Galileo Resources plc provided an update on the proposed development of the Luansobe copper project in Zambia where a small-scale mining licence has been granted and Galileo holds a 75% interest in the Project. The Company intends to complete the work set out as follows before committing to a date for the commencement of operations at Luansobe and will keep Shareholders updated as this evolves. Production remains dependant on a number of factors as announced previously but including permitting and the availability of funding. Highlights include: The initial optimisation study has identified the following opportunities: Remodelling of the geological block model resulted in the inclusion of low-grade (below cut-off) ore that will improve dilution Potential inclusion of ore within the overburden. Inclusion of a possible free dig portion of the overburden. Sensitivity analysis highlighted a number of optimisation scenarios for the open pit only: Extending pit depth to 220m using a 0.25% Cu cut-off resulted in an estimated run of mine tonnage of 9.12 million tonnes and projected total copper production for the open pit of approximately 70,000t Cu. Reducing pit depth to 160m using a 0.5% Cu cut-off resulted in an estimated run of mine tonnage of 4.41Mt and projected total copper production for the shallower open pit of approximately 40,000t Cu.
In order to provide contractors and other interested parties with the best possible information upon which to base offers and/or tenders, the Board has instructed the external consultant to complete mine design to complement the strategic scheduling already completed. This will provide interested parties with detailed mine design, pushback design, life of mine scheduling and for internal use, trade-off studies. Potential exists outside of the Mineral Resource defined by the block model which has the scope to add significantly to the global resource. More specifically, this includes shallow underground mineralisation excluded from previous resource estimation work due to limited drill density. Deeper mineralisation has also come under the spotlight where some excellent in-house studies has identified geological factors that may have a profound bearing on interpretation of the distribution of mineralisation and the Company's planned deep level drilling strategy. The Luansobe area is situated some 15km to the northwest of the Mufulira Mine in the Zambian Copperbelt which produced well over 9Mt of copper metal during its operation. It forms part of the northwestern limb of the northwest - southeast trending Mufulira syncline and is essentially a strike continuation of Mufulira, with copper mineralisation hosted in the same stratigraphic horizons. At the Luansobe prospect mineralisation occurs over two contiguous zones, dipping at 20-30 degrees to the northeast, over a strike length of about 3km and to a vertical depth of at least 1,250m. Galileo entered into a Joint Venture agreement with Statunga, a private Zambian company which held the Project comprising small-scale exploration licence No. 28340-HQ-SEL in the Zambian Copperbelt prior to its conversion to two mining licences.