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Negros Sulphur Project, Pamplona, the Philippines
Property Description and Location
The Pamplona sulphur deposit is located on the Philippine island of Negros, close to a deep-sea port site, and consists of a mixed sulphursulphide ore with both native sulphur and pyrite/marcasite. Access to the deposit is by a partially rehabilitated forest road from Amlan on the southeast coast of Negros Island. The nearest domestic airport is in Dumaguete, approximately 40 km from the project site.
Title and Ownership
The Philippine authorities, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, issued an Exploration Permit for the Pamplona Sulphur Deposit in Negros Island on July 4, 2003 for a period of 2 years, renewable for another 2+2 years, subject to the approval of submitted work plans and certain other conditions.
The title has been granted to Altai Philippines Mining Corporation (“Altai”). Altai, has assigned all rights to the Pamplona Sulphur property to Crew Minerals Philippines Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crew, through an option agreement dated September 1998 and an amendment to the option agreement signed November 21, 2002, the latter concerning a reduction of the annual fees and buy-out terms.
Mineral Resources Estimates
The Pamplona Sulphur Deposit comprises 60 million tonnes of open-pittable measured mineral resources, within a total resource of 84 million tonnes with an average composition of 13.8% elemental sulphur and 17.0% sulphur as sulphide. Benguet Mining Corp. and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., the former concession holders, classified the deposit as a proven mineral reserve, but Crew has not completed an economic study on the deposit, and has therefore re-classified the resource indicated according to the JORC code. The resource evaluation was carried out on the basis of 178 diamondcore drill holes placed in a 60-meter grid pattern.
The License covers an area of 39 km2 and is composed of two Exploration Permit areas named EP00007-VII and EXPA00068-VII. The Company acquired the Pamplona Sulphur Deposit as a stand-alone project, although it has the potential to enhance the economics of the Mindoro Nickel Project. The formal assignment of the title to Crew Minerals Philippines Inc. (“CMP”) is in preparation following the approval of the Exploration Permits.
Work Completed
A new detailed topographical survey for the Pamplona open pit-area has been completed to take into account the rather extensive excavations conducted by Benguet Corp. in connection with trial mining in the1970s. This has allowed the company to define a suitable sampling site for a 2,000 tonnes bulk sample requested by a local fertilizer group for industrial testing. The sampling will be from a 10 x 50 m NW trending trench excavated to about 6 m depth. The bulk sample will be collected in the lower 2-m of the trench to prevent oxidation of the ore. It is considered that the trench design will easily accomodate the double quantity if desired. Adequate collection of drainage from the trench/pit will be diverted through settling dams with lime for acid neutralization before decantation to the small stream, which drains the general area.
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