Jul 7 2015
Tango Mining Limited ("Tango" or the "Company") announces commencement of the bulk sampling program at the Oena Project ("Oena") following receipt of the required necessary regulatory and ministerial approvals, and the subsequent completion of the transfer of the controlling interest in African Star Minerals (Pty) Ltd. ("African Star"). ASM holds a 100% interest in the Oena project, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.
- The bulk sample program previously announced on 3 March 2015 is progressing with a mining contractor and earthmoving equipment on site and commissioned to support a total of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (tpa) throughput.
- Initial bulk sample results to date supports a grade of 0.298 carats (ct) per hundred tonnes (cpht) (0.775 ct/100 m3) recovered from 12,215 tonnes of run of mine gravel treated to date with an average stone size of 3.03 ct.
- An 11.5 ct diamond has been recovered.
- Diamond offtake agreement was signed with ATC Enterprises DMCC ("ATC") (announced 17 June 2015), a private Dubai based trading company and with over 25 years' experience in trading diamonds for a period of 12 months.
Oena Project
Oena consist of an 8,800 hectares (ha) mining right of along the Orange River in the well-established alluvial diamond-mining province known to produce high quality and large sized diamonds. The mining surface rights are secured with a notarial lease over the property for 99 years and matures in 2090. An application for the renewal of the mining right for a further 30 years have been lodged with the Department of Mineral Resources for the period ending 2045.
Oena is located 50 kilometers (km) upstream of Namdeb's Auchas and Daberas alluvial diamond mines which are on the Namibian bank of the river, while Trans Hex's Reuning and Baken alluvial diamond mines are respectively 15 km and 60 km downstream of Oena on the South African bank of the river. As per the reported National Instrument 43-101 report announced 1 December 2014, a bulk sample program of 1.5 million tpa with targeted recovery of 1,800 ct per annum at a grade of 0.295 ct/100 m3 and an indicative average stone size of 1.39 ct/stone. The property contains three separate diamond bearing meso-terraces, Oena Main, Sandberg and Blokwerf Terraces which have had various degrees of exploration and historical trial mining. Oena Main is relatively well explored with generations of drill holes, sample pits and trial mining performed on the lease area.
Earthmoving and mining equipment mobilized include three Komatsu excavators, three Bell 25-tonne ADT's supported by two Bell Front-end loaders, double deck sizing screens, a two-tonne service truck and other support equipment. The rotary pan plants system will be complemented with a 100 tph Bourevestnik X-ray machine to reduce human interaction with liberated gemstones and increased efficiency levels. The current rotary pan plants with a nominal 150 tonne per hour (tph) feed rate, consists of a static grizzly rejecting particles >100mm, and feeding smaller material via an apron feeder to a 2,5m long by 1,5m diameter trommel sieve which rejects material >25mm diameter. The <25mm material, roughly 50% of the head feed, is fed directly into a 16' single pan and 14' pan without any de-sanding sieves. Concentrate from the pan plants are tapped at regular intervals (~10 tph) and transported via a concentrate truck to the final recovery section where a classifier splits the feed over 3 grease tables each 2.5m long x 1.5m wide. Hand picking from the grease is performed every two hours when the grease is scraped off and stored for later cooking to release stones missed in the picking stage. It is estimated that the plant recovers 65% of the diamonds.
Management have identified 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 source appropriate diamond recovery technology to ensure optimal recovery of diamonds. Risk mitigation through future implementation of the BVX technology should increase diamond recovery efficiency as a result of guaranteed 98% recovery and technology that limit human interaction with the final product.
Final Regulatory Approval to Secure African Star and Oena Property
All conditions have now been satisfied in respect of the shares of African Star held by Tango, and accordingly, the Company is now fully vested in its controlling interest of African Star, a subsidiary that holds a 100% interest in the Oena Project which consists of Mining Right MPT 58/2014 (MR), a portion of Richtersveld No 11, Administrative District of Namaqualand (see 20 October 2014 news release). Specifically, the section 11 (1) Ministerial approval under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act 28 of 2002), Republic of South Africa was granted on 24 April 2015, which allowed for the sale of the controlling 51% interest in African Star to Tango (completed on 18 June 2015). The time to complete the approval process resulted in the bulk sample program being delayed.
Change of Auditor
The Company has changed its auditor from BDO Canada LLP, Chartered Accountants, (the "Former Auditor") to Ernest & Young LLP (the "Successor Auditor"). There were no reservations in the Former Auditor's reports for the two most recently-completed fiscal years or for any period subsequent to the most recently-completed period for which an audit report was issued and preceding the date of the Former Auditor's resignation. There were no reportable events between the Company and the Former Auditor. The Notice of Change of Auditor, together with the letter form the Former Auditor and the letter from the Successor Auditor have been reviewed by the Company's audit committee and board of directors and arefiled on SEDAR.
The technical disclosure in this news release has been approved by Terry L. Tucker, P.Geo., Executive Chairman of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.