially announced that maiden Mineral Reserves have been estimated on two recently discovered orebodies at Candelaria, known as Susana and Damiana, located to the immediate south and below the current open pit.
The Company has also re-estimated the total Candelaria open pit Mineral Reserves with refined economic parameters. Open pit reserves now include portions of the Susana and Damiana mineralization that are contained within the new open pit shell.
The Mineral Reserves have been estimated in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and are reported as of April 01, 2015. Highlights include:
— Maiden underground Proven and Probable Reserves at Susana and Damiana
consist of 14.9 Mt at average grades of over 1.0% copper
— The new underground Reserves are expected to be accessed from existing
and new portals from the open pit and will form important additions to
the current underground operations
— After adjusting for the effects of mining depletion and refined economic
parameters, the updated open pit Mineral Reserves reflect an increase of
approximately 24% (or 66.3 Mt at 0.58% Cu) from the previous estimate
dated at Dec. 31, 2013
— Of this 66.3 million tonnes, 27.9 million tonnes (at higher grades
of 0.68% copper, 0.16 g/t gold and 2.31 g/t silver) are from the new
Susana and Damiana orebodies
— The increased open pit and underground Mineral Reserves are expected to
result in approximately three years of additional mine life for the
Candelaria operation
Mr. Paul Conibear, President and CEO of Lundin Mining stated,
“We are very pleased that in a short amount of time we have been able to deliver meaningful additions to the Mineral Reserves at Candelaria. With ten drills currently active on step out drilling across the five different underground orebodies, we continue our aggressive 2015 exploration program, the results of which will be included in our third quarter corporate Reserve and Resource update. These results and efforts from ongoing mine planning will form the basis of our optimized Candelaria district mine plan which is expected to be released in the third quarter of this year.”
Candelaria open pit Mineral Reserves which have been re-estimated using updated price parameters of $2.75/lb copper, $1,000/oz gold and $15.00/oz silver, are reported as follows:
Mineral Reserve Statement(i), Candelaria Open Pit, April 01, 2015
Grade Contained Metal
————————————————
Quantity Copper Gold Silver
Tonnes Copper Gold Silver Tonnes Ounces Ounces
Classification (000s) (%) (gpt) (gpt) (000s) (000s) (000s)
—————————————————————————-
Proven 296,822 0.57 0.13 2.17 1,682 1,253 20,744
Probable 17,605 0.50 0.13 1.90 88 75 1,078
—————————————————————————-
Total 314,427 0.56 0.13 2.16 1,770 1,328 21,822
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(i) Mineral Reserves have been prepared using $2.75 per pound of copper, $1,000 per ounce gold and $15.00 per ounce silver. All figures have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates. Open pit Mineral Reserves are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.21% copper.
New Mineral Reserves on the Susana and Damiana orebodies, both open pit (included in the table above) and underground beneath the open pit, using the same metal prices as above, are reported as follows:
Mineral Reserve Statement(i), Susana and Damiana Open Pit and Underground,
April 01, 2015
Grade Contained Metal
————————————————
Quantity Copper Gold Silver
Tonnes Copper Gold Silver Tonnes Ounces Ounces
Classification (000s) (%) (gpt) (gpt) (000s) (000s) (000s)
—————————————————————————-
Proven Underground 13,326 1.03 0.23 3.26 137 99 1,395
Probable Underground 1,546 0.91 0.21 3.07 14 10 153
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Total P&P
Underground 14,872 1.01 0.23 3.24 151 109 1,548
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Proven Open Pit 25,026 0.70 0.16 2.36 174 128 1,903
Probable Open Pit 2,882 0.53 0.16 1.86 15 15 173
—————————————————————————-
Total P&P Open Pit 27,908 0.68 0.16 2.31 190 143 2,075
—————————————————————————-
Total P&P 42,780 0.80 0.18 2.63 340 252 3,623
—————————————————————————-
(i)Mineral Reserves have been prepared using $2.75 per pound of copper, $1,000 per ounce gold and $15.00 per ounce silver.
Susana and Damiana open pit and underground Mineral Reserves are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.21% and 0.73% copper respectively.
