Mineral Resources & Exploration
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Padaeng Mineral Resources
Padaeng Mine
On December 31, 2003 the total mineral resource of Padaeng Mine at Mae Sot was 4,595,000 dmt @ 12.3% zinc, containing 565,000 mt of zinc metal. The mineral resource was calculated using a cut off grade of 3% zinc as shown in Table 1.
| Table 1 : Mineral Resources at Padaeng Mine December 31st 2003 |
| Category |
Metric Tons |
% Zn Grade |
| Low Grade Ore Stockpile |
370,000 |
7.4 |
| High Grade Ore Stockpile |
24,000 |
20.5 |
| Measured Resource |
1,820,000 |
12.9 |
| Indicated Resource |
1,942,000 |
12.4 |
| Inferred Resource |
439,000 |
12.7 |
Total
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4,595,000 |
12.3 |
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| The resource can be converted to a mining resource of about 4,102,000 dmt @ 12.3% zinc. Padaeng Mine now has sufficient mining resource to sustain an expanded mining operation of over 400,000 dmt of ore per year for the next 10 years.
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Exploration
Mae Sot Area
- Existing Mining Leases
The company continued exploration activities at the existing mining leases at
Mae Sot during 2003 by Reverse Circulation (RC) in 53 drill-holes. High grade secondary zinc ore, containing a zinc grade of 24.6%, was found at 30 drill-holes, which indicates that the Padaeng mine still has potential for additional secondary zinc ore. Further, the company conducted 5 Diamond Drilling in the new mining lease area
(ML 30769/15525)
Additional exploration in the existing mining leases area will be carried out in 2004.
- Special Prospecting Licenses Area
Exploration within the SPL’s during the year 2003 has been progressive. Deep soil sampling was undertaken. An initial diamond-drilling programme testing targets has been encouraging in some areas. Additional infill diamond drilling especially deep zinc sulphide targets will be followed up in 2004.
Regional Exploration
- Loei Copper Project
Puthep Company Limited is PDI’s affiliate company and have joined Pan Australian Resources of Australia to develop the copper deposits at PUT1 and PUT2 near Loei. At PUT 1 the current resource is 80 million dmt @ 0.5% copper at a cut-off grade of 0.1% copper. At PUT 2 the current resource is 32 million dmt @ 0.4% copper at 0.1% copper cut-off. The Loei Copper Project is at the requisition stage, seeking to ease the use of 1A water shed from the Cabinet for the feasibility and mining application.
- Kaiso Project - Lao People's Democratic Republic
Padaeng (Laos) has applied to expand the current exploration area to extend 400 square kilometers out from the existing site in order to conduct exploration for additional ore source.
Summary of Mae Sot Mining and Exploration Tenements
| Table 2 : Ore Resources
at Hualon Mine December 31st 2001 |
| LicenseNumber |
Type* |
Area (Ha) |
Date Granted |
Expiry Date |
| 20780/13286 |
ML |
14.36 |
18/10/1982 |
17/10/2007 |
| 20781/13285 |
ML |
11.46 |
18/10/1982 |
17/10/2007 |
| 20782/13287 |
ML |
14.22 |
18/10/1982 |
17/10/2007 |
| 25697/14388 |
ML |
0.89 |
30/04/1991 |
29/04/2008 |
| 30769/15525 |
ML |
39.38 |
11/07/2002 |
10/07/2017 |
| 1/2545 |
EPL |
98.24 |
25/03/2002 |
24/03/2003 |
| 2/2543 |
EPL |
169.12 |
25/03/2002 |
24/03/2003 |
| 1/2545 |
SPL |
1,600.00 |
25/03/2002 |
24/03/2004 |
| 2/2545 |
SPL |
1,120.00 |
25/03/2002 |
24/03/2004 |
| 3/2545 |
SPL |
1,600.00 |
25/03/2002 |
24/03/2004 |
| 1/2545 |
SPLA |
1,509.12 |
pending |
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| 2/2545 |
SPLA |
1,347.68 |
pending |
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*Note
ML= Mining Lease
EPL= Exclusive Prospecting License
SPL= Special Prospecting License
SPLA = Re-applied New Special Prospecting Licenses since 1/10/2002
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