SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--High-grade iron ore resources at Sundance Resources Ltd.'s (SDL.AU) Mbalam project on the border of the Republics of Congo and Cameroon will likely improve as a result of drilling at the site, the company said Thursday.
Drilling at the Nabeba deposit on the Congolese side of the border would likely see some inferred resources moved into the more reliable 'indicated' category, the company said.
"Sundance expects a positive reclassification of the High Grade Hematite Mineral Resource inventory in the next Quarter," the company said in a quarterly activities report.
The company said that more than 10,000 meters of drilling was completed on site during the quarter ended June 30.
At present, Mbalam has 417.7 million tons of indicated hematite resources and 66.4 million tons of inferred hematite with 61.1% iron content, along with 2.32 billion tons of lower-grade itabirite iron ore.
Mineral "resources" describe the total quantity of a mineral in the ground, with the inferred, indicated, and measured categories describing increasing levels of confidence. They don't describe the quantity of material that can be mined economically, which is defined through mineral "reserves."
-By David Fickling, Dow Jones Newswires; +61 2 8272 4689; [email protected]
