11 March 2024
East Star Resources
Plc
("East Star" or the
"Company")
Verkhuba Copper Deposit
Update
Increased confidence in
historical data and development potential - Mineral Resource
Estimate commissioned
East Star Resources Plc (LSE:EST),
the Kazakhstan focused copper exploration and resource
development company, is pleased to provide an update
regarding resource modelling of the Verkhuba copper deposit on the
Rudny Altai Volcanic Massive Sulphide ("VMS") belt, Kazakhstan,
following extensive fieldwork (including drilling) in
2023.
Updated Resource Modelling
East Star has updated its resource
model for the Verkhuba copper deposit using more accurate data
derived from 12 months of detailed fieldwork, which included
geological mapping, a Light Detection and Ranging ("LIDAR")
topographical survey, and drilling. The results of the remodelling
have provided the Company with a higher degree of confidence in the
historical data and the development potential of the deposit. As
such, and in discussion with the Company's independent experts,
AMC Consultants ("AMC"), East Star has instructed AMC
to undertake the work required to produce a maiden JORC Inferred
resource. This work is expected to take around one month and will
be ready prior to the commencement of the 2024 field
season.
Alex Walker,
East Star CEO, commented:
"Detailed
work by our technical team, in conjunction with AMC, over the last
12 months has culminated in East Star being on the brink of
delivering its maiden JORC Inferred resource for Verkhuba. We
believe Verkhuba is an attractive copper deposit due to its initial
open pit potential and proximity to existing processing
infrastructure in the region, which could enable us to get into
production quickly and with a much lower capital requirement.
Drilling in the upcoming season will focus on further resource
definition to convert the open pit area to JORC Indicated status as
well as further testing the continuity of the underground ore
bodies to assess development potential. We expect this to precede
either a scoping study or a pre-feasibility study to demonstrate
the low-cost development potential of the Verkhuba
deposit.
In addition
to progressing with Verkhuba, East Star intends to drill several
other VMS targets in the Rudny Altai licences, which have been
progressively refined from the initial 48 targets defined by the
Heliborne-Electro Magnetic Survey conducted in 2022. Coupled with
our new copper porphyry exploration strategy and the recently
announced sediment-hosted exploration strategy with Getech, East
Star is well poised to deliver discoveries and shareholder returns
at a time when the global economy is beginning to run critically
short of copper supply."
East Star
Resources Plc
Alex Walker, Chief Executive
Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234 (via Vigo
Consulting)
SI
Capital (Corporate Broker)
Nick Emerson
Tel: +44 (0)1483 413 500
Peterhouse Capital Limited (Corporate
Broker)
Peter Greensmith
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0930
Vigo Consulting (Investor Relations)
Ben Simons / Peter Jacob
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234
About East
Star Resources Plc
East Star Resources is focused on the discovery
and development of strategic minerals required for the energy
revolution. With eight licences covering 1,190.3 km² in three
mineral rich districts of Kazakhstan, East Star is undertaking
an intensive exploration programme, applying modern geophysics to
discover minerals in levels that were not previously explored. East
Star's most advanced project is a copper deposit on the world-class
Rudny Altai VMS Belt where the Company is working towards the
delivery of a JORC compliant open pit copper resource close to
infrastructure, within trucking distance of third-party mills with
excess capacity. East Star's management are based permanently on
the ground, supported by local expertise, a joint venture with the
state mining company on certain projects, and grant funding from
BHP through the BHP Xplor programme for copper porphyry
exploration.
Visit our
website:
www.eaststarplc.com
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The person who
arranged for the release of this announcement was Alex Walker, CEO
of the Company.
This announcement contains inside information for the
purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 2014/596/EU which is part of
domestic UK law pursuant to the Market Abuse (Amendment)
(EU Exit) Regulations (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR"). Upon the
publication of this announcement, this inside information (as
defined in UK MAR) is now considered to be in the public
domain.