Ore reserves for phase one mine at Baley gold project in Siberia
Armada Gold Corp AAU
Shares issued 79,252,868 Oct 10 close $0.67
Tue 14 Oct 97 News Release
Mr Derek Fisher reports
The ore reserves for the Taseevskoe gold deposit that have been established
by a newly completed engineering study of what will become the first phase
of mining at Armada's Baley gold project in eastern Russia.
The study by Snowden Associates of Perth, Australia, demonstrates that ore
can be economically mined from Taseevskoe using an open pit and, as a
result, it has reclassified that portion of the resource within the
designed pit as reserves.
Snowden's design for a phase one open pit encompasses 2.9 million oz of the
five million oz of gold contained within the previously published
Taseevskoe resource. The balance of the gold resource will be targeted by
future mine expansion and the company is confident that much of it will be
converted to reserves at that time.
This reserve provides the basis for the bankable feasibility study nearing
completion by Kvaerner Metals of Toronto.
Using a calculation cut-off of 0.88 g/t of gold, Snowden estimates that
reserves in the initial pit proposed for the Taseevskoe deposit are as
follows:
Taseevskoe Ore Reserves
Tonnes Gold
(g/t)
Proven ore 9,200,000 5.21
Probable ore 19,000,000 2.26
----------- -----
Total 28,200,000 3.22
The proposed mine pit also includes an inferred resource of an additional
3.6 million tonnes, grading 3.66 g/t gold.
Both the new reserve estimation, and a resource estimation announced last
June, were prepared for Armada Gold by Snowden in accordance with the
stringent standards of the Australasian Code. For ore to be classified as
reserves, i.e. proven and/or probable, the code requires that an
independent body demonstrate that the geological information meets the
requirements of the resource classifications of measured and indicated. In
addition, mine studies must show that the ore is economically recoverable.
Snowden's two studies satisfy these tests.
Kvaerner's feasibility study will be received in a few weeks. It will be
the next major step in Armada's definition of what is already a viable
project which is supported by protocols signed with the local government
administration and by production sharing agreements that are now under
discussion with the Russian federal government.
Armada is also in the latter stages of investigating other nearby gold
deposits that may be used to augment phase one production from Taseevskoe.
The company is confident that the first of these deposits can be combined
with future Taseevskoe production and processed through the planned
Taseevskoe mill.
Armada Gold holds an 85% interest in Balgold, the joint venture company
developing the Baley gold project in southeastern Siberia. Armada also has
a 49% interest in the Erdmin joint venture in Mongolia, which is producing
10 tonnes of copper cathode a day from a demonstration plant and is
studying the feasibility of an expansion to 60 tonnes a day. As announced
in Stockwatch September 30 1997, the company has engaged Levesque Beaubien
Geoffrion as its financial adviser. Levesque will assist the company in
analyzing and structuring these various strategic and financial
alternatives which are designed to maximize shareholder value.
(c) Copyright 1997 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com |
