Following a review of a conceptual study carried out at the Star zinc project in Zambia in 2015, Galileo Resources PLC (LON:GLR) has decided to undertake a fast-track drilling programme.
The study showed that at current metals prices, the project could deliver an IRR of 77%. It shows an NPV of US$18 mln at a 10% discount and offers payback in a year on capital expenditure of US$9.1mln.
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But Galileo intends to upgrade the current non-compliant resource with the new drill programme at a cost of around US$350,000, to be funded from existing cash resources.
Some twinning will be undertaken to bring existing data up to JORC standards, while new drill testing will take place to the east and west to extend the known mineralisation and in new ground to the south.
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"I am pleased that we are advancing a fast track exploration programme for the Star zinc project,” said Colin Bird said in a statement.
“Our initial review suggests that the project could potentially be developed as a viable stand-alone project without adding further to the resource. However, we believe that the resource could potentially be much bigger and therefore a large proportion of our exploration will focus on increasing the size of project resource and contained zinc metal.”