On December 12, Australian iron ore exploration company DMC Mining Limited announced an increased exploration target of 0.9 to 1.3 billion metric tons of dominantly itabirite iron mineralization at its 80 percent owned Mayoko iron ore project in the Republic of Congo, West Africa.
Recently completed reconnaissance geological mapping and rock chip geochemical sampling has confirmed the occurrence of iron mineralization at three new targets that were initially identified by a high resolution, airborne magnetic survey completed in 2009.
Meanwhile, geophysical modeling of these three new targets, constrained by surface mapping and sampling, estimates an additional exploration target size of 200 to 300 million metric tons, which increases the aggregate exploration target size at the Mayoko iron ore project by 30 percent, to a range of 0.9 to 1.3 billion metric tons of dominantly itabirite iron mineralization.
The 2009 airborne geophysical survey covered 22 percent of the area of the granted Mayoko exploration licence. The Mbinda target is open along strike to the northeast. DMC plans to extend the airborne geophysical coverage of the Mayoko licence to the north and south with a survey to be undertaken later in 2010.