Giyani Metals Corp (TSX-V:EMM, OTC:CATPF) said it has completed its infill drilling program at the K.Hill manganese project in Botswana.
The program gathered data for updating the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the project's 2025 Definitive Feasibility Study.
The 3,185-meter infill drilling programme, consisting of 61 holes, aims to define sufficient measured mineral resources for the initial five years of mining operations, supplementing the 10,710 meters of previous drill results used in the 2023 MRE.
The goal is to upgrade and reclassify a portion of the current 8.6 million tonnes of Indicated Mineral Resources to Measured Mineral Resources
This data will be integrated with outputs from the Demonstration Plant to optimize mine scheduling and plant feed grades within the DFS, Giyani said.
Giyani has also started mining geotechnical field investigations to inform mine design parameters for the DFS, including groundwater monitoring to confirm baseline water quality data. Concurrently, civil geotechnical field investigations will be conducted to inform the design criteria for plant infrastructure, access roads, waste rock dumps, and the tailings storage facility.
“Meeting lender requirements that the debt repayment period is covered by Measured Mineral Resource, that the project execution plan is supported by detailed designs and underpinned by sound geotechnical data are all part of a comprehensive de-risking approach with the aim of further increasing the project’s attractiveness to lenders and investors,” Danny Keating, CEO of Giyani said in a statement.
In 2023, 100 tonnes of mineralized material from K.Hill were shipped to Johannesburg for processing into high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) at the Demonstration Plant, with commercial production expected to begin in Botswana by 2027.