Hambledon Mining PLC
18 November 2004
HAMBLEDON MINING PLC
('Hambledon')
Grant of Exploration and Mining Rights
Hambledon's wholly owned subsidiary TOO Sekisovskoye ('the Company') has been
notified that it has won the tender for the exploration and mining rights to the
area known as Tserkovka and surrounding territory, amounting to some 29 square
kilometres. The Company is now required to enter into a Subsoil Use Contract
based on the tendered terms, which includes a commitment to spend US $335,000 on
exploration over the first three years.
The territory is immediately adjacent to the Company's existing deposit,
Sekisovskoye, and contains four known mineralised deposits named Tserkovka,
Feodulikha, and two areas designated only as Area 4 and Area 5. All these areas
are ostensibly similar to the Sekisovskoye deposit, indicating that any ore from
them is likely to be free-milling and treatable in the same plant as
Sekisovskoye. Each of the deposits lies close to the main road between Ust
Kamenogorsk and Ridder, so infrastructure requirements for any future
development should be relatively low.
The Company has so far had very limited access to data on the new area. Only
highly summarised data have been obtained. The detailed data were classified as
secret in Soviet times and the process of declassification is ongoing. The
Company has taken steps to create an appropriate department which will be
authorised to obtain secret data and expects to be able to do so shortly,
greatly reducing the time it would take to receive declassified documents.
At Tserkovka itself, nine mineralised bodies have been revealed by
mapping-drilling, trenching, pitting and underground exploration from over a
kilometre of underground tunnels. At the conclusion of initial exploration in
1980 the gold reserves/resources amounted to:
Category C2: 4.5 tonnes (145,000 ounces)
Prognosticated category P1: 7.5 tonnes (241,000 ounces)
Total: 12 tonnes C2+P1 (386,000 ounces)
No information on the grades of the gold has been obtained but exploration work
carried out at Tserkovka in 1980-1982, aimed at the estimation of the content of
just two of the mineralised bodies to a depth of 60m, revealed 131 kilogrammes
in category C2 at an average gold grade of 5.6 grammes per tonne.
The average dimensions of the mineralised zones were 200m strike x 80m width
and, for mineralised bodies, were 100m strike x 3m width. Since the exploration
was carried out on a grid of 400m x 100m through a soil layer of many metres,
the fact that these zones were detected suggests that the area is highly
prospective. The directors consider that further drilling is likely to increase
the resource significantly.
Within the other three sites, only limited drilling so far appears to have been
carried out. Nevertheless, the results were sufficient for Soviet geologists to
estimate P1 resources of 10-12 tonnes of gold (322,000 - 386,000 ounces).
When the remaining information on the deposits is received, Hambledon will
produce an overall update of the combined resources.
The directors consider that this extension is potentially far more significant
than is apparent from the resources stated above. Since there has been only a
limited amount of exploration, on a widely spaced grid, there is good potential
for more significant discoveries. Furthermore, favourable zones of breccia that
also host the Sekisovskoye and Tserkovka deposits are thought by both former
Soviet and the Company's geologists to subcrop between the two deposits.
Therefore, the potential for more discoveries along this five kilometre strike
distance appears to be high.
About Hambledon Mining plc
Hambledon Mining Plc was formed in 1997 to acquire mining rights and develop
precious metal deposits in Kazakhstan. Currently, it holds the rights to the
Sekisovskoye gold and silver deposit in the Altai region of East Kazakhstan.
Estimated resources at Sekisovskoye total one million ounces of gold classified
according to the western (JORC) basis plus a further 1.1 million ounces in the
former Soviet prognosticated (P1) category.
In June 2004, Hambledon Mining raised 2.5 million and was listed on AIM,
enabling the Company to carry out a feasibility study at Sekisovskoye which is
ongoing.
Enquiries:
Nicholas Bridgen, Chief Executive of Hambledon
Telephone: +7 300 7338915
Seymour Pierce Limited
Jonathan Guy (Analyst)
Ewan Leggat (Corporate Finance)
Telephone: +44 20 7107 8000
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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