TIDMAMC
RNS Number : 6862Q
Amur Minerals Corporation
14 September 2017
14 September 2017
AMUR MINERALS CORPORATION
(AIM: AMC)
Kubuk Drilling To Upgrade and Expand Resource
New Mineralisation Expands Kubuk Deposit by 50% to 1,500
Metres
Amur Minerals Corporation ("Amur" or the "Company"), a
nickel-copper sulphide mineral exploration and resource development
company focused on its Kun-Manie project in the Russian Far East,
is pleased to provide its third drill update on the Kubuk ("KUB")
deposit, for the 2017 drill season. The drill results confirm that
there is potential to substantially upgrade and increase the
current Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") averaging 0.77% nickel
and 0.20% copper. Substantial resource expansion potential remains
to be drilled immediately to the west of KUB, in the direction of
the Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky ("IKEN") deposit, leading to the
potential confirmation that IKEN and KUB are both a part of a
single 4.5 kilometre long deposit.
Highlights:
-- At Kun-Manie, the Company has completed 21,933 metres of
drilling through 8 September 2017. Eight weeks ahead of schedule,
10,000 metres of drilling are along the three kilometre IKEN to KUB
target. The objective is to confirm that the IKEN and KUB deposits
are part of a single large deposit of 4.5 kilometres in length.
-- At KUB diamond core holes have intersected ore grade
intervals (>0.4% nickel and >3.0 metres in thickness) having
length weighted grades of 0.79% for nickel and 0.23% for copper.
Mineralised thicknesses in ore holes average 17.1 metres, which are
suitable for mining by open pit and underground mining methods.
-- The May 2017 KUB Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") will be
substantially upgraded based on the newly acquired drill
results.
-- Infill drilling at KUB is likely to have converted the
majority of the JORC (Dec. 2012) 10.9 million tonnes (averaging
0.74% nickel and 0.20% copper) Inferred resource to that of the
Indicated.
-- Resource expansion drilling has expanded the KUB resource by
50% (500 metres) now having a total continuous mineralised length
of 1,500 metres. The extension of the mineralisation should
substantially increase the 14.5 million tonnes reported in the 10
February 2017 which contains a metal inventory of the nickel
(112,000 tonnes) and copper (30,000 tonnes) tonnage based on newly
acquired drill results averaging 0.80% nickel and 0.21% copper,
having an average total thickness of 20.1 metres per ore hole.
-- Additional expansion of the resource within a 500 metre long
segment remains to be verified by drilling. This block is
immediately west of the most recently completed holes which contain
the newly defined mineralisation. Additional mineralisation
identified within this undrilled area will further increase the KUB
MRE and will provide confirmation that the IKEN and KUB deposits
form one single large deposit approaching 4.5 kilometres in
length.
-- During the week of 20 August 2017, RPM Asia ("RPM") conducted
a site visit to review our 2017 drill programme. Having audited our
field procedures, available drill core and results, RPM agrees with
the Company's assessment that a substantial portion of the resource
at KUB may be upgraded to the Indicated category. In addition, RPM
concur that the IKEN and KUB deposits may represent parts of a
single larger deposit approaching 4.5 kilometres in length. RPM
acts as the Company's an independent geological and mining
consultant and is responsible for the .independent derivation of
resources and reserves.
The 2017 drill programme was planned for completion along a 5.5
kilometre long area located in the eastern area of the Kun-Manie
production licence which includes the IKEN and KUB deposits. Of
this length, approximately 4.0 kilometres of had not been drilled
until this year. The majority of the undrilled ground was located
along a combined geochemical and geophysical anomaly linking the
IKEN and KUB deposits. The remaining undrilled area was located to
the east of the KUB deposit at the eastern limit of the production
licence.
The intention of this year's drill programme was to drill needed
infill holes in key areas of the IKEN and KUB MRE's and then
progress onto a resource expansion phase focused on the 3.0
kilometre long geochemical and geophysical anomaly linking the IKEN
and KUB deposits. Resource expansion by step out drilling has been
implemented from each of the IKEN (in an eastward direction) and
KUB (in a westward direction) deposits. This approach has allowed
the Company to site holes along the anomaly and to identify the
presence of mineralisation based on nearby drill information. At
present, the Company has drilled all but 500 metres of the three
kilometre long target holes. This undrilled area remains to be
drill tested using our LF-90 rig operating out of the KUB base
camp, whilst the LF-70 is now focused on the completion of
additional holes adjacent holes completed earlier this year.
Operating out of the IKEN camp, along the two kilometre area where
a first phase of step out drilling has been completed from the IKEN
deposit.
Over the course of the drill season, the Company has provided
information and results within a series of Regulatory News Service
("RNS") announcements. Each announcement has been limited to
information considered to be related to IKEN or to KUB. This will
be the last announcement using the individual deposit format and
contains information related to the KUB deposit. Future RNS
announcements will provide a consolidated report of drill results
located along the three kilometre long exploration anomaly linking
IKEN and KUB. This is now appropriate as sufficient information
will be available along the majority of length of the IKEN deposit,
the three kilometre target and the KUB deposit. The remaining
drilling planned over the next weeks should provide information
allowing the Company to potentially confirm IKEN and KUB are parts
of a 4.5 kilometre long deposit similar to that of the Maly
Kurumkon / Flangovy ("MKF") deposit.
Robin Young, CEO of Amur Minerals, commented:
"It has been a highly successful drill season. We have
substantially expanded our resource at both Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky
and Kubuk with the identification of a new mineral extending each
deposit by an additional 500 metres. The 500 metre extensions could
result in a near doubling of the contained nickel metal within
these two deposits alone. And this does not include any currently
drill defined mineralisation located along two thirds of the target
within which we have intersected mineralisation. We anticipate a
substantial increase over our current global 100 million ore tonne
inventory reported within four deposits.
"Based on infill drill results, we can foresee nearly 90% of our
current Mineral Resource Inventory being classified as available to
inclusion as a part of the Mining Ore Reserve. Few companies,
including major mining companies, have 90% of their resource
classified as Measured and Indicated. We look forward to providing
the next drill update which should allow us to provide a
comprehensive picture of this newly emerging large deposit"
Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure
Certain information contained in this announcement would have
been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this
announcement.
Enquiries:
Company Nomad and Broker Public Relations
Amur Minerals S.P. Angel Corporate Yellow Jersey
Corp. Finance LLP PR
Robin Young Ewan Leggat Charles Goodwin
CEO Soltan Tagiev Harriet Jackson
Dominic Barretto
+44(0)7544
+7(4212)755615 +44(0)2034 700 470 275 882
For additional information, visit the Company's website,
www.amurminerals.com.
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to
view the associated PDF document and audio file.
http://amurminerals.com/content/wp-content/uploads/Drill-Results-14-Sep-2017-Kubuk.pdf
http://amurminerals.com/content/wp-content/uploads/Kubuk-audio-14-Sep-2017.mp3
Notes to Editors
The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed
and approved by the CEO of Amur, Mr. Robin Young. Mr. Young is a
Geological Engineer (cum laude), a Professional Geologist licensed
by the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing,
and is a Qualified Professional Geologist, as defined by the
Toronto and Vancouver Stock Exchanges. An employee of Amur for 13
years, previously Mr. Young was employed as an exploration and mine
geologist, mining engineer, construction manager of a mine startup
as well as independent consultant with Fluor Engineers, Fluor
Australia and Western Services Engineering, Inc. during which time
his responsibilities included the independent compilation of
resources and reserves in accordance with JORC standards. In
addition, he has been the lead engineer and project manager in the
compilation of numerous studies and projects requiring the
compilation of independent Bankable Studies utilised to finance
small to large scale projects located worldwide. Mr. Young is
responsible for the content of this announcement which includes
results reported by RPM Asia Limited ("RPM").
For further information, see the Company website at
www.amurminerals.com.
2017 Drill Programme Overview
The planned 20 week 2017 drill programme was budgeted for 20,000
metres of drilling within and adjacent to the deposits of IKEN and
KUB. Budgeted drill metres had been allocated for infill (resource
conversion - 2,000 drill metres), step out (resource expansion -
14,500 drill metres) drilling of two targets and the acquisition of
additional sample (3,500 drill metres) for metallurgical test work.
Drilling was planned to be completed using both company owned drill
rigs (Boart Longyear LF-90 and LF-70) with a projected combined
average of 1,000 metres per week. For the most efficient use of the
rigs over the course of the season, the LF-90 was scheduled to
drill the KUB area while the LF-70 would drill in the IKEN
area.
As of 31 August 2017, higher than planned drill rates and an
early start to drilling (3 weeks ahead of schedule) allowed the
Company to surpass the planned 20,000 metre drill budget a full
eight weeks ahead of schedule. At that time and having completed
20,006 metres, the Company had finished the planned infill drill
portion (2,154 drilled metres) of the 2017 programme at both IKEN
and KUB. Resource expansion was also well advanced having completed
17,806 metres (3,306 metres more than originally planned) within
the two resource expansion targets scheduled for drilling. Drilling
for metallurgical sample collection had not yet been
implemented.
Given the available remaining drill season of as much as eight
weeks, the Company will continue drilling until the end of October,
weather permitting. Extension of the drill programme could allow
Amur to complete up to an additional 10,000 metres thereby taking
the 2017 drill programme total drill meterage up to 30,000
metres.
Being well ahead of schedule and during the first week of
September, the Company reprioritised the remainder of the 2017
drill season. As the Company can utilise available half core to
conduct a substantial portion of the metallurgical test work from
completed holes, remaining drilling will be focused on resource
expansion within the large three kilometre long geochemical and
geophysical anomaly located between IKEN and KUB.
Summary of the KUB 2017 Drill Programme
The LF-90 rig has been drilling the 3,000 metre long KUB area.
Divided into three near equal length segments of approximately
1,000 metres each, infill drilling has been completed within the
central section where the May 2017 MRE has been defined. Drilling
for resource expansion within the two straddling and immediately
adjacent 1,000 metre long resource expansion segments has been
completed (within the eastern segment) and is well advanced in the
far more prospective western segment. KUB drilling as of 8
September has accomplished the following:
-- Infill drilling of Inferred resource located within the
central area has been completed. Drill results are mutually
supportive of the previously existing drill results with regard to
mineralised thicknesses and grades. This infill effort should
result in the conversion of existing (May 2017) Inferred resource
to that of Indicated.
-- With regard to resource expansion by step out drilling, the
most significant resource expansion target is located to the west
of the KUB MRE. This 1,000 metre long segment is the easternmost
third of the 3,000 metre long continuous exploration based anomaly
connecting the IKEN and KUB deposits. A total of 14 holes have
intersected mineralisation within the drilled portion this block,
of which approximately 50% (500 metres) of the length has been
drilled. Averaging approximately 20.1 metres of mineralisation per
hole (0.80% nickel and 0.21% copper) results confirm that economic
grades and thicknesses are similar to drill results defined and
used in the generation of the KUB MRE. This confirms MRE updates
for KUB will likely increase.
-- An area referred to as the Eastern Target lies immediately to
the east of the KUB deposit. Here, geochemical sampling,
geophysical surveys and trenching indicated the area potentially
contained mineralisation eastward from the KUB MRE. This is the
easternmost target is located within the production licence limits.
Limited wide spaced drilling (10 holes containing a total of 1,560
metres) has identified the presence of thin and low grade
sub-economic mineralisation and the Company no longer considers
this area to be an area to be of substantial interest or high
exploration priority at current nickel and copper pricing.
The distribution and summary of the KUB area drill results
through 8 September is summarised below:
Area Average Average Ni Cu
Thickness Thickness (%) (%)
Per Interval Per Ore
(m) Hole (m)
------------------ -------------- ----------- ----- -----
Infill Drill Results - Resource Conversion
-------------------------------------------------------------
2017 Results 17.2 22.1 0.81 0.27
------------------ -------------- ----------- ----- -----
Step Out Drilling - Resource Expansion
-------------------------------------------------------------
West Area Toward
IKEN 10.8 20.1 0.80 0.21
------------------ -------------- ----------- ----- -----
Eastern Target Sub-Economic Mineralisation
------------------ -----------------------------------------
KUB 2017 Drill Result Impact on the May 2017 MRE
The current MRE (May 2017) is presented in the following
table.
Resource Ore Ni Cu Co Pt Pd
Classification Mt % % % g/t g/t
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
Measured
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
Indicated 3.6 0.87 0.21 0.016 0.18 0.19
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
M+I 3.6 0.87 0.21 0.16 0.18 0.20
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
Inferred 10.9 0.74 0.20 0.015 0.16 0.14
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
KUB TOTAL 14.5 0.77 0.20 0.016 0.16 0.15
----------------- ----- ----- ----- ------ ----- -----
The 2017 KUB drill programme has the potential to impact this
MRE by:
Upgrading all or a substantial portion of the Inferred resource
to that of Indicated based on the infill drill results confirming
the continuity of the mineralisation and its contained grades.
Indicated resource can be utilised in Mining Ore Reserve ("MOR")
definition.
Step out drilling to the west has increased the limits of the
resource potential by a length of 50% to a total length of 1,500
metres. The May 2017 resource was defined to have a maximum length
in the order of 1,000 metres.
Step out drilling thus far has been completed on a spacing which
has been used to define Indicated resource. The newly defined
mineralisation may add significantly to the Indicated resource
category.
Drilling continues at the IKEN deposit progressing eastward
toward the KUB deposit. Results from the IKEN drill programme are
reported in separate RNS releases.
Glossary
DEFINITIONS OF EXPLORATION RESULTS, RESOURCES & RESERVES
EXTRACTED FROM THE JORC CODE: (December 2012) (www.jorc.org)
A 'Mineral Resource' is a concentration or occurrence of
material of intrinsic economic interest in or on the Earth's crust
in such form, quality and quantity that there are reasonable
prospects for eventual economic extraction. The location, quantity,
grade, geological characteristics and continuity of a Mineral
Resource are known, estimated or interpreted from specific
geological evidence and knowledge. Mineral Resources are
sub-divided, in order of increasing geological confidence, into
Inferred, Indicated and Measured categories.
An 'Inferred Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral
Resource for which tonnage, grade and mineral content can be
estimated with a low level of confidence. It is inferred from
geological evidence and assumed but not verified geological and/or
grade continuity. It is based on information gathered through
appropriate techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches,
pits, workings and drill holes which may be limited or of uncertain
quality and reliability.
An 'Indicated Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral
Resource for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical
characteristics, grade and mineral content can be estimated with a
reasonable level of confidence. It is based on exploration,
sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate
techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits,
workings and drill holes. The locations are too widely or
inappropriately spaced to confirm geological and/or grade
continuity but are spaced closely enough for continuity to be
assumed.
A 'Measured Mineral Resource' is that part of a Mineral Resource
for which tonnage, densities, shape, physical characteristics,
grade and mineral content can be estimated with a high level of
confidence. It is based on detailed and reliable exploration,
sampling and testing information gathered through appropriate
techniques from locations such as outcrops, trenches, pits,
workings and drill holes. The locations are spaced closely enough
to confirm geological and/or grade continuity.
An 'Ore Reserve' is the economically mineable part of a Measured
and/or Indicated Mineral Resource. It includes diluting materials
and allowances for losses, which may occur when the material is
mined. Appropriate assessments and studies have been carried out,
and include consideration of and modification by realistically
assumed mining, metallurgical, economic, marketing, legal,
environmental, social and governmental factors. These assessments
demonstrate at the time of reporting that extraction could
reasonably be justified. Ore Reserves are sub-divided in order of
increasing confidence into Probable Ore Reserves and Proved Ore
Reserves.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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