Nevsun Resources Ltd
Growing high grade, low cost Gold producer - projects in Eritrea, East Africa
Nevsun Resources Ltd. Vancouver, BC., TSX.V, NYSE : NSU., is a gold and base metal explorer/developer with a focus on developing mining projects in Africa.
Nevsun is currently focused on advancing its high grade gold, copper and zinc Bisha Project in Eritrea.
Nevsun Resources is a growing high grade, low cost gold producer focused on its Bisha Mine in Eritrea,
East Africa. Bisha is a large precious and base metal volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit that went into commercial gold-silver production in February 2011.
The Bisha Mine is expected to produce more than 1.14 million ounces of gold, 11.9 million ounces of silver, 821 million pounds of copper, and 1.3 billion pounds of zinc during its initially estimated 13 year mine life.
In 2013, the processing plant will be expanded and transition into low cost copper, gold, and silver production.
Nevsun is aggressively growing its resource base in and around the Bisha Project. In 2011, Nevsun plans to expand the resource base in five ways: The Bisha Main resources consist of 10.3 million tonnes of inferred material grading 0.9% copper and 5.8% zinc that is being infill drilled in 2011. There is also a zone of relatively low grade, near surface copper mineralization in the Hanging Wall Copper Zone, immediately west of the high grade Bisha massive sulphide deposit. The Bisha Main deposit remains open to depth with the deepest drill intersection to date intercepting 128m of 8.4% zinc, 0.96% copper & 0.66g/t gold extending to approximately 375m vertical depth (current open pit bottom is 260m). In addition to the growth opportunities of the Bisha Main deposit, continued exploration has lead to the discovery of two additional satellite deposits within the Bisha licences. The Northwest Zone, located approximately 1.5 km northwest of the Bisha Main deposit, within the mining license, and the Harena deposit, located approximately 9.5 km, along strike, to the southwest of the Bisha Main deposit, on the exploration license. Future work is planned to better define these satellite deposits along with the Hanging Wall Copper Zone and the Bisha Main deposit's extent to depth. For further details on Bisha's resource, please view its NI 43-101 Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate. 2011 Resource and Reserve Expansion
The Bisha volcanic-associated massive sulphide (VMS) deposit is located in a newly discovered VMS district in western Eritrea. Nevsun completed a feasibility study for the Bisha project in late 2006.
The Bisha Mining and Stability Agreements were signed in December 2007 and the Bisha Mining License was awarded in January 2008.
The mining license covers an area of 16.5 square kilometers (includes the Bisha Main Zone deposit and the Northwest Zone deposit) within a mining agreement area of approximately 39 square kilometers.
The Company retains an exploration license of approximately 94.5 square kilometers which includes the Harena deposit.
With recent advances in preliminary and detailed engineering design at Bisha, an update to capital costs (approx. US$250m) and a revised financial model (approx. 1.2 years payback at current metal prices), the Company is entirely focused on advancing the Bisha Project to production by early 2010.
Nevsun and its partner, ENAMCO (Eritrean National Mining Corporation) expect to finance the Bisha Mine using their existing cash resources and debt financing.Build of plant and all facilities. The camp facilities and excavation for the plant are on schedule.
The fabrication of the mills, by Polysius in Europe, continues in accordance with the plan and both mills are scheduled for delivery to site in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Accordingly, other preparatory work, equipment orders and delivery are planned for earlier in 2009. The project detailed design work is virtually complete as at the end of December, 2008, and a very substantial portion of orders have already been placed with terms secured.
The company remains confident that the project can be completed within the previously issued capex estimate of $250-million.