Oin reading the below article again I noticed a resource estimate is due this month...
Phu Kham gives grade encouragement
Rebecca Keenan
Monday, February 07, 2005 PAN Australian Resources has reported encouraging copper and gold hits from the Phu Kham project in Laos, confirming a number of shallow and high-grade zones that it says could lead to early production.
Results included 34m at 2.1% copper and 1.9 grams per tonne gold from 56m, while the company has previously recorded 32m at 1.3% copper and 4.6gpt gold from 66m.
"These results confirm that copper-gold mineralisation occurs frequently in shallow and thick high-grade zones of over 10m with copper equivalent grades of up to 5% or more and gold equivalent grades of greater than 10gpt gold," managing director Gary Stafford said.
He said the high-grade zones could reduce payback time and enhance the attractiveness of the return rate of investment.
The drilling campaign is part of the current feasibility study, due to wrap up in August. A new resource estimate will be calculated next month.
Phu Kham is part of the Phu Kham gold cap, which hosts most of the reserves for the Phu Bia gold development.
The project is forecast to process around 1.5Mt of ore, over a five-to-seven year period, with production of 50,000-70,000oz at a cash operating cost of around $US200 per ounce.
The Phu Bia gold project will be the first development in a two-phase strategy, with the Phu Kham copper-gold project potentially comprising a 9Mtpa operation producing 57,000t of copper and 52,000oz gold in a concentrate.
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