Sometimes mine waste, also known as tailings - can contain significant amounts of mineralisation that older mining and processing techniques have been unable to extract.
That certainly appears to be the case at Xtract Resources’ (LON:XTR) Carolusberg and O’Kiep copper tailings project, where a drilling and sampling campaign has just finished.
We’ll know more soon, when the detailed results have been compiled, but at this stage the company reckons the project to contain 33.8 million tonnes of ore that was mined out between 1980 and 2010 by O’Kiep Copper Company.
The Carolusberg tailings dam accounts for around 28mln tonnes of that, with the material grading at around 0.19% copper, while the O’Kiep tailings dam accounts for around 5.8mln tonnes grading 0.23% copper.
These would not be high grades for an actual mine, but in this case the mining work is all done, so grades at these levels could well represent an economic opportunity.
The plan now is to move the project to the bankable feasibility stage, once the assay results are in.
That, said chief executive Jan Nelson, should start to happen within the next ten days.