23 October 2017

ANNUAL MINERAL RESOURCE AND ORE RESERVE STATEMENT

Independence Group NL (ASX code: IGO) is pleased to provide this annual report of IGO's Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves estimates as at 30 June 2017.

Highlights

  • At 30 June 2017, IGO's total Mineral Resources from all operations and projects, contained combined estimated metal contents of 325kt Ni, 455kt Cu, 9kt Co, 963kt Zn, and 2.8Moz Au. These estimates are inclusive of Ore Reserves.

  • IGO's total Ore Reserves contained combined estimated metal contents of 280kt Ni, 315kt Cu, 9kt Co, 568kt Zn and 1.4Moz Au.

  • Since 30 June 2016, the contained gold estimated in the Ore Reserves at Tropicana Gold Mine have increased by 1.15Moz1, due to the completion of the framework resource definition program, and progression of the Long Island Study, which incorporates strip mining and in-pit dumping of waste to reduce mining costs.

  • The Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves at Jaguar Operation have increased by 2.8Mt and 1.0Mt respectively, due to the reporting of a first Mineral Resource for the Triumph deposit and extension of mineralisation at the Bentley mine.

  • The Nova Operation Interim Mineral Resource reported in July 2017, which incorporated close spaced grade control drilling of nearly all the Nova deposit, resulted in an improved resource confidence with most of the Nova deposit now classified as Measured Mineral Resource, and a resource tonnage reduction of approximately 2.9Mt. Grade control drilling of the Bollinger deposit is expected to be completed in FY18.

Commenting on the update IGO's, Managing Director and CEO, Peter Bradford, said:

"We have made good progress with our brownfields exploration programs at both Jaguar and Tropicana in FY17 delivering an increase in Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves at Jaguar as well as an increase in Ore Reserves at Tropicana as a result of the ongoing Long Island Project which is expect to be finalised in the December 2017 quarter.

We also made good progress at Nova, where we have leveraged off the geometry of the Nova-Bollinger orebodies to progress grade control drilling of the whole resource model early in the mine life, delivering greater confidence in the Mineral Resource and de-risking our geological understanding. While this

1 Reported on a 100% basis

has lowered the resource tonnage and is expected to lower the reserve tonnage, we expect that future extensional drilling around the Nova and Bollinger orebodies will partly or fully offset this loss of tonnes.

In FY18, we have numerous exploration programs planned across our extensive and highly prospective brownfields and greenfields portfolio. It is these programs which will continue to deliver future resource and reserve growth for IGO in the future."

An overview of each of the assets in the Company's portfolio is provided within this release.

IGO's Total Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (FY16/FY17)

Figure 1 is a location map of IGO's operations in Western Australia. Table 1 and Table 2 are listings of IGO's total Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for all operations and projects, as estimated at 30 June 2016 and 30 June 2017, on a 100% IGO basis.

Figure 1: Location of IGO WA Operations plotted on Regional Aeromagnetic Map

In all tabulations in this report, the Mineral Resource estimates are reported inclusive of Ore Reserve estimates and the tonnage, grades and in situ metal estimates are rounded to levels of precision considered appropriate at the time of reporting. Due to rounding, some of the total and average values may appear to be inaccurate. Details of key assumptions for each estimate, such as cut-off grades and modifying factors, are detailed in the respective JORC Code Table 1 checklists, which are appended to this release.

Table 1: IGO Total Mineral Resources Estimates - 30 June 2016 and 30 June 2017 - 100% IGO basis

FY

Year

Project or Operation

Tonnes (Mt)

Grades

In situ Metal

Ni (%)

Cu (%)

Co (%)

Zn (%)

Ag (g/t)

Au (g/t)

Ni (kt)

Cu (kt)

Co (kt)

Zn (kt)

Ag (Moz)

Au (koz)

2016

Nova Long

Tropicana 30% Jaguar Stockman

Total 2016

14.3

2.3

0.9

0.08

-

-

-

325

134

11

-

-

-

1.3

4.7

-

-

-

-

-

60

-

-

-

-

-

37.4

-

-

-

-

-

1.9

-

-

-

-

-

2,200

3.7

-

1.4

-

7.0

111

0.6

-

51

-

256

13

100

14.0

-

2.1

-

4.3

38

1.0

-

294

-

598

17

400

70.6

(Total average grades are not additive)

(Total in situ metals not reported in 2016)

2017

Nova

11.4

2.4

1.0

0.1

-

-

-

271

113

9

-

-

-

Long

1.2

4.6

-

-

-

-

-

54

-

-

-

-

-

Tropicana 30%

42.4

-

-

-

-

-

1.7

-

-

-

-

-

2,322

Jaguar

6.5

-

0.9

-

5.6

85

0.4

-

55

-

364

18

90

Stockman

14.0

-

2.1

-

4.3

38

1.0

-

287

-

599

17

437

Total 2017

75.5

(Total average grades are not additive)

325

455

9

963

35

2,849

Notes:

  1. Tropicana Gold Mine tonnages and in situ gold estimates are reported a 30% IGO share.

  2. All other estimates are reported as 100% IGO share.

  3. Cobalt was not reported for Nova in IGO's summary for 2016 but is included in the 2017 report.

  4. There have been material increases in tonnage and grade at Tropicana and Jaguar and decreases at Nova - refer to the notes below the respective summary tables further below for explanations.

  5. Stockman is subject to a divestment process, which is expected to be completed in FY18.

Table 2: IGO Total Ore Reserves - 30 June 2016 and 30 June 2017 - 100% IGO basis

FY

Year

Project or Operation

Tonnes (Mt)

Grades

In situ Metal

Ni (%)

Cu (%)

Co (%)

Zn (%)

Ag (g/t)

Ni (%)

Ni (kt)

Cu (kt)

Co (kt)

Zn (kt)

Ag (Moz)

Au (koz)

2016

Nova Long Tropicana Jaguar Stockman

Total 2016

13.6

2.0

0.8

0.07

-

-

-

275

112

9

-

-

-

0.4

3.9

-

-

-

-

-

14

-

-

-

-

-

12.3

-

-

-

-

-

1.83

-

-

-

-

-

723

1.4

-

1.1

-

9.5

145

0.8

-

16

-

137

6.7

0.0

1069

9.0

-

2.1

-

4.5

39

1.1

-

189

-

408

11.3

300

36.7

(Total average grades are not additive)

(Total in situ metals not reported in 2016)

2017

Nova

13.3

2.06

0.83

0.07

-

-

-

274

110

9

-

-

-

Long

0.2

3.64

-

-

-

-

-

6

-

-

-

-

-

Tropicana

17.1

-

-

-

-

-

1.94

-

-

-

-

-

1,069

Jaguar

2.4

-

0.66

-

6.71

100

0.47

-

16

-

161

8

36

Stockman

9.0

-

2.10

-

4.53

39

1.08

-

189

-

408

11

311

Total 2017

41.9

(Total average grades are not additive)

280

315

9

568

19

1,416

Notes:

  1. The notes below Table 1 also apply to this listing.

  2. Gold metal for Jaguar was reported as 0.0 Moz in 2016 due to the 0.1 Moz rounding approach applied at the time of reporting. The reporting precision for gold metal has been changed to thousands of ounces (koz) for the 30 June 2017 reports.

  3. There have been material changes in all operations - refer to the notes below the respective summary tables further below for explanations.

Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves by Operation or Project

In the following subsections of this report, the estimates for IGO's operations and projects are described in detail with the following criteria consistently applied:

  • All Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Ore Reserves.

  • Some total and average values in estimate tabulations may appear to be inaccurate as a function of rounding to appropriate levels of reporting precision.

  • The 30 June 2016 estimates are consistent with IGO's 2016 annual update reported to the ASX on 14 October 2016.

  • For 2017, the following tonnage, grade and metal reporting criteria have been adopted:

    • Measured and Indicated Resources and Proved and Probable Reserves have been (usually) rounded to the nearest 0.1Mt, with grades reported to two decimal places. However, in some instances higher precision has been used to avoid reporting zero tonnages in the few cases where the estimated tonnages are less than 0.1Mt.

    • Inferred Resources have been rounded to the nearest 0.1Mt with grades reported to one decimal place for nickel and copper and two decimal places for cobalt, due to the generally low concentration of cobalt at Nova. Silver grades are reported with integer precision. Again, higher precision is used when estimated tonnages are less than 0.1Mt.

    • In situ metal estimates are reported with integer precision as these values are computed from tonnage and grade estimates and as such, have the combined uncertainty of the two input values.

Nova Operation Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves

The Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for IGO's 100%-owned Nova Operation are estimated from the extensive surface and underground diamond grade control drilling and underground mining of two magmatic Ni-Cu-Co deposits (Nova and Bollinger), which are located approximately 160km, east of the town of Norseman in Western Australia (Figure 1). During the period 30 June 2016 to 30 June 2017 (FY17), Nova has transitioned from a development project to a 1.5Mtpa mining and processing operation with first ore processed in October 2016, and the Operation in commercial production from 1 July 2017.

Nova Operation's ore is sourced from the underground mine through backfill stoping methods and mine development headings. Through FY17 close-spaced underground diamond grade control drilling has been completed to facilitate mine planning and scheduling, and to increase the confidence in the Mineral Resource estimate.

The total 'mine-claim' ore hauled to the Nova Operation run-of-mine pad for FY17 was 0.3Mt grading 1.33% Ni, 0.55% Cu and 0.04% Co, which has been used to deplete the 30 June 2016 Ore Reserve estimate.

Comparison of the FY16 and FY17 Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves

Table 3 is a listing of the Nova Operation Mineral Resource estimates at the end of FY16 and FY17. Full details pertaining to both estimates are included in the Appendix A JORC Code Table 1 checklist summary for the Nova Operation estimates.

Independence Group NL published this content on 23 October 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 22 October 2017 23:21:07 UTC.

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