Firering Strategic Minerals plc (LON:FRG), an emerging quicklime production and critical mineral exploration company, has announced a maiden JORC-code compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for its quicklime project in Zambia, which is being fast-tracked towards an imminent phased commissioning.
HIGHLIGHTS
· 97% increase in resource tonnes compared to the previous non-compliant 2017 MRE.
· MRE totals 145.2Mt at 95.7% CaCO3, comprising 11.8Mt in the Measured category, 55.4Mt in Indicated, and 78.0Mt in Inferred.
· Provides for over 50 years of potential quicklime production.
· Pit optimisation indicates a negligible stripping ratio with low sensitivity to costs and pricing.
Yuval Cohen, Chief Executive of Firering Strategic Minerals said: “I am delighted to announce a maiden JORC-compliant MRE, which almost doubles the resource tonnage of the Project based on the previous non-code resource, and which supports over 50 years of quicklime production. This firmly positions Limeco to become the largest quicklime producer in Zambia and a prominent regional player for many years to come, enabling it to meet the growing demands of the copper industry and other industrial clients.
“Earthlab has once again demonstrated that Limeco’s high-quality Tier 1 limestone deposit forms the foundation of its robust quicklime business. Following the identification of three distinct domains within the Project, A, B, and C, including the new exploration licence granted in September, Domain A has been the primary area of focus. However, Domains B and C present significant opportunities for Limeco to unlock additional value in the future, with potential applications across various industries.”
DETAILS
Aligned with its strategy to fully capitalise on the significant market opportunities for quicklime in the Zambian Copperbelt, given its essential role in copper production, Firering commissioned Earthlab Exploration and Mining Consulting (Pty) Ltd (“Earthlab”) to undertake a maiden JORC-compliant MRE for its Limeco quicklime project in Zambia. This study incorporated Limeco’s newly granted exploration licence (see RNS dated 3 September 2024).
The newly published MRE (November 2024) revealed a 97% increase in tonnage compared to Limeco’s 2017 non-compliant estimated mineral resource of 73.7Mt at 95.3% CaCO3. The updated estimate totals 145.2Mt at 95.7% CaCO3, comprising 11.8Mt in the Measured category, 55.4Mt in Indicated, and 78.0Mt in Inferred (Table 2).
Notably, the maiden MRE enables over 50 years of potential quicklime production.
The MRE incorporates a detailed analysis of the deposit’s geological structure, including its physical and chemical properties and associated facies. The local geology is characterised by a depositional setting typical of a lagoonal-shoals shelf environment, where wind and still water deposited sediments forming wackstone, packstone and upward grainstone in horizontal to wavy grey laminated layers (Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Proposed depositional setting of the project area (Saller, 2001).
Based on the geological interpretation and the chemical signatures displayed by the exploration data, Earthlab was able to divide the limestone deposit into geological facies with unique chemical data populations. The demarcated geological facies coincide with statistical domains that have been processed geostatistically to produce the MRE (Figure 2).
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Figure 2: Plan view of the domain wireframes with drill hole collars superimposed (Earthlab, November 2024).
To estimate the resource tonnes, Earthlab created a potential final pit shell (Figure 3) by applying modifying factors as per the guidelines of JORC, which dictate that resource tonnes should be estimated based on Reasonable Prospects for Eventual Economic Extraction (“RPEEE”).
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Figure 3: Representation of the pit shell; the lime plant can be seen in the upper right corner (Earthlab, November 2024).
Earthlab completed the mineral resource classification for the entire model (Figure 4) and for the final pit shell (Figure 5).
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Figure 4: Final classification for Domains A, B, and C (Earthlab, November 2024).
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Figure 5: Final classification for the optimised pit shell (Earthlab, November 2024).
PIT OPTIMISATION RUNS
Earthlab’s pit optimisation runs indicated a negligible stripping ratio with low sensitivity to costs and pricing (Table 1).
Table 1: Sensitivity of ore tonnage to changes in plant operating costs and quicklime prices (Earthlab, November 2024).
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Table 1 shows that by more than doubling the lime plant operating costs from USD7 per ROM tonne to USD15 per ROM tonne, while keeping the quicklime price at USD150 per saleable tonne, the change in ore tonnage is -1,175,180 tonnes or -0.76%, which is neglectable.
Earthlab decided to use the pit shell of run 13 shown in Table 1, which was based on a lime plant OPEX of USD15 per ROM tonne and a quicklime price at the gate of USD150 per saleable tonne, which Earthlab states are both conservative. The pit shell shown in Figure 3 above is derived from run 13 in Table 1.
MAIDEN JORC COMPLIANT MRE
The gross Mineral Resource for Domain A is 145.2 Mt comprising 11.8 Mt in Measured, 55.4Mt in Indicated and 78.0Mt in Inferred (Table 2).
Table 2: Domain A gross Mineral Resource for Limeco Resources (Earthlab, November 2024).
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Total gross potential saleable quicklime for Domain A is 31.9Mt comprising 2.6Mt in Measured, 12.1Mt in Indicated and 17.2Mt in Inferred (Table 3).
Table 3: Domain A gross potential saleable quicklime for Limeco Resources (Earthlab, November 2024).
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Total gross potential saleable aggregate for Domain A is 87.1Mt comprising 7.1Mt in Measured, 33.2Mt in Indicated and 46.8Mt in Inferred (Table 4).
Table 4: Domain A gross potential saleable aggregate for Limeco Resources (Earthlab, November 2024).
Deon du Plessis, Chief Executive Officer of Earthlab, said: “Completing the JORC compliant MRE for Firering proved to be a very exciting project. Our research indicated that the key to understanding Limeco’s deposit was its chemical characteristics in addition to its geological information. Our work clearly showed three Domains A, B and C, each with a unique chemical fingerprint. Our JORC compliant MRE is only for Domain A, which is the high grade CaCO3/CaO domain with low MgCO3/MgO and Fe2O3, making this domain perfect for the production of high-quality quicklime through Limeco’s lime plant. Earthlab considers Limeco’s deposit a significant deposit providing Limeco with decades of high-quality limestone for its quicklime operation. The upside and production scalability of Limeco’s deposit puts it in the Tier 1 category, when compared to other limestone deposits”.
