More positive mining news out of Kazakhstan:
Kazakhstan Minerals Corp - News Release
Samarskoye preliminary resource estimate
Kazakhstan Minerals Corp
KMC.U
Shares issued 24401981
1997-05-16 close $1.6
Tuesday May 20 1997
News Release
Mr Bert Kennedy reports
The company has completed the prefeasibility diamond drilling
program totalling 27,000m on the Samarskoye copper-gold
porphyry deposit in central Kazakhstan. Based on the results of this
program, which has a drill spacing of between 60 and 80 metres, a
preliminary resource estimate within a 0.5% copper cut-off
envelope, has been performed by Mineral Resources Development
Inc. (MRDI) of San Mateo, California. The present combined
preliminary resource for the west and east mineralized bodies at a
0.4% copper cut-off totals 197 million tonnes at 0.84% copper and
0.33g/t gold containing 3.63 billion pounds of copper and 2.09
million ounces of gold. An inverse distance squared calculation
method was used for the estimate, using a lateral search distance of
75m. As previously reported, the western body contains a high
grade core of copper gold mineralization where intercepts of 324m
at 3.04% copper, 0.88g/t gold (including 103m at 4.98% copper
and 1.32g/t gold) - drill hole SAM 108, and 195m at 2.2% copper,
0.63g/t gold - drill hole SAM 1 09, have been obtained.
A preliminary scoping study has been completed by MRDI in order
to determine the relative profitability of underground and open pit
mining scenarios. The study identified an initial open-pit containing
approximately 90 million tonnes that could support an economically
viable operation at a production rate of between 20,000 and 30,000
tonnes of ore per day.
Attractive commercial terms have recently been agreed with the
government of Kazakhstan for the development of the deposit over a
20-year period, which is extendable to 25 years. These include the
right to refine overseas and export product; net smelter royalties are
set at 1.0% for copper and 1.2% for gold; waiver of duty and import
tariffs for the life of the project and the flying of mineral resource
taxes at reasonable levels. To mark this agreement and the approval
of the deposit reserves outlined to date by the State Committee for
Reserves, Samarskoye has been renamed the Nurkazgan deposit;
KazMinCo holds an 88.5% interest in the deposit.
It is planned to complete the prefeasibility study for the copper gold
deposit by the third quarter of 1997 and to commence infill drilling
for final feasibility at that time. The study will place emphasis on
optimization studies for such items as geotechnical engineering to
reduce the waste ore ratio; wall rocks at Nurkazgan are strong and
may support steeper pit slope angles than those used in the
preliminary scoping study which generated a waste to ore ratio of
7.5:1. Further metallurgical testwork will be performed to confirm the
excellent copper and gold recoveries obtained from preliminary
testwork as well as examining factors that may reduce project
capital costs. The excellent infrastructure of the site, in terms of
proximity to grid power, roads, water, railroad, population centres,
cement plant and steelworks, will have a strong positive impact on
project economics. <cut off here> |
