Page 49 - pd297-Sept21-mag-web

Alta back with big resource

The hills around the picturesque
Italian town of Oltre Il Colle contain
at least 530,000t of zinc

trebling of contained metal has deliv- exploration upside story more believable,” part of the DFS process but Harris is al-
A ered Alta Zinc Ltd exactly the kind of he said. ready confident the Gorno product will at-
resource upgrade it needed to launch de- Gorno is a Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) tract interest from offtakers.
velopment studies on its Gorno zinc project orebody with stratabound, breccia and “We have undertaken our own concen-
in Italy. limestone-hosted zinc mineralisation. trate marketing study using a zinc-lead
Alta announced the resource update on “It is a big system, 8km in strike and now marketing expert and we know we will have
July 14. The new resource pushes overall we know a lot more about the mineralisa- the cleanest concentrate available globally,”
tonnes from 3.3mt to 7.8mt and increases tion we have an opportunity to explore the he said.
contained zinc threefold. The new resource potential beyond the resource,” Harris said. Despite the obvious enthusiasm for Gor-
stands at 7.79mt @ 6.8% zinc, 1.8% lead The recent upgrade was based mainly no concentrate, Alta will refrain from signing
and 32 g/t silver for 530,000t, 140,000t and on drilling of the Pian Bracca zone which agreements for now.
8.04 moz respectively. sits above the stratabound horizon of the “Almost without exception the offtakers
Alta managing director Geraint Harris original Zorzone orebody. Harris said 3D don’t get involved until you have a DFS and
said even he had been surprised by the modelling of Pian Bracca and other, un- are 6-12 months from production,” Harris
size of growth. drilled, targets highlighted the potential for explained. “And, if you can get alternative
“The resource update exceeded expec- extensions. financing it makes it easier to get the best
tations; we were wanting 6-6.5mt but to “We used geophysics prior to drilling Pian terms on treatment charges. That is our
end up with 7.8mt is tremendous,” Harris Bracca and it was very successful so we strategy; the bigger we make the project,
told Paydirt. “Alone it gives us the critical are using it again on targets to the north,” the more interested the offtakers will be.”
mass for development, but it can also act he said. “We are getting a lot of value out of Patience may bring other rewards. Eu-
as a springboard to 10mt, which is another lining up the geophysics with what we are rope is undergoing a minor revolution with
level again.” seeing in the network of adits and what we the EU and national governments increas-
Harris is hopeful the positive resource know from Pian Bracca. ingly desperate to identify secure supplies
update acts as a reset for Alta after it en- “That knowledge will drive success and of raw materials. As a potential miner in the
dured a frustrating two years. The company give us further credibility. We will put an ex- middle of Europe, Alta stands to benefit
fell out of investors’ favour as a result of re- ploration target out for the entire exploration from the trend.
source downgrades and a suspended fea- licence in the coming months.” “The way the tide is changing, it becomes
sibility study, then in early 2020 on-ground In parallel, Alta will begin to rebuild the an advantage to have a domestic supply of
activity was suspended as the Lombardy development story. Harris said the com- zinc-lead,” Harris said.
region where Gorno is located became the pany had been reconfiguring the project Such is the strength of the EU’s push
epicentre of Europe’s first wave of COVID. from the PFS with a view to a more efficient to find new sources of raw materials, Alta
“A larger resource was always the miss- operation. The plant site has been moved is expanding its exploration footprint. The
ing piece in the jigsaw,” Harris said. “There closer to the mine and ongoing work is de- company has already begun work on its
was a level of scepticism over the size of signed to match mine and mill throughput Punta Corna cobalt-nickel project in north-
the resource so to go from 3.3mt to 7.8mt with the new, larger resource. ern Italy and has also applied for additional
with three times the amount of zinc is a big “We are working on a concept study now copper exploration licences.
step-change. It is proof that we have a pro- and will then put out a scoping study which “The EU is putting finance behind ambi-
ject here and now we can get on with de- will show people what we have,” he said. tions to be a raw materials producer and
signing everything else around it.” From there, the company plans to move that is why our ambition is to be a mid-tier
“Everything else” could include more straight into DFS. base metals producer focused on Italy,”
zinc. Harris said the exploration drilling had “We have already done a lot of the rock Harris said. “It is rare that timing works in
highlighted the extension opportunities still mechanics and the mine design and a lot of mining but the energy transition and Eu-
inherent at Gorno. the met test work,” Harris said. “By the time rope’s refocus on raw materials means we
“Not only does the resource make the we finish the scoping study all the pieces are in the ideal moment.”
project viable, it shows we understand the will be in place for a pathway to DFS.”
geology so much better, which makes the Metallurgical test work will inevitably be – Dominic Piper

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT SePTeMBeR 2021 Page 49