TIDMAMC
RNS Number : 5216G
Amur Minerals Corporation
25 November 2020
25 November 2020
AMUR MINERALS CORPORATION
(AIM: AMC)
November 2020 Kun-Manie TEO Progress Report
Amur Minerals Corporation ("Amur" or the "Company") is pleased
to provide an update on the progress of the compilation of its TEO
for its far east Russian Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project.
A TEO is a mandatory Russian feasibility study addressing the
physical and operating project considerations paving the way for
registration of the project's mineral reserve by the State
Committee on Reserves ("GKZ"). Reserve registration is a necessary
milestone for a company to undertake detailed engineering,
procurement and construction ("EPC") designs suited for compilation
of a Bankable Feasibility Study ("BFS"), also referred to as a
Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS").
Per the terms and conditions of the mining licence, the TEO is
due for submission to Russian authorities on 1 December 2020. Since
March 30, the numerous companies involved in compilation of the TEO
have been working remotely from their offices due to the COVID 19
pandemic. In addition, the recent surge in infections throughout
Russia has impacted our schedule. On a precautionary basis and in
October the Company applied for an extension of the delivery with
Amurnedra who delivered the necessary documentation to Rosnedra in
Moscow.
Currently, work continues to advance the final sections of the
report, being the completion of the economic and financial
valuation. This includes finalisation of the capital and operating
expenditures related to the project and development of a cash flow
model with estimated revenues, capital and operating expenditures,
taxes, depreciation and sustaining capital expenditures. Some work
remains on the environmental response action plan.
Once complete, the final draft of the report will be submitted
to the Company for review and finalisation. However, due to remote
nature of the compilation of this report, the extensive amount of
required hard copy documentation is progressing, though not as
rapid as originally scheduled and is now expected to be completed
in Q1 21 .
Robin Young, CEO of Amur Minerals Corporation, commented :
"Completion of the Russian required TEO is a major milestone for
any company. This foundation document defines the criteria from
which reserves are defined and then registered. This registration
process establishes procedural pathways going forward and what
specific tasks are necessary to derive detailed engineering works
for the comprehensive mine site and support facilities ultimately
leading to a Bankable Feasibility Study.
"Completion of the final sections consisting of the financial
analysis of the project and operational plan is anticipated to be
Q1 2021 as the generation of the voluminous hard copy documentation
is a time intensive task requiring substantial office
commitments."
Given the delay, Amur takes this opportunity to provide a
significant review of the progress to date. The Company recommends
the following text be read in conjunction with the graphic
materials provided in the link at the end of this document.
TEO Highlights:
-- Oreall, the certified and lead company responsible for
compilation of the TEO has compiled an estimate of the tonnage and
contained metals using all drill data and the regulatory
requirements based on the Russian estimation requirement. Grade
estimates for nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold and
silver have been generated. This is the first time gold and silver
have been estimated.
-- Russian estimation is more conservative than those defined
using JORC standards. Estimates of mineralisation are more highly
constrained and seldom is mineralisation projected beyond a drill
hole, hence Inferred resources are rarely estimated. To be
estimated, it should be mineable with a minimum of mineralisation
falling external the mine plans. The Russian reserve estimate is
roughly correlative to Measured and Indicated JORC resources.
-- The Kun-Manie Measured and Indicated JORC resource has been
increased from 118.2 million combined tonnes at 0.73% nickel and
0.20% copper to the newly defined Russian total of 150.6 million
tonnes at 0.81% nickel (1,215,081 t) and 0.22% copper (328,529 t).
This comparison using a nickel cutoff grade of 0.4% confirms the
presence of a significant increase in the mineralisation drilled on
a maximum spacing of approximately 100 meters. It is noted that the
above information excludes all mining considerations. (Pages 2 and
3 of the Summary Pack provide detailed results depicting the
location of the orebodies and the inventory.)
-- RPM Global is presently compiling an updated JORC estimate for Kun-Manie.
-- Russian generated estimates of the mineralisation have been
calculated at nickel only cutoff grades of 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%,
0.6% and 0.8% (Page 4).
Cutoff Total Content, Content, g/t Reserves, t Reserves, kg
Grade Reserve %
Ni% Balance,
t
Ni Cu Co S Au Ag Pt Pd Ni Cu Co S Au Ag Pt Pd
---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.1 323,106,429 0.50 0.15 0.011 1.13 0.05 0.76 0.12 0.13 1,614,441 476,217 35,862 3,654,728 14,756 244,815 38,566 41,880
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.2 215,726,620 0.67 0.19 0.014 1.47 0.05 0.95 0.15 0.15 1,445,430 405,707 30,068 3,177,608 11,303 205,076 31,287 32,483
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.3 176,311,355 0.75 0.21 0.015 1.63 0.06 1.01 0.15 0.16 1,324,006 365,029 26,721 2,872,912 10,036 178,695 26,629 28,577
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.4 150,635,712 0.81 0.22 0.016 1.73 0.06 1.07 0.18 0.19 1,215,081 328,529 24,431 2,609,801 9,559 161,413 26,372 28,646
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.6 104,375,020 0.93 0.24 0.018 1.98 0.06 1.23 0.16 0.18 970,760 249,273 19,274 2,063,726 6,146 128,340 17,003 18,230
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
0.8 60,052,663 1.05 0.26 0.02 2.22 0.06 1.30 0.16 0.18 629,243 155,020 12,121 1,336,080 3,641 77,360 10,020 11,007
----------- ---- ---- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- --------- ------- ------ --------- ------ ------- ------ ------
-- Gipronickel has completed extensive metallurgical test work
on a 10 tonne bulk sample. A plant flow sheet (Page 5) enabling the
recovery of two concentrates has been identified. Two saleable
products can be generated and include a nickel concentrate and a
separate copper concentrate.
-- An equipment list of the key components has been identified
based on various and multiple metallurgical tests. (Page 6)
-- Using the 10 tonne bulk sample containing 0.81% nickel (2019
PFS projected mining grade of 0.73%) and 0.21% copper (2019 PFS
mining grade of 0.19%), various processing approaches were examined
to optimise the recovery of nickel and copper into each of the
individual concentrate streams. Firstly, a sulphide concentrate is
generated capturing as much of the sulphide mineralisation as
possible. About 8.8% of the mill feed reports to the intermediate
concentrate. The average nickel content is 7.28% with copper being
2.02%. (Page 7)
-- A series of test runs on the intermediate sulphide
concentrate successfully established the composition of the two
concentrates. This included detailed analyses identifying the
economic minerals (revenue source) and deleterious components
(penalty fess). (Page 7)
-- Non-binding offtake terms and conditions provided by a
confidential metal's trader confirmed payable levels of metal in
the nickel concentrate consisted of nickel and minor amounts of
platinum and palladium. Penalty fees are related to the MgO content
totaling $37.50 per concentrate tonne. This is $12.10 per
concentrate tonne less than utilised in the 2019 PFS. It is also
noted specific reagents have improved the nickel grade within the
concentrate from the PFS level of 9.7% nickel to that of 10.37%.
Also, the annual tonnes of nickel concentrate have increased to
27,124 tonnes from the PFS 24,306 tonnes per annum. More tonnes of
nickel concentrate at a high contained nickel grade should
positively impact future financial projections. (Page 8)
-- The non-binding terms as related to the copper concentrate
indicate copper to be the primary source of revenue with minor
amounts of palladium and gold contributing limited revenue.
Deleterious components include payments for the limited nickel
($7.00 per tonne of concentrate), Al(2) O(3) at $2.00 per tonne of
concentrate, MgO at $4.00 per tonne of concentrate, and silica at
$4.05 per tonne of concentrate. The penalty fees attributable to
the copper concentrate therefore total $17.05 per tonne. (Page
8)
-- The ability to generate a copper concentrate creates a
substantial and new source of revenue. The PFS assumed no recovered
copper based on the then non-binding offtake terms available. Using
the Gipronickel flowsheet and metallurgical test work results, it
is projected that annually about 6,704 tonnes of payable copper
would be recovered from 30,000 tonnes of concentrate. (Page 8)
-- Only open pit mine production has been considered (compared
to the PFS which considered an open pit and underground mining
scenario). Using geotechnical and hydrological studies and average
overall pit slope angles of approximately 45 degrees (earlier
steeper slopes of 55 degrees had been defined by SRK), three
significant open pit locations have been identified to be present
within the mining licence boundary limits. These include the pits
of Maly Kurumkon and Vodorazdelny previously identified in the 2019
PFS. The new larger open pit includes the former pits of Ikenskoe /
Sobolevsky and Kubuk as well as the previously unmineralised area
between the formerly identified pits. (Page 9)
-- Ultimate pit designs at four cutoff grades have been
generated for each of the three pits. Waste and ore volumes are
estimated for each and include the estimation of nickel, copper,
cobalt, platinum, palladium, gold and silver. Reserve tonnages
indicate a potential mine life ranging from a minimum of 24 years
to a maximum of 41 years based on 6.0 mtpa nominal capacity. (Pages
10 through 12)
-- Using the 0.4% nickel cutoff grade, a total of 120.3 million
of the 150.6 million total mineralised tonnes falls with the pit
shell considerations. This compares to approximately 90 million ore
tonnes mined in the PFS. The total waste that needs to be mined to
recover the 120.3 million ore tonnes is approximately 750.9 million
cubic meters. As nickel and copper are the only two significant
sources of revenues, the total tonnages of nickel and copper to be
delivered to the mill for treatment are 1.12 million nickel tonnes
and 307.5 thousand tonnes of copper. As the PGM and precious metals
provide limited revenue based on the current non-binding offtake
terms, these are presently excluded.
-- The mine site layout is similar to that of the PFS site
layout with the addition of mine waste dumps also being identified
in the drawing. Note, the mining licence delineates the specific
area from within which ore and waste can be extracted. All other
mining activities can be located external the boundary. (Page
13)
-- The TEO is the independently compiled source document from
which presents the series of analyses. The document is reviewed by
industry experts ultimately leading to the selection of a cutoff
grade and the registration of the reserve inventory by GKZ. This
foundation document sets specific criteria upon which the project
is designed and the allocation of resources by the Russian
Federation for support of infrastructure development.
A document outlining updates on the TEO can be accessed here:
https://amurminerals.com/content/wp-content/uploads/20201125-TEO-Update.pdf
Qualified Persons
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 and a qualified person as
defined by the AIM Rules for Companies. An employee of Amur for 15
years, previously Mr. Young was employed as an 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 was the lead
engineer and participant 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.
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 Corp. S.P. Angel Corporate Blytheweigh
Finance LLP
Robin Young CEO Richard Morrison Megan Ray
Adam Cowl Tim Blythe
+44 (0) 20 3470
+7 (4212) 75 56 15 0470 +44 (0) 20 7138 3204
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