PhosCo Ltd. announced a significant increase in tonnage and confidence of its Mineral Resources Estimate (MRE) at the KEL (Kef El Louz) prospect at the Chaketma Phosphate Project (Chaketma or the Project) in Tunisia. KEL is one of two zones of phosphate mineralisation at Chaketma, the second is the larger (on the basis of current Resources) GK deposit. A Resource update is in preparation for GK.

Independent consultancy Arethuse Geology has estimated a Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources for KEL of 55.5 million tonnes of rock at a grade of 21.2% P2O5 as per JORC (2012) guidelines, above a cut-off of 10% P2O5. This is a significant increase from the previous KEL MRE of 37Mt @ 21% P2O5 (Inferred) (published on the 9 November 2012, as estimated by independent consultancy Geos Mining). This provides a resource base sufficient for the initial 30 years of the mining plan as proposed in the Scoping Study announced 14 August 2012 (Scoping Study).

The new MRE represents an increase of 18.5Mt or 50% on the previous maiden MRE. The KEL MRE has been estimated with a materially greater quantity and density of drilling data than the previous (2012) estimate (2012: 37 holes totaling 2,889 metres /2022: 117 holes totaling 9,128 metres). The additional drilling is largely in-fill and the 31 holes outside the maiden MRE envelope are concentrated in a comparatively small area.

The spacing of the drilling combined with an improved understanding of cross-cutting faults which have been mapped at surface in detail underpins the classification of high confidence Measured and Indicated Resources. The drilling contained by the KEL MRE covers 47% of the overall surface area of the known mineralisation for the prospect. There is potential to extend the resource south and east where the mineralisation outcrops and has not been drilled but has been trenched and mapped around the periphery of the topographical feature.

The type of sampling in the trenches does not currently support inclusion in the MRE but clearly shows that phosphate mineralisation is far more extensive than the area drilled at KEL. PhosCo intends to extend drilling coverage and has high confidence this will result in further growth of the KEL MRE. The existing MRE for GK (Gassaa Kebira) currently stands at 93 Mt at 20.3% P2O5 (prepared by Geos Mining, 2013), and global resources for the Chaketma Phosphate Project now stand at 148.5Mt at 20.6% P2O5.

Further drilling should add to this resource base. The Chaketma resource is the only phosphate resource controlled by an ASX listed company in North Africa. The expanded KEL MRE, which has clear and material upside, provides a strong basis for technical and financial assessments of the Project, which will be progressed following the completion of Gap analysis.

A large amount of historic technical work is currently being reviewed and validated for potential inclusion in project studies providing the opportunity to rapidly advance Chaketma towards production. Key work programs anticipated by PhosCo to confirm and optimise the existing project studies include: Metallurgical test work programs, based on sampling guided by the different phosphate mineralisation layers of the MRE, which are planned to optimise recoveries specific to each layer. These findings will be required to optimise mining extraction and pit design, as a key step toward estimation of Ore Reserves.

Further drilling is planned over the remainder of the KEL prospect with the aim of extending high confidence Resources over the entire prospect. Approximately 130 drill holes are estimated to be required to provide a similar drill density over the 53% of KEL that has not been drilled as exists over the established Resources. PhosCo intend to consider an Exploration Target prior to Resource drilling.

The GK MRE is in the process of being updated to include an additional 21 new holes, taking the total number of holes to 31 at that prospect from the 10 used in the 2013 MRE. Resource estimation methodologies applied in the 2022 update of KEL MRE will also be applied to GK.