doubles jorc uranium resources, page-2

4th July 2007 : Mintails Limited (ASX Code : MLI) announced today that recent drilling and testwork undertaken on the West Rand by Mintails has resulted in doubling of its existing JORC Inferred Uranium (U3O8) resource from approximately 10.4 million pounds to approximately 21 million pounds (refer Table 1). Of the 21 million pound resource approximately 3.5 million pounds of U3O8 has been upgraded from JORC Inferred to a JORC Indicated category.
Table 1 – Mintails Resource Inventory
JORC Category
Tonnes (millions)
Grade
(g/t)
Uranium
Tonnes
Uranium Lbs (millions)
Indicated
18.3
87
1,586
3.5
Inferred
227.4
35
7,979
17.6
Total Tonnage
245.7
Competent Person : P.M. Camden-Smith M.Sc, G.D. Eng, Pr.Sci.Nat
* Exploration Targets comprising an additional 54m tonnes will be subject to further evaluation and analysis.
During June 2007 a concerted effort was made to upgrade a large proportion of the company’s Exploration Targets to an Inferred Resource category and in turn upgrade a proportion of the targets to an Indicated category. This work included further drilling, sample preparation and uranium analysis at reputable laboratories and also reconciliation of uranium grades obtained in 2006 and 2007 with previous estimates made in the drilling of the dumps during the early 1970’s.
At present 2,000 assay samples remain outstanding awaiting results. Analysis of these samples is necessary to assist in the conversion of further Inferred resources into an Indicated resource category and the potential increase of total uranium resources.
Over the next two months Mintails will undertake additional infill drilling, metallurgical testwork, specific gravity testing, re-surveying, geological modelling, evaluation of most suitable mining options and financial analysis. This work is anticipated to be completed by the end of September 2007.
When assessing Mintails’ Uranium resources it is important to note that these resources are already mined and milled and lie within large above ground tailings dumps. As a result the U3O8 contained within the dumps has the potential for high recovery rates (70% to 86%, as independently assessed by Minteck Laboratories) and low cost production.