Exploration Season Commences
Amur Minerals Corporation
04 May 2006
4 May 2006
Amur Minerals Corporation
(AIM: AMC)
Commencement of Exploration Field Season at Kun-Manie
Amur Minerals Corporation ('Amur' or 'the Company'), the AIM-listed nickel
copper exploration company with assets in far east Russia, announces that it
will begin its 2006 exploration programme on its Kun-Manie nickel project
located in the Amur Province within the next two weeks. This year's programme
has been reviewed and approved by management.
All materials and supplies necessary to complete this year's programme are now
on site. The winterised equipment has been re-commissioned, inspected and
preventative maintenance has been completed on the diamond drill core rig, the
all terrain vehicles and the bull dozers. The current site crew is continuing
preparation of the camp facilities for the upcoming season.
This programme will include ground geophysics, approximately 4,000 metres of
drilling, 600 linear metres of trenching, geochemical sampling and geological
mapping within the main geological structure identified as the Krumkon Trend.
As stated in the Competent Person's Report by SRK Consulting, which was included
in Amur's Admission Document ('SRK Report'), this 40 kilometre long trend hosts
more than 100 flat lying websterite sills which are the primary hosts of the
nickel and copper mineralisation. The sills range in thickness from one metre
to more than 40 metres in thickness.
During the last two years, three areas have been explored by diamond core
drilling and are located within a five kilometre long segment of the trend. The
deposits are identified as Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon. Based on the 2004
and 2005 diamond core drill programmes and the associated analytical results,
the SRK Report estimated that the resource within Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe
contains 209,000 tonnes of nickel and 58,500 tonnes of copper.
Past exploration has also identified three additional drill targets along the
strike of the trend to both the east and west. These represent areas requiring
drilling and further exploration and are known as Maly Krumkon, Chornie Ispelene
and Kubuk.
All six areas thus far identified are contained within a 15 kilometre long
segment of the 40 kilometre long trend. The remaining 25 kilometres remains
highly prospective as geological mapping and sampling confirms the presence of
websterite sills and anomalous nickel grades.
As in the two past seasons, the Company's annual exploration programme has a
three tiered approach comprised of the following:
• Generation Of New Drill Targets: This on going investigative work
will be conducted in areas along the Krumkon Trend where limited reconnaissance
work has been completed to date. It will focus on areas of interest defined by
the presence of geologically mapped websterite sills and associated anomalous
nickel values. Two crews of two geologists each will be dedicated to this task.
• Testing Of New Targets: Each year, the Company drill tests a new
target. This year's focus is the Maly Krumkon area located approximately five
kilometres to the west of Vodorazdelny. Here existing geological mapping
results, geochemical sampling and trenching confirm the presence of anomalous
nickel values in excess of 0.4%. The zone is mapped as having a length of more
than one kilometre with a thickness ranging from 3 to 70 metres. Diamond core
drilling is scheduled for this area during May and June at programme start up.
A total of nine holes are budgeted containing 1,150 planned metres. Four
trenches having a total of 320 linear metres are planned.
• Resource Development: The primary focus of this year's programme will
remain on the five kilometre long area where the past diamond core drilling
results have identified the three deposits of Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon.
This area's programme includes the completion of 360 linear metres of
trenching and approximately 2,850 metres of drilling in 36 planned drill holes.
This work is designed to accomplish the following:
1. Drilling will be completed between existing holes. This will increase
the confidence in the existing Indicated and Inferred resource as defined by SRK
and should allow for upgrading the resources by category.
2. Holes will be completed beyond those that contain mineralisation
presently located at the edges of the existing drill pattern. This part of the
programme is intended to define additional mineralisation and potentially
increase the current resource inventory.
Completion of the Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe programme will ultimately provide
the Company with a resource drilled at an appropriate spacing to allow for the
calculation of a resource estimate suitable for submission to the State
Committee of Reserves (GKZ). The timing of the submission is planned for the
end of this year or in the first quarter of 2007. Once approved, Amur will have
met its final obligation required under the terms of its exploration licence.
Though not required until December 2008, the Company intends to complete this
obligation as soon as possible to allow Amur to apply for a Discovery and
subsequently convert the five year exploration licence into a Mining /
Production licence which will have a 20 year life.
Commenting on the upcoming programme, CEO Robin Young stated, 'We are pleased to
be in a position to trigger this year's exploration programme on schedule and
with a well defined set of objectives. Each of the previous two exploration
seasons has allowed us to build value in the Kun-Manie asset. Our aim is to
continue to do so and we are optimistic about the coming year.'
Ends
Enquiries:
Amur Minerals Corp. Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited Parkgreen Communications
Robin Young John Wilkes Justine Howarth
CEO Director
+44 (0) 7981 126 818 +44 (0) 20 7710 7400 +44 (0) 20 7493 3713
Notes to Editors
The Amur Group's principal asset is the 100% owned Kun-Manie exploration
licence, a nickel-copper-PGM deposit located in the Amur Province in the far
east of the Russian Federation. The Kun-Manie licence area is approximately 950
km(2) and is located 700 km northeast of the capital city of Blagoveshchensk and
is 750km north of the Chinese border. In April 2004 ZAO Kun-Manie, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Amur, was granted a licence to explore for nickel and
related metals, including copper, in respect of the Kun-Manie licence.
Work carried out to date on the Kun-Manie licence including diamond core
drilling, trenching and geological mapping has identified three mineralised
targets, the Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon zones each of which warrant
further exploration. The three deposits are located within a five kilometer
long segment of the 40 kilometre long Krumkon Trend which is the primary
exploration target within the licence area. An additional three targets
identified as Maly Krumkon, Chornie Ispelene and Kubuk have been identified
within the trend and require additional geological investigation and drilling.
In combination, the six deposits are located along approximately 50% of the
length of the Krumkon Trend whilst the remainder of the trend also contains
additional potential based on geochemical sampling and geological mapping which
has identified anomalously mineralised host structures needing additional
reconnaissance and detailed exploration work.
To date and within 10- 15% of the Krumkon host structure, detailed exploration
and an independently calculated resource estimate compiled by SRK Consulting
indicates the presences of Indicated and Inferred resources. These are
contained within the two deposits of the Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe zones. As
disclosed in the Competent Person's Report within the Amur Admission Document
dated 10th March 2006, these total some 46.1Mt at a mean grade of 0.45% nickel,
giving 209,000 tonnes of contained nickel; 0.13% copper, giving 58,500 tonnes of
contained copper.
This information is provided by RNS
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