MMX Mineração e Metálicos S.A. (MMX) commissioned the SRK US office to prepare a Technical Report meeting the terms of a Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 43-101 for the Corumbá Iron Ore Project in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The mine is located near the city of Corumbá, and consists of an operating mine, Mina 63, and an exploration property, Urucum NE. SRK completed NI43-101 reports for five different iron ore deposits for MMX, including Corumbá.
The Corumbá project area has been mined intermittently since 1958 by various operators. MMX acquired the mining concessions and plant in 2005 and began mining in January 2006. Exploration at Urucum NE began in 2007.
Mine 63 and Urucum NE are located on the east and west flanks of Urucum Mountain. The project is somewhat unusual in that it contains colluvial and eluvial deposits with a jaspilite source. The rock fragments have been upgraded by leaching of the silica, resulting in higher iron grades than the source rock. The eluvium averages about 15m in thickness and the colluvium about 13m. Both are easily mineable and require little blasting.
Block models were built for the eluvial and colluvial areas in the mine and a single model was built for the colluvium at Urucum NE. Variography was done for each area, and they were estimated using Ordinary Kriging. The total Measured and Indicated resources at Mine 63 as of September 30, 2007 were 45.6Mt at an average grade of 53.1% Fe and for Urucum NE were 37.2Mt at an average grade of 53.2% Fe.
Ore Reserves calculated for Mine 63 based upon a Lerchs Grossman pit optimization were 29.4 Mt at an average grade of 55.7% Fe, and the mine life was projected to be 8 years at a production rate of 4,101 ktpy.
Processing consists of crushing, screening and classification with spirals to produce lump and sinter feed products. The products are transported either to a pig iron plant operated by MMX Metálicos near Corumbá or to a port on the Paraguay River.
