Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX:ORV), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Orvana Resources US Corp, announced today assays from 15 infill drill holes on Copperwood S6 mineralization located east of and adjacent to the Copperwood copper deposit, Michigan, USA.
These holes were part of a 4,930-metre drill program that was completed on January 8. Based on the sampling of 23 1950s drill-hole core and reject samples, an Indicated resource of 8.41 million tonnes of 1.42 % copper was estimated for S6.
"With these data in hand, we can now proceed to update the resource estimates in Copperwood and S6, which will lead to a revised mine plan that will include resources from both areas" said Dr. Bill Williams, President of Orvana USA.
Marston and Marston of St. Louis, Missouri was retained to evaluate the combined resource estimates in Copperwood and S6 with the purpose of including the latter in the mine plan for the pre-feasibility study and mine-permit application.
Copperwood and S6 are sedimentary stratiform copper deposits hosted by the Precambrian Nonesuch Formation. The mineralized unit, or the copper-bearing sequence ("CBS"), lies at depths between about 30 metres (100 feet) and 265 metres (870 feet). The CBS is amenable to underground, room-and-pillar mining. The mineralization is analogous to the White Pine mine, located 30 kilometres (18 miles) to the east, where nearly 2 million tonnes of copper was produced between 1953 and 1996.
Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have a demonstrated economic viability.
Theodore Bornhorst, Ph.D., who is an independent qualified person for the purposes of NI 43-101, reviewed the assay results and verified the QA/QC. Copper and silver were analyzed by accredited Activation Laboratories Ltd, (ACTLAB) in Ancaster, Ontario Canada. Analytical procedures are the same as described in the Copperwood Project NI 43-101-compliant Technical Report "Copperwood Project, Michigan, USA", whose effective date is April 30, 2010.