Harvest Minerals upbeat after Maximus drilling programme

30th Dec 2016 09:06

(ShareCast News) - Harvest Minerals announced the completion of the second air core drilling programme at the Maximus Prospect, part of its Arapua Fertiliser Project, located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on Friday.The AIM-traded firm said the results from the second drilling programme, which firstly focused on the extension of the area drilled in the previous drilling stage, confirmed the continuity of the weathered kamafugite ore body with consistent K2O, P2O5, CaO and MgO grades.Additional holes were drilled over outcropping kamafugite which had previously been mapped by the company's geologists.Those holes had a regional spacing and produced results compatible to the grades in the current resource area, indicating the potential to further substantially increase the mineral resources.Harvest said a total of 39 vertical air core drill holes were completed in this programme to a depth of between six and 40 meters, providing a total of approximately 775m of drilling data.As in the first drilling programme, drilling ceased when unweathered kamafugite was intersected.All drill holes intersected consistent phosphate, potassium oxide, calcium oxide and magnesium oxide enriched clay weathered kamafugite rocks, Harvest's board claimed.It said results from samples submitted to SGS Geosol, which is based in Belo Horizonte, indicated average mineralised interceptions ranging from 1.23% to 5.93% P2O5 and from 1.86% to 5.86% K2O.Harvest retained the services of independent consultants GE21 to revise the current resource using the additional drill data.It said GE21 will be on site in mid-January to check the results and an updated resource is expected by mid February."These latest drilling results confirm the consistent quality of the mineralisation at Maximus," said Harvest executive chairman Brian McMaster."As discussed we have retained independent consultants GE21 to revise the current resource using this additional drill data."This is expected to be completed by mid February and should allow us to increase the potential production well above the 100Ktpa over 7 years, based on the current resource as detailed in the scoping study."McMaster said the wider spaced drilling, including of the non-diamondiferous kimberlite, indicated that the grades and thickness of the weathered mineralisation are consistent throughout the entire area the company previously mapped, and should provide enough material to support any future expansion plans."This concludes what has been a very busy 2016, during which we have been able to accomplish and surpass all our stated objectives."Harvest has progressed from field mapping to production in under a year."