Britannia Mining, the successor of a merger between UK based mining development company Britannia Mining Plc and U.S. based Micron Enviro Systems (Former Symbol: MSVS), announced today that geologist firm, Bastillion Resources, sees the Nthale Hill iron ore project to fairly resemble a famous World Class Asset of well over 1 Billion Tons.
“The Kiruna mine in Sweden is a major iron ore resource,” said Nicola Newmarch, COO of Britannia Mining. “The implication that the geology at Nthale is remotely similar to Kiruna is substantial because this shows the potential that Nthale has to be a World Class Asset of over 100 Million Tons.”
Bastillion Resources, a leading geologist firm, first made the comparison between the two properties in 2013. They noted that the Kiruna deposits are formed from thicker lenses joined by thin, extensive magnetite rich beds while Nthale’s deposit seems to be formed by thicker lenses with thin, laterally extensive magnetite rich beds joining up the thicker lenses.
Paul Karpeta, Principal Geologist of Bastillion Resources, stated that geophysics at Nthale would have to be conducted to, “Establish the full extent of the ore body itself and then extend that out along strike to locate other, thicker lenses.” Continuing, “Certainly, the original geological mapping of the area by the Malawi Geological Survey indicates there are possibly another three ore bodies along strike within five or six kilometers.”
The recent view on Nthale’s geological makeup, particularly its similarity to Kiruna, lends heavily to the investment interest shown toward Britannia. However, Mr. Karpeta has made clear, Nthale Hill may at this time seem smaller than Sweden’s famed iron ore resource — which to date is approximated to have produced over 950 million tons of iron ore at roughly 60% Fe — only because it is early in the development process. However, it is actually unclear just how much larger Nthale Hill may actually be. Therefore, Bastillion’s geologists are inclined to believe that the Nthale Hill project can be developed over time, to reflect similar tonnage figures as produced by Kiruna, and perhaps also become recognized as a World Class Asset.