JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Bellzone Mining on Friday announced an increase of more than 650% in the indicated high-grade oxide and supergene banded iron formation (SBIF) mineral resource tonnage, as well as a significant increase within the magnetite BIF mineralisation from 25.9% iron to 29.3% iron at its wholly owned Kalia mine, in Guinea.

Geological work confirmed that the mine’s total higher-grade mineral resources now amounted to 124.2-million tons at a grade of 53% within a larger oxide and SBIF resource of 913.2-million tons.

“This substantial improvement in the confidence level of the oxide and SBIF resources is the result of a focused work programme at Kalia in support of the development of a reserve statement and the forthcoming bankable feasibility Kalia project optimisation study,” Bellzone Mining CEO Glenn Baldwin said, adding that the material could readily be beneficiated into a saleable iron product.

The global indicated resource for the oxide and SBIF mineralisation had increased from 72-million tons at a grade of 37.8% to 264.6-million tons at a grade of 39.8% .

Bellzone Mining also managed to estimate a further 90-million tons, mainly owing to a 13.1% increase in the magnetite BIF grade, which was a result of increasing the cut off grade from 5% to 20%. This led to an increase in the overall magnetite BIF mineral resource from 4.63-billion tons to 4.72-billion tons.

“The increased magnetite tonnage within the measured resource category had increased form 240-million tons to 390-million tons, while maintaining more than one-billion tons of combined measured and indicated magnetite BIF resource inventory,” Bellzone Mining pointed out.

The maiden Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant reserve, in conjunction with the Kalia project optimisation study, was expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

“Bellzone Mining looks forward to releasing the report of the Kalia project optimisation study, which is expected to define, to a bankable feasibility level of confidence, the first stage of phased development for the project,” Baldwin said.

The Kalia mine had the potential to produce 1.9-billion tons of saleable iron-ore from a total resource inventory of 5.6-billion tons. Production at the mine was expected to start in 2015, and was estimated to reach a rate of 50-million tons a year of oxide iron-ore product and magnetite concentrate produced, in 2019.