Dec 1 2014
Tango Mining Limited ("Tango" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a bulk-sampling program at its Oena Project ("Oena"), a past producing alluvial diamond mine, located in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa will commence in Q2 2015 (December 2014 to February 2015) (Map 1).
The program will maximize mining throughput and enhance the recovery potential of diamonds with the use of a Bourevestnik, Inc. manufactured high volume X-ray and recovery equipment ("BVX") that is reported to be very efficient, recovering better than 90% of diamonds. The Company has entered into a mining contract to sustain a 1,500,000 tonnes per annum extraction program and has secured BVX equipment that will be mobilized to site in the period noted.
The Oena alluvial diamond terraces are palaeo-Orange River gravel deposits preserved above the current river level and are classed as Meso-Orange terraces because of their age (some 2-5mybp) and height above the river level (10-12m). Oena is one of several alluvial diamond deposits along the lower Orange River on both the South African and Namibian banks of the river; current operating mines are at Reuning, Baken and Alexander Bay on the South African bank (see Map 1) while Namdeb is currently producing from their Namibian alluvial deposits at Daberas and plan to start production at their Sendelingsdrift deposit in the last quarter of 2014.
A National Instrument ("NI") 43-101 report, dated and effective 31 October 2014, by Peter W.A. Walker B.Sc. (Hons.) MBA Pr.Sci.Nat. F.S.E.G. of VP3 GeoServices (Pty) Ltd has been prepared for Oena (Map 2) to support the commencement of the recommended bulk-sampling program. The report records a historically estimated Inferred Resource within the six remaining blocks in the Oena Section (Map 3) as calculated by Mr. S. le Roux and reviewed and approved on 30 June 2008 by Mr. T. Wilkes the competent person of the previous owner of Oena, Firestone Diamonds plc, COO of the company and a member in good standing of SACNASP, the ethical standards organization, and who was Chairman of the sub-committee for Diamonds of the South African Mineral Resource Committee which was responsible for the publication of the SAMREC code. Mr. Walker has checked the bulk sampling records, the diamond register, the land surveyor diagrams and calculations and the drill data as recorded on the log sheets on which this historical Mineral Resource estimate is based and can confirm the relevance and reliability of the estimate. The quality assurance program and quality control procedures applied by Firestone to their bulk sampling are standard for the industry and all possible measures to ensure security of the product were taken throughout the sample recovery process. Although no plant audits or tracer recovery tests were performed, pan concentrates were run repeatedly through the grease final recovery section to ensure maximum diamond recovery was achieved within the limits of the technology.
In addition to this historical Inferred Resource, systematic Reverse Circulation drilling of the Sandberg terrace was completed and has shown an estimated 4.5 to 5.75 million cubic metres of basal and suspended gravel is present and was shown by two bulk samples to be diamondiferous, however, these sample volumes are too small to estimate diamond grades at a sufficiently predictable level of accuracy; please note that although the Sandberg gravels are expected to yield similar grades to the Oena section gravels, further bulk sampling may not result in the target being defined as a Mineral Resource. The potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource. It is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource. The Blokwerf, Visrivier and Kabies terraces require systematic drilling to estimate the total volume of gravels on the Property although historical small-scale sampling has shown them to be diamondiferous; again, further bulk sampling may not result in these targets being defined as Mineral Resources. The program will initially bulk-sample the gravels in the six Oena Section blocks and will determine the viability of the BVX technology in recovering diamonds.
Oena Section blocks 2-6 Inferred Resource
- Volume cubic meters ("m3 "): 1,075,000
- Grade : 0.295 carats / 100 m3
The biggest risk in advancing this project is associated with the resource performance (grade) and product assurance (theft) both of which require the Company to ensure optimal recovery of diamonds. Risk mitigation through implementation of the BVX technology should increase diamond recovery efficiency and limit human interaction with the product.
The technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Peter W.A. Walker B.Sc. (Hons.) MBA Pr.Sci.Nat. F.S.E.G., of VP3 GeoServices (Pty) Ltd., and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
To view maps 1 to 3, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/Oena.pdf.