The Nachingwea joint venture between IMX Resources (ASX: IXR)(25%) and Continental Nickel (CVE: CNI)(75%) in Tanzania has had a significant upgrade in resources for the Ntaka area.
At a US$80/tonne net smelter return cut-off, Measured and Indicated Resources at Ntaka have been boosted to; 3.683 million tonnes at 1.52% nickel, 0.28% copper and 0.05% cobalt.
Contained nickel has therefore doubled to 55,800 tonnes.
Added to this are an Inferred resource of; 10.9 million tonnes at 0.98% nickel and 0.22% copper, with the majority of this resource at the Sleeping Giant discovery.
This pushes the total contained nickel in all resource categories to 161,800 tonnes.
The resource is poised for further increases, with further step-out drilling planned for Sleeping Giant, which is open in all directions.
This drilling will follow up high grade hits from late 2010 which highlighted potential at Sleeping Giant to contain large tonnage moderate grade mineralisation, and also high grade mineralisation.
This potential is identifed from the late 2010 highlight of; 2.63 metres at 13.63% nickel, 2.17% copper and 0.21% cobalt, located within a wider interval of; 23.3 metres at 2.58% nickel and 0.41% copper.
The joint venture is looking to move forward quickly, with a Scoping Study evaluating production options to be conducted in 2011, along with environmental baseline studies which will be required for a development application.
The major plus for the joint venture is the location, which is only 200 kilometres from a deep water port, which is a huge advantage for early development.