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Selwyn Resources (SWN.V) - confirms rising expectations
Comment by Objective Capital , Jan 30, 2008
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Selwyn updated its NI 43-101-compliant mineral resource calculations for the Selwyn project in Yukon, Canada. The company now reports an indicated mineral resource of 154.35 million tonnes, averaging 5.35 percent zinc and 1.86 percent lead, and an inferred resource of 231.54 million tonnes, averaging 4.54 percent zinc and 1.42 percent lead.
Contained within these totals are high-grade resources mineable by underground methods. Selwyn now projects an indicated high-grade resource of 16.06 million tonnes, averaging 10.25 percent zinc and 4.23 percent lead, and an inferred high-grade resource of 23.16 million tonnes, averaging 8.86 percent zinc and 2.80 percent lead.
Objective's view:
In April of 2007, Selwyn estimated the project contained in indicated resource of 86.6 million tonnes, averaging 4.93 percent zinc and 1.97 percent lead, and an inferred resource of 215.4 million tonnes, averaging 4.71 percent zinc and 1.48 percent lead. Based on metal content, the revised resource estimates represent a thirty-percent increase in zinc content and a 25-percent increase in contained lead. These significant increases were largely anticipated by the market, based on Selwyn’s aggressive drilling programmes over the past year.
Much of the increased resource stems from a material expansion of the high-grade underground material. The zinc and lead content of the high-grade resource increased by 300 percent and 242 percent respectively over the 2007 estimate, while the zinc and lead content of lower-grade material expanded by twelve and seven percent respectively.
Three individual deposits at Selwyn contributed most of the increase. At Don East, the total zinc and lead content expanded by 200 percent and 250 percent respectively, with the increase coming from both the deep high-grade mineralisation and the lower-grade resource. At Don, an increase in lead and zinc content of 95 percent and 185 percent was the result of the addition of a significant high-grade resource. At HC West, identification of a high-grade resource and expansion of the lower-grade resource contributed to increases in lead and zinc content of 85 percent and 95 percent.
The Selwyn project now contains significant mineralisation in fourteen deposits and zones, with underground high-grade material identified in four. In addition to the formal resources, Selwyn Resources estimates the down-dip and strike extensions of the project contain the potential for a further 250 million tonnes of material, averaging four-to-five percent zinc and one-to-two percent lead.
We believe the identification of over forty million tonnes of high-grade material accessible by underground mining offers Selwyn an opportunity to expand the scope of the project.
