TORONTO, CANADA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/21/13 -- Note: all amounts in this press release are shown in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
Inmet Mining Corporation (Inmet) (TSX: IMN) is pleased to announce the results of an economic pit price sensitivity analysis. The current Cobre Panama mineral reserve estimate (see Table 3) is based on a conservative copper price of $2.25/lb. In order to assess the sensitivity of mineral resources contained within economic pit shells to the $3.00/lb copper price now more commonly used in the industry, the economic pit limits were analyzed at $0.25/lb increments up to $3.50/lb. Results are presented in Table 1. At a copper price of $3.00/lb the estimated mineral resources contained within economic pit shells increase by 25% to 4,260 Mt and contain an additional 4.0 billion pounds of copper, 1.3 million ounces of gold, 26 million ounces of silver and 67 million pounds of molybdenum.
Frank Balint, Vice-President Corporate Development of Inmet commented, "This pit price sensitivity analysis further illustrates the inherent option value of a deposit the size and quality of Cobre Panama."
Table 1: Economic Pit Price Sensitivity Analysis (combined results from all deposits)---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contained Mineral Resources(1)Metal (greater than = Variable Internal Incremental ContainedPrice Cutoffs) Strip Metal From $2.25 Case------------------------------------------ ----------------------------Cu Cu Mo Au Ag Cu Mo Au Ag$/lb Mt % % gpt gpt Ratio (B lb) (M lb) (M Oz) (M Oz)----------------------------------------------------------------------------3.50 4,613 0.33 0.005 0.06 1.20 0.74 5.3 89 1.7 353.25 4,464 0.33 0.006 0.06 1.21 0.72 4.8 90 1.5 313.00 4,260 0.34 0.006 0.07 1.23 0.70 4.0 67 1.3 262.75 4,040 0.35 0.006 0.07 1.25 0.68 3.1 44 1.0 202.50 3,740 0.36 0.006 0.07 1.28 0.61 1.7 38 0.5 112.25 3,408 0.37 0.006 0.07 1.30 0.56 - - - -2.00 3,016 0.39 0.006 0.07 1.33 0.52 -2.1 -46 -0.6 -14----------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Measured and Indicated. Excludes saprolite and inferred mineralresources, which are treated as waste in this tabulation.
A combination of floating cone (FC) and Lerchs-Grossmann (LG) analyses were conducted to determine the above referenced economic pit limits for six mineral deposits in the Cobre Panama project concession: Botija, Colina, Valle Grande (VG), Medio, Botija Abajo/Brazo (BABr), and Balboa. Prior to computing block values in the deposit models, metallurgical recoveries were computed and used to estimate recoverable grades for each block. Price sensitivities were evaluated in $0.25/lb Cu increments up to $3.50/lb, with a base case of $2.25/lb Cu, $13.50/lb Mo, $1000/oz Au, and $16.00/oz Ag. Prices for Mo, Au, and Ag were varied proportionately in all cases.
