Austral Resources (ASX:AR1) posts updated MRE for Lady Colleen, QLD

• Austral Resources (AR1) posts an updated mineral resource estimate for its Lady Colleen deposit in Queensland
• The total mineral resource was 2.8 million tonnes at 1.9 per cent copper with 0.3 million tonnes at 1.6 per cent copper in the indicated category
• The estimate was restricted to an optimised pit shell to only report material which has potential for economic extraction
• While this is a reduction from CST Minerals 2013 report, Austral says it provides a slight improvement in tonnes, grades and classification category
• AR1 shares are down 2.78 per cent trading at 17.5 cents at 2:52 pm AEDT

Austral Resources (AR1) has posted an updated mineral resource estimate for its Lady Colleen deposit in Queensland.

The deposit is within the company’s Mt Kelly operation and was originally defined by CST Minerals and last estimated and reported in 2013.

Austral has been working to refocus the mineral resource on a sulphide deposit for toll floatation treatment.

The total mineral resource for low calcium leach feed at a 0.3 per copper cut-off was 0.2 million tonnes at 0.9 per cent, with half at 0.8 per cent copper in the measured category and the other half at one per cent copper in the indicated category.

For float sulphide feed at a 0.7 per cent copper cut-off, the total mineral resource was 2.6 million tonnes at two per cent copper.

Combined, the total mineral resource was 2.8 million tonnes at 1.9 per cent copper.

The update includes 18 new Austral drill holes completed this year, including “outstanding results” reported earlier this month of six metres at 2.95 per cent copper from 189 metres.

However, reporting was restricted to the preliminary optimistic pit optimisation that limited reporting to 220 metres below surface and a conical pit shape.

This meant one third of the sulphide mineralisation estimated is not reported as it was too deep to present an open pit mining target.

While the update is a reduction from the previous CST unrestricted report, Austral said it provides a slight improvement in tonnes and grades for like areas, along with an improvement in classification category.

Moving forward the estimate provides a basis for metallurgical sample selection and the company’s planned scoping study.

AR1 shares were down 2.78 per cent trading at 17.5 cents at 2:52 pm AEDT.