LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - URU Metals reported progress in its environmental impact assessment as part of the application for a mining right for the Zebediela Project on Friday, to mine the indicated and inferred resource of more than nine billion pounds of nickel.
The AIM-traded firm said it submitted an application to convert its existing prospecting rights to a mining right to the South African Department of Mineral Resources (DMRE) in August.

As part of the application, it would be required to conduct an environmental impact assessment to understand the impact of an open-pit operation to mine the nickel resource.

The environmental impact assessment consisted of various specialist studies, which were currently underway.

It said that, as part of the geohydrological assessment, a surface geophysical resistivity survey consisting of six lines totalling 6,500 metres was completed using an ABEM LUND Resistivity Imaging System, with seven drill targets identified.

Four of those targets would be drilled using a percussion drilling technique to assess the hydrogeological characteristics using a 212 millimetre-diameter drill bit to final depth.

The drilling of those holes for the geohydrological assessment was currently underway, and pump testing was expected to be completed by the end of October.

A total of 20 geotechnical test pits, to understand the surface geotechnical characteristics of the mining right area, had also been completed.

Each pit was geotechnically logged, and soil samples were taken for soil characterisation.

The rest of the specialist studies were scheduled for completion in December, which the board said should allow for the submission of the final environmental impact assessment report by 15 January.

It said the site is around seven kilometres from the nearest town, Mokopane, and consisted primarily of farmland, with no village or town relocations required.

Should a mining right be granted, the company said it would secure the rights to mine and explore, for the next 30 years, a number of commodities, including nickel, chrome, cobalt, copper, gold, iron, vanadium, platinum, palladium, rhodium, osmium, ruthenium and iridium.

The area to the immediate east of the existing nickel resource was partly drilled in 2017, with drill results containing nickel and platinum group elements at a higher grade than that found in the existing NI43-101-compliant resource.

URU said it believed the target area could be the up-dip extension of Ivanhoe Mines' 800 metre-deep Platreef project, which is immediately west and adjacent to the Zebediela project.

"The company believes that nickel demand will outstrip supply, and the timing is right for the Zebediela nickel project to come online to meet the increasing demand for sulphide nickel," said chief executive officer John Zorbas.

"The company believes this resource can be mined using a safe, cost-effective, efficient and environmentally friendly open-pit mining method.

"The company is currently investigating the potential use of technologies which could allow for the construction of a nickel mine with a much reduced environmental impact in comparison to operational peers."

Zorbas said those technologies included renewable energy sources, hydrogen fuel cells and carbon sequestration.

He added that the Zebediela Project had the potential to supply high volumes of sulphide nickel, due to the proposed open pit mining method.

"In addition to the low-cost mining method, we believe that the up-dip extension of the same ore body that is found on Ivanplats ground, our neighbours to the west of us, will yield us more shallow, high-grade nickel-PGE intersections.

"The company believes that this geological horizon appears to be the same horizon as that mined at Anglo Platinum's flagship open pit Mogalakwena mining complex."

Zorbas noted that Mogalakwena had a basket price of $208 per ton, with the company's drill results indicating a more favourable basket price of $233 per ton, due to its higher nickel grade.

"We believe this can only assist with enhancing the already favourable project economics."

At 0924 BST, shares in URU Metals were up 10% at 319p.

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