Boliden's ore reserve calculations have now been completed. And they show that the successful exploration, extensive drilling programmes and development work, at the company's Garpenberg mine in recent years have resulted in a substantial increase in Boliden's ore reserves in the Garpenberg area, from a total of 3.6 million tonnes to 10.6 million tonnes.
"This rapid increase in the Garpenberg ore reserves shows that our strategy of focusing on mine-site exploration and allocating additional resources to drilling is yielding good results. We currently have a number of interesting areas in Garpenberg that will help provide new ore reserves and new production in the long run," says Boliden's President, Jan Johansson.
The main successes have come from the Lappberget and Dammsjön deposits, large parts of which have now been transferred to the ore reserves, and mineral resources have been further boosted by complementary drilling. The increased ore reserves mean that Garpenberg's lifespan can now be increased to over 10 years at current production levels.
As recently as December 2005, Boliden announced a completely new mineralisation in Garpenberg, known as Kvarnberget, which is not, as yet, included in Boliden's now completed list of ore reserves and mineral resources for 2005.
The results of Boliden's ore reserve calculations at Garpenberg, are shown in the table below. The full ore reserve calculations will be published in Boliden's annual report due in April.
For further information, please contact:
Jan Johansson, President and CEO, Boliden AB, tel +46 (0)8 610 1602, +46 (0)70 555 02 02
Ulf Söderström, Senior Vice President of Communication, Boliden AB, tel +46 (0)8 610 15 57, +46 (0)70 618 95 95
[Removed Graphics]
Garpenberg's ore reserves and mineral resources
The geological and technical work has been carried out by Boliden's personnel and has been conducted under the supervision of Mati Sallert, registered by SveMin as a Qualified Person, and a member of AusIMM.
Boliden reports ore reserves and mineral resources in accordance with the JORC code. The calculations have been carried out using Boliden's metal price forecasts for the metals, which are as follows: Au - USD 400/oz, Ag - USD 5.50/oz, Cu - USD 1.00/lb, Zn - USc 57/lb and Pb - USc 29/lb. The exchange rate is SEK/USD 8.50.
A cut-off of SEK 300 per tonne has been used. Boliden reports its mineral resources additional to its ore reserves. The mineral resources do not meet profitability requirements, given current conditions.