Harvest Minerals Limited (LON:HMI) is preparing to start a new drill programme in the Maximus area within the Arapua fertiliser project in Brazil.
A 35 hole programme is planned with a view to increasing the size of the project’s phosphate resource, to support a longer mine life and higher production rates.
The company also wants to start defining the full extent of the deposit, after deciding to pursue a production operation based on results from just a small area of the deposit (which was sufficient to justify the initial phase of the project).
Preparation work is now underway on the planned drilling locations, and the drilling contractor is due on site by mid-October.
The drilling itself is expected to last for 25 days.
Harvest Minerals has also noted that infrastructure work is now underway, and civil works started recently. It added that the infrastructure contractor has broken ground at the site, and it has started to remove topsoil from the planned stockpile area.
Works on site have included fencing (to keep livestock out of the project), and the civil project will also include the removal and stockpiling of the overburden from the planned open pit.
This phase of work is anticipated to last 30 days and Harvest Minerals expects to have received its permit for trial mining by the time the work is done.
"We are very pleased with the progress to date,” said Brian McMaster, executive chairman.
“The completion of these initial civil groundworks is expected to coincide with the award of the trial mining permit, allowing us to start production around the end of October, well ahead of schedule.
“Meanwhile, the drill programme should allow us to increase the size of the resource enabling us to demonstrate long term supply to potential customers."