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[February 2009]
Daleco Resources Updates Sierra Kaolin Open Pit Clay Mine Project
Gary Novinskie, President of Daleco Resources Corp (West Chester, PA, USA), has announced that Tecumseh Professional Associates Inc, joint venture partner and project manager in conjunction with Daleco's wholly owned subsidiary, Clean Age Minerals Inc, has submitted its Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed Sierra Kaolin Open Pit Clay Mine to the United States Forest Service (USFS) for the company's Sierra Kaolin Project.
The filing of the EA was in accordance with the Federal Land and Policy Management Act of 1976, 26CFR Subpart C and the Forest Plan (USFS 1986) and was the next step in the mining permit application process for the proposed Sierra Kaolin Open Pit Clay Mine that will be located on the Southerner Federal Mining Claim, in the Gila National Forest, Sierra County, New Mexico.
The EA reviews the impact of the various mining activities associated with the proposed Sierra Kaolin Open Pit Clay mine on the surrounding environment including but not limited to, wildlife, vegetation, cultural resources and water and air quality. The EA also incorporated and addressed the concerns identified through the public notice and input process which was associated with the previous filing of the proposed Plan of Operation (POO) for the project (the initial step in the permitting process).
Steven Roche, CEO of Tecumseh, noted that the Sierra Kaolin Project partners are diligently working their way through the open pit mine permitting processes of the State of New Mexico and USFS. He noted that based on the detail of the work performed in preparation for the filing of both the POO and the EA, the partners are optimistic that the mine permit will be issued once all of the required regulatory reviews are completed.
In addition, Mr Roche reported that as part of the ongoing evaluation efforts of the Sierra Kaolin Project, KT Minerals Inc (KT) concluded a re-evaluation of the potential kaolin mineralised material associated with the project. The KT re-evaluation considered the geologic and compositional data available from prior studies and incorporated the results of the mineral processing study completed by the project's processing consultants. Based on the mineral processing work a greater percentage of the project's in-situ minerals can be processed into marketable material as compared to prior indications. In addition the KT evaluation expanded the study area outside the 32 acres encompassed by the most recent core drilling and analysis programme to include acreage penetrated by an additional 53 historical core holes from which the data could be verified. As a result, KT evaluated approximately 264 acres out of the 2,720 acres encompassing the project and identified approximately 55.3 million tons of mineralised material and further classified those quantities in accordance with the international definition of reserve classification grouping described in Section 9.3 Inventory Category (R26, R28) (E290 of the Minfile Coding Manual) as 25.1 million ton as proven on 107.5 acres; 12.8 million tons as probable on 69.0 acres and 17.3 million tons as possible/inferred on 88.0 acres.
Mr Novinskie noted that with the filing of both the POO and EA and the receipt of data from the ongoing evaluation efforts significant progress has been made towards achieving the project's objectives.
Daleco Resources is a resource company with operating subsidiaries active in oil and gas, minerals and environmental remediation technology.
ENDS