Companies: RMM   

Rambler Metals and Mining’s new informal resource estimate suggests its Ming project in Newfoundland could hold nearly 233,000 tonnes of copper.

Chaired by veteran Canadian mining entrepreneur and investment player Harry Dobson, AIM-quoted Rambler says its formal ‘N14-101’ Canadian resource statement for the mine, on Newfoundland’s Baie Verte Peninsula, completed by SRK Consulting, provides much encouragement. As well as 14,425 measured tonnes of copper at a cheering grade of 2.98 per cent, the statement sets out 170,000 indicated tonnes at 1.78 per cent and nearly 48,240 inferred tonnes at 1.57 per cent.

With copper trading at nearly £4,250 a tonne, chief executive officer George Ogilvie takes heart from these figures. However, he contends they are lower than the company’s own scoping study last year and says London-based Rambler is embarking on a drilling programme to achieve a formal upgrade. SRK has also identified a potential 156,000 oz of low-grade gold, 14,200 tonnes of zinc and 1.1 million oz of silver at the Ming mine.

De-watering of the mine, which was previously in production up to 1996, is proceeding apace. According to Ogilvie, Rambler hopes to produce a new resource estimate by the end of this year, prepare a pre-feasibility study by January 2009 and, if all goes well and environmental permitting is not delayed, start production by April 2010.

That would require project finance in the region of £35 million, says Rambler, which has been talking to the Glencore mining group and others. There are suggestions of a potential new gold zone, too. Rambler shares, which rose from 26p to 74.5p between 2006 and a year ago, have slipped back and now trade at 50.5p, where they offer speculative potential.

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Rambler Metals and Mining	AIM	£4.53m	7.62p	-0.25p
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