/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED
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TSX-V: AFF
AIM: AFF
LONDON, Sept. 30, 2013 /CNW/ - The board of directors of
Afferro Mining Inc. ("Afferro" or the "Company") announces that as
a result of a review by the British Columbia Securities Commission
("BCSC"), the Company is issuing the following news release to
clarify its disclosure.
After consultation, the Company has already
taken the necessary action and addressed all aspects to the
satisfaction of the BCSC. The Company is now compliant on all
aspects as per the following detail.
The review undertaken by the BCSC identified the
following main technical disclosure issues:
Failure to file a NI 43-101 technical report
for Nkout
- The news release disclosure about a preliminary economic
assessment ("PEA") subsequent to the filing of the technical report
dated 29 June 2012 and, following
this, the technical report dated 28 May
2013 with respect to the Nkout iron ore project ("Nkout"),
triggered a requirement to file a technical report supporting
going-forward disclosure of a PEA. To address this issue, the
technical report dated 28 May 2013
has been revised to include a summary of the PEA as reported in the
technical report dated 28 May 2012,
which is based on the mineral resource estimate with an effective
date of 15 November 2011 (the
"Amended Technical Report"), and has been filed on SEDAR.
Failure to file a NI 43-101 compliant
technical report for Nkout
- The technical reports dated 29 June
2012 and 28 May 2013 are not
compliant with NI 43-101 for the following reasons: They
-
- do not support going-forward disclosure of a PEA, as discussed
above
- contain estimates for potential exploration targets with
respect to which a grade range is not provided and a cut-off grade
is applied; in addition, it is implied that the quantities are
potentially economic, which is inappropriate for a conceptual
estimate
- contain certain limits to the scope for their preparation and
disclaimers that are not compliant with NI 43-101
These issues have been addressed in the Amended
Technical Report filed on 30 September
2013.
Failure to use appropriate cautionary
language when referring to the PEA
- Since the publication of its PEA in May
2012, the Company has frequently referred to it in its news
releases, omitting to use the required or correct cautionary
language in accordance with section 2.3(3) of NI 43-101.
- The Company wishes to clarify that it acknowledges that the PEA
is preliminary in nature as it includes inferred mineral resources
that are considered too speculative geologically to have the
economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to
be categorised as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the
PEA will be realised and the statement made that Nkout is
economically viable is premature and misleading before a mining
study has qualified an initial mineral reserve estimate. In
addition the Company retracts statements indicating that an
expanded resource estimate would have a positive effect on the PEA
and project valuation. In particular the Company retracts
statements regarding the enhancement of the PEA in the releases
dated 4 July 2012 and 4 February 2013. In the 4
July 2012 release, the Company explained how an expanded
resource estimate of higher confidence affected the Company's PEA,
extending the projected mine life and enhancing the project
economics. In the 4 February 2013
release, the Company stated that there was the potential for
significant capex and opex improvements to the PEA, with
significant upside to the economics enabling an early phase of
production.
Non-compliant disclosure of potential
exploration targets and increased indicated resource
- In its news release dated 30 May
2013, Afferro reports that an additional resource potential
of 500 to 1,000 million tonnes ("Mt") of iron has been identified.
Afferro acknowledges that the use of "resource potential" and
"potentially economic" in the news release was contrary to the
conceptual nature of an exploration target, which requires further
exploration; Afferro further acknowledges that it should have
provided the required range of grade and used appropriate
cautionary language as required by NI 43-101 for all disclosure of
exploration targets. Afferro wishes to clarify that, through
extrapolation of drilling information 200m below the base of the
pit, it is estimated that there exists an exploration target of
500Mt to 1000Mt of mineralisation with a grade of between
29% and 35% iron; it should be noted, however, that the potential
quantity and grade are conceptual in nature, that there has been
insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and that it
is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being
delineated as a mineral resource.
- The news releases dated 30 May
2013 and 13 June 2013 contain
an indicated resource estimate forecast which is not compliant with
NI 43-101 for the following reasons:
-
- the disclosed "indicated resource" target tonnage of
DSO/saprolite significantly exceeded the available DSO/saprolite
indicated resource estimate, and the indicated BIF target tonnage
was also larger
- the use of the classification "indicated resource" for
additional tonnes is premature and can be misleading
- appropriate grade information was not provided
- Afferro wishes to clarify that Nkout has an indicated mineral
resource estimate of 1.6 billion tonnes ("Bt") at 33.3% iron and an
inferred mineral resource estimate of 0.9 Bt at 30.8% iron, and
that a drilling programme is currently underway to further convert
and upgrade the inferred classified material to the indicated
category
- Due to the uncertainty of inferred mineral resources, it should
not be assumed that their upgrading to indicated class will always
occur and the Company is formally retracting the prior disclosure
of quantities of a larger targeted indicated resource
Qualified Persons
Howard Baker
(MAusIMM(CP)) has 19 years' experience in the mining industry and
11 years' experience in the exploration, definition and mining of
iron ore mineral resources. Mr Baker is a full-time employee of SRK
Consulting (UK) Ltd., an independent consultancy, and has
sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of
mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the
type of activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Qualified
Person in accordance with NI 43-101 and a Competent Person as
defined in the June 2009 Edition of
the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Howard Baker consents to the inclusion in the
announcement of the matters based on his information in the form
and context in which it appears and confirms that this information
is accurate and not false or misleading.
Dr David Pattinson
CEng, MIMMM, has over 31 years' experience in metallurgical
and process plant design. Dr Pattinson, a Principal Process
Engineer with SRK is a Qualified Person (QP) as defined by the
Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) and
outlined in National Instrument 43-101 of the Canadian Securities
Administrators (NI 43-101). David
Pattinson consents to the inclusion in the announcement of
the matters based on their information in the form and context in
which it appears and confirms that this information is accurate and
not false or misleading. Dr Pattinson was responsible for the
review of the metallurgical testwork reviewed for the 2012 PEA.
Paul Groves, CEng
MIMMM, has 24 years international experience. Mr. Groves is a
full-time employee of Atkins and is a Director of Ground
Engineering. Mr. Groves has wide experience of land development,
major infrastructure and underground works related to civil and
mining works. Mr. Groves consents to the inclusion in the
announcement of the matters based on his information in the form
and context in which it appears and confirms that this information
is accurate and not false or misleading.
Julia Martin,
P.Eng, MAusIMM (CP) has 19 years of experience in the mining
industry. Ms Martin is a full-time employee with AMC Mining
Consultants (Canada) Ltd. and is
independent of Afferro. Ms. Martin has sufficient experience
relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under
consideration and to the activity she is undertaking to qualify as
a "Qualified Person" under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of
Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Ms. Martin consents to the
inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on her
information in the form and context in which it appears and
confirms that this information is accurate and not false or
misleading.
SOURCE Afferro Mining Inc.