NEWS RELEASE TRANSMITTED BY CANADIAN CORPORATE NEWS
FOR: ARANLEE RESOURCES LTD.
VSE SYMBOL: ARB
FEBRUARY 5, 1997
Aranlee Acquires Major Land Position in Kazakstan
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA--Aranlee Resources Ltd. ("Aranlee") is pleased
to announce the acquisition of a large land position in a highly
prospective precious/base metal district in central Kazakstan.
Aranlee has executed a Letter of Intent with Kazakhstan Minerals
Corporation ("KazMinCo") to acquire 100 percent of KazMinCo's
interest in the Kazakstan registered Closed Joint Stock Company
Agadir ("Agadir"). KazMinCo, through its wholly owned subsidiary
Almaty Exploration Limited, owns a 67 percent interest in Agadir
with the remaining 33 percent interest being held by the Kazakstan
partner Limited Liability Partnership Temenai ("Temenai").
Aranlee has a first right of refusal to acquire this remaining 33
percent interest. The assets of Agadir consist of 10 mineral
properties totaling approximately 9,700 sq km within the AGADYR
EXPLORATION LICENSE and a pending application for the
approximately 2,000 sq km BALKHASH EXPLORATION LICENSE.
LETTER OF INTENT
Under the terms of the Letter of Intent signed with KazMinCo and
subject to completion of due diligence and regulatory approvals,
Aranlee will make the following cash payments: US $350,000 upon
signing a formal agreement, US $175,000 within 90 days and US
$175,000 within 180 days of signing a formal agreement and will
also issue 2.0 million common shares of Aranlee. An additional
200,000 common shares of Aranlee are due upon the issuance of the
Balkhash Exploration License to Agadir, at which time Aranlee will
also reimburse KazMinCo for exploration expenses on the Balkhash
License. In addition, a payment of US $5.00 per mineable,
metallurgically recoverable, proven and probable ounces of gold
(or gold equivalent) will be due to KazMinCo as identified in a
bankable final feasibility study to be generated on the first
deposit located in each of the individual properties (see attached
map).
LICENSE AREAS
The two Licenses containing the properties are in central
Kazakstan and are located approximately 600 km northwest of
Almaty, the capital city. The infrastructure is excellent, with a
main highway, rail line and high voltage power lines from Almaty
to the regional center of Karaganda crossing both Licenses. The
topography is mostly flat or gently rolling with easy vehicular
assess to most of the region.
The properties cover large and highly prospective areas for gold,
silver, copper and other base metals and have the potential for
discovery of world class deposits, as demonstrated by the large
Miedniy Kounrad porphyry copper deposit located just outside of
the Balkhash License (see attached map). This mine opened in 1934
and reported production to date is over 450 million tonnes with an
average recovered grade of 0.60 percent copper. Both Licenses
have been explored intermittently by previous government
geological expeditions over the last 50 years; "Western style"
exploration techniques, geological models and concepts, however,
were not applied and until recently exploration for gold was
mostly ignored.
All of the properties report widespread gold and copper
occurrences within large zones of alteration and the mineralized
trends are extensive (for example, the Kiikbai-Saidal trend is 9
km long by 3 km wide and the Zhangeldy trend is 10 km long). Gold
values from surface sampling are commonly in excess of 0.5 g/t and
range up to 10.0 g/t with copper values locally up to 1.0 percent.
A large scale porphyry copper/gold system has been recognized on
the Zhekeduan property located in the south east portion of the
Agadyr License. To date only shallow scout drilling together with
geochemical and geophysical surveys have been carried out by the
previous government geological expeditions - Aranlee is planning
an aggressive exploration program over this target.
A MORE DETAILED NEWS RELEASE ON THE INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES IS BEING
PREPARED AND WILL BE RELEASED SHORTLY.
In addition to Aranlee's properties in Kazakstan, the Company
holds an option to acquire a 100 percent interest in 11 properties
in Argentina and has a 50 percent interest in 1,565 claims over 17
properties in the Voisey's Bay region of Labrador, Canada. The
Company has 16.4 million shares issued and 18.3 million on a fully
diluted basis.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
Stephen J. Kay, Vice President and CFO
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