Puthep Copper (THAILAND)

The Puthep project is located near the major provincial centre of Loei in north-east Thailand and is within three hours by road of PanAust’s Vientiane office. PanAust is undertaking a feasibility study at the Puthep Copper Project.

Puthep is a joint venture between PanAust and Padaeng Industry Public Company Limited (listed on the Stock Exhange of Thailand). At 31 December 2008, PanAust held a 33.17% interest. The Company will earn a 51% interest in the Project by completing the study and has a further option to acquire a total 60-70% interest.

The Puthep Copper Project comprises the PUT 1 and PUT 2 deposits, which are 14km apart. A 2001 pre-feasibility study at the PUT 1 deposit identified a copper resource to a depth of approximately 100 metres. Drilling at PUT 1 had indicated the presence of broad zones of primary mineralisation below the transitional mineral resource. A review of this data, coupled with PanAust’s experience at the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Project in Laos, supported the evaluation of a much bigger open-pit and flotation operation based on the transitional and primary mineralisation to produce a copper concentrate for custom smelting with gold and silver by-products.

In November 2006, the joint venture received Thai government approval for land access to the Puthep project and for the initiation of a feasibility study field program on the PUT 1 deposit. The joint venture goal is to complete a feasibility study to support the development of an operation with a capacity to process 10-12 million tonnes of ore per annum to produce 50,000 tonnes of copper (for a PanAust equity share of at least 30,000 tonnes) in concentrate. The feasibility study commenced in early 2007 and is expected to be completed in late 2009 for announcement in early 2010. The scope of the feasbility study includes the review of copper leaching options for processing the predominantly chalcocite copper mineralisation.

In May 2009, PanAust released the feasibility study mineral resource estimate (total combined Measured, Indicated and Inferred) of 160.0 million tonnes at 0.53% copper and 0.09% gold (copper cut-off grade 0.30%).

Operations, Projects
 and Exploration