VANCOUVER, Aug. 10 /CNW/ - Kimber Resources Inc. (AMEX:KBX, TSX:KBR)
Property
We are pleased to report that the last option payment on the El Coronel
concessions has now been made. Kimber through its wholly-owned subsidiary
Minera Monterde S. de R.L. de C.V. now holds a 100% interest, free of all
royalties, in all of the concessions that make up the Monterde project. This
property consists of the formerly optioned claims which are surrounded by
concessions staked by Kimber in 2005. The entire property covers 28,000
hectares and is 37 kilometres in length along the mineral trend. Only a very
small portion of this property has been explored in any detail.
Drilling
Drilling on the Carmen is approaching completion with a few areas of the
deposit requiring some additional drilling. While the Carmen deposit is
progressing through Pre-Feasibility studies, the focus of drilling is now on
the Carotare deposit and the El Orito Norte target. Making sufficiently robust
access roads has taken much longer than expected. The delays were attributed
to our initial belief that roads could be built using D7 or D8 bulldozers as
were used at Carmen. Unfortunately, this strategy did not work as hoped
because knobs of high silica rock which are not present at Carmen are found
throughout Carotare and El Orito Norte. These required drilling and blasting
before the dozers could be brought in. We now have three compressors and
jacklegs preparing the sites for blasting. Meanwhile one RC drill is now on
Carotare East with the other RC and Core rig working at Carmen.
Pre-Feasibility Study
Micon International of Toronto ("Micon") continues to work on the
Pre-Feasibility study which is expected in September. This study will report
on the economics of the deposit based on the drilling completed by February
2006. This study will be on Carmen only and will assume a heap-leach only
operation as the base-line model. It will use a high recovery rate for gold
(based on tests which are mostly complete) and a low recovery for silver
(based on incomplete tests). Later, following further completion of silver
metallurgical studies, the costs and benefits of a mill (to enhance silver
recovery) will be investigated.
At this stage of the project, the principal technique is to run the block
model data through a pit optimizing program. Kimber's technical team has been
generating one of these for internal use only. Micon will present an optimized
pit as part of the Pre-Feasibility study. This process "looks at" each block,
its content of gold and silver, their recovery, and the cost of mining and
processing that block. Such exercises will indicate how much of the resources
reported in the block model can be included in an open pit for given prices of
gold and silver. Sensitivities for varied gold and silver prices will be
included as well.
The Pre-Feasibility study as discussed previously is an important
milestone for Kimber. Only a very small percentage of properties make it to
this stage and we are proud of the development that has taken place at
Monterde since Kimber was a private company in 2001.
Next Steps
As we continue into the fall, our objective is to demonstrate strong
results from Carotare and El Orito Norte which, if eventually developed into
additional open pittable deposits, could have significant effects on
profitability.
Robert Longe, P.Eng
President and CEO
About Kimber
Kimber Resources Inc., which holds a 100% interest in the Monterde
property in the Sierra Madre of northern Mexico, is advancing the Carmen
gold-silver deposit towards production. The Carmen deposit, an underground
mine in the 1930's, is a typical low sulphidation epithermal system, oxidized,
and believed to be suitable for open pit mining. Two adjacent epithermal
systems first identified in 2005, the Carotare deposit and El Orito Norte
exploration target appear to be similar to the Carmen. The initial resource
estimate on Carotare was reported in November 2005. The goal of the company is
to demonstrate at least three million resource ounces from the two deposits
and exploration target identified. For further information on the company
visit SEDAR or the company website at www.kimberresources.com.
Cautionary Statement
Statements in this release may be viewed as forward-looking statements.
Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected. There are no assurances the
Company can fulfil such forward-looking statements and the Company undertakes
no obligation to update such statements. Such forward-looking statements are
only predictions; actual events or results may differ materially as a result
of risks facing the Company, some of which are beyond the Company's control.
