www.bassmetals.com.au
Bass Metals (ASX: BSM) is a growth focused and profitable Australian base and precious metal producer with a portfolio of high quality zinc, lead, copper and gold assets in the rich Mount Read Volcanic mineral belt in northwest Tasmania. Listing in 2005, Bass delivered its maiden profit in 2008 from its profitable base metals production hub at Que River in Tasmania, which has generated $25 million in cash flow over the last two years.
The Company also has an active and successful exploration programme and is currently following up on recent discoveries at Switchback and Fossey East which are high-grade and located in close proximity to existing mines and milling infrastructure. Bass has an experienced Board and operating team who have a strong track record of delivering profitable production underpinned by exploration success and are highly motivated to improve on that record.
The Company’s growth strategy centres on the development of a ‘pipeline’ of production, near-production and exploration assets in this prolific mineral belt, with strong leverage to a substantial new discovery through its extensive regional ground holding.
Bass Metals provides update on operations at Hellyer Mine
Bass Metals (ASX: BSM) has updated the market on its mining operations at the Hellyer Mine in North West Tasmania, while advancing the Fossey decline.
A fault structure was intersected while advancing the Fossey decline resulting in a high water ingress rate into the decline estimated to be approximately 80 to 100 litres/sec.
An upgrade to the dewatering infrastructure was quickly installed and this set-up is managing the water inflow adequately.
This increased water ingress is occurring below the current ore production level which is at the 465 metre level and is presently not affecting the current stope areas. Ore production is continuing and there were only relatively minor disruptions when the operational focus was on installing additional dewatering services.
Since Sunday 5 June there has been an easing in the rate of water inflow. In the past, water flow from similar structures, but at lower flow rates has dissipated after several days to weeks. The total outflow being pumped from the mine peaked in the range of 150 to 200 litres/sec. which is the current maximum capacity of the dewatering system.
Despite this, the latest update indicated the Hellyer Mill is continuing to achieve good availability, throughput and recovery despite reduced grades to date, with the lead circuit modifications clearly improving lead performance.
The mill is operating successfully but the average zinc grade over the 3 to 4 days up to Friday 3 June has been persistently below expectation. The anticipated zinc head grade was approximately 6% based on ore sourced and blended from 3 stopes.
The average zinc grade through the Mill during the current, fourth milling campaign has been 4.9%, i.e. 18% less, with a similar trend for lead grades.
The fourth milling campaign is underway and has so far treated about 30,000 tonnes and still has another two weeks to run.
Concentrate production for the current campaign is estimated to comprise:
- 1,662 tonnes of zinc concentrate grading 51% zinc and 115 g/t silver, 1.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
- 774 tonnes of lead concentrate grading 51% lead and 832 g/t silver, 2.5 g/t gold.
- 133 tonnes of copper concentrate grading 16% copper, 5,500 g/t silver, 8.9 g/t gold and 9.8% lead.
The mill is operating successfully but the average zinc grade over the 3 to 4 days up to Friday 3 June has been persistently below expectation.
The anticipated zinc head grade was about 6% based on ore sourced and blended from 3 stopes.
However, the average zinc grade through the Mill during the current, fourth milling campaign has been 4.9%, i.e. 18% less, with a similar trend for lead grades.
Early reconciliation analysis indicates one of these three stopes is underperforming grade-wise and the company has adopted a cautionary approach by reporting this position, recognising that it is too early to draw any firm conclusions on the grade distribution.
To date about 120,000 tonnes of ore has been mined representing 11% of the Fossey Mine Plan and therefore only still a small sample of the overall resource.
The original Fossey Mine Plan was based on the 25 metre spaced diamond drilling undertaken from surface; the grade-control diamond drilling from underground to infill that spacing was completed on 30 May 2011.
Work is in progress to complete the logging and assaying of that grade control drill-core and update the current resource model to reconcile with production to date and if necessary produce a revised Mine Plan. This is expected to be completed in 3 to 4 weeks time.
The company said it is in the process of resolving these unexpected technical issues and it is too early to make any accurate assessment of the potential production and financial impact of these issues on the Hellyer Mine project.
