Land Position Doubled
Amur Minerals Corporation
14 February 2007
14 February 2007
Amur Minerals Corporation
('Amur' or 'the Company')
Amur Wins Auction for New Project Area
Doubles Its Land Position
Amur Minerals Corporation (AIM: AMC) announces it has won the auction for the
right to explore and extract nickel, copper, platinum and associated metals on
the Kustakskaya Project, located immediately to the east of Amur's principal Kun
Manie nickel-copper project . The addition of this project area expands Amur's
holdings by 1,034 square kilometres in the immediate area representing an
increase of 109% to a total of 1,984 kilometres. At the Kun-Manie project, Amur
has so far drilled out a substantial nickel resource approaching 264,000 nickel
equivalent tonnes and examined only about 40% of its main target zone known as
the Krumkon Trend.
Highlights:
• Amur's successful bid to acquire Kustakskaya was for 6.3 million Russian
Roubles, equivalent to US $240,000. This is based on a conversion rate of
26.4 Roubles per US$.
• The nearly contiguous land package now stands at nearly 2,000 square
kilometres. The boundary between the Kun-Manie and Kustakskaya licences is
the Russian Federation provincial border between the Amur Oblast and
Khabarovsk Krai.
• The Kustakskaya area contains two separate geological terrains. The
southern half of the licence exhibits the same geologic setting and contains
the same types of rock and similar nickel mineralisation observed along the
Krumkon Trend. This licence contains the easternmost limits of the Trend
within the Kun-Manie licence. The northern half of the licence is
characterised by Mesozoic porphyry copper style intrusions that have seen
little historic exploration.
• The Company will now register the licence with State and Federal agencies,
and the date of registration will constitute the first day of the 25-year
licence period.
• The exploration programme will be conducted in a phased approach with work
on the ground beginning 15 months after the registration of the licence.
Robin Young, Amur's Chief Executive Officer, commented: 'This new licence
doubles the size of our land package in the immediate area. As a result, Amur
Minerals now controls an area that approaches 1.5% the size of England.
Historical information indicates the newly acquired area to be geologically very
similar to that which we already control where we have already defined an
extensive amount of nickel. In addition, the northern half includes porphyry
type copper targets. We now consider this area to be a district rather than
just a deposit, and we will continue to look for further opportunities in this
area.'
Location
The Kustakskaya project is located in the Khabarovsk Krai, immediately to the
east of the Company's Kun-Manie licence in the Amur Oblast, and comprises 1,034
square kilometres of land. The Amur - Khabarovsk provincial boundary is the
western edge of the Kustakskaya licence area and the eastern edge of the
Kun-Manie licence area. Kustakskaya is located within the Tuguro-Chumikan
administrative district of Khabarovsk Krai. Specific licence boundaries by
latitude and longitude are:
Corners of Latitude Longitude
Licence Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds
1 55 17 20 132 40 0
2 55 29 0 133 15 0
3 55 20 30 133 27 30
4 55 8 30 133 17 30
5 55 10 30 132 57 0
Geology and Potential
The geology of the southern half of the Kustakskaya area is similar to that of
the Kun-Manie area wherein the Company has defined the presence of significant
nickel-copper mineralisation. This area of the newly acquired licence is
dominated by a zone (the Krumkon Trend) which contains disseminated and
veinlet-hosted nickel within websterites, pyroxenites and peridotites.
Historical Russian sampling has indicated elevated nickel grades as high as
0.72% to 1.12% within the licence area, and cobalt grades approaching 0.11% to
0.18%. The mineralisation is reported to be controlled by flat-lying structures
within mafic to ultramafic host rocks very similar to those identified within
the Krumkon Trend within the Kun-Manie licence, immediately to the west of
Kustakskaya. The existing anomalous information covers an area of approximately
100 square kilometres.
The northern half of the licence area is dominated by Mesozoic granites
anomalous in both copper and cobalt, and molybdenum is also present. The region
contains a complex alteration and geochemical halo covering an area approaching
190 square kilometres. Quartz veins of 1.5 metres in thickness have been
identified and include both malachite and chalcopyrite in disseminated and
veinlet form. Copper grades range up to 0.6% with gold as high as 0.3 g/t.
Exploration
Exploration to date is comprised of historical Russian work conducted between
the 1950's and latter 1990's. The programme included airborne geophysics,
regional geochemical sampling and stream sediment sampling. Overall, the
historical exploration programmes have previously identified the area as
containing highly prospective nickel results which exceed those derived from
similar programmes completed within the Kun-Manie licence area.
Reconnaissance by the Company has substantiated some of the historical work, but
confirmatory work is planned in order to establish the comprehensive veracity of
the historical results.
Terms of the Licence
Requirements related to the licence include the following:
• A proposed work programme for exploration must be filed and approved by
appropriate Russian agencies within 12 months of the registration of the
licence
• Actual exploration on the project site must begin 15 months from the
registration date of the licence.
• Exploration is defined to cover a three year period during which 1,000
cubic metres of trenching and 5,000 metres of drilling must be completed. A
geological report is to be submitted to the local resource administrative
agency (Dalnedra) reporting the P1 and P2 resources.
• Thereafter, a prospecting period must be undertaken within five and a half
years of registration of the licence. If work indicates the project is
economically viable, infrastructure construction must be undertaken within
9.5 years of licence registration and mining shall begin within 11 years.
Production must be no less than 100,000 tonnes of ore per year.
• A site closure plan must be submitted 6 months before closure of
operations.
The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved by
the CEO of Amur, Robin Young. Mr. Young is a Geological Engineer (cum laude) and
is a Qualified Professional Geologist, as defined by the Toronto and Vancouver
Stock Exchanges.
Enquiries:
Amur Minerals Corp. RBC Capital Markets Parkgreen Communications
Robin Young Andrew Smith Victoria Thomas
CEO Martin Eales
+44 (0) 7981 126 818 +44 (0) 20 7029 7881 +44 (0) 20 7851 7480
Notes to Editors
About Amur Minerals
Amur's principal asset is the 100% owned Kun-Manie exploration licence, a
nickel-copper 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 and platinum, 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 four mineralised
targets; the Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe, Maly Krumkon and Falcon zones, three of
which warrant further exploration as the limits of the mineralisation have not
been identified. The four zones are located within a 15 kilometre long segment
of the 40 kilometre long Krumkon Trend. This trend is the primary exploration
target within the licence area. An additional three targets identified as
Chornie Ispelene, Yan Hegd and Kubuk (also referred to as Ata) have been
identified as additional drill targets. Chornie Ispelene and Kubuk lie within
the trend whilst Yan Hegd is located approximately 8 kilometres to its north.
Approximately 50% of the Krumkon Trend remains to be examined by reconnaissance
work where existing Soviet data indicates potential exists to identify
additional drill targets.
Exploration drill results have been utilised by SRK Consulting to calculate
resources. These include resources of the Measured, Indicated and Inferred
categories which have been estimated for the deposits of Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe
and Maly Krumkon. Effective January, 2007, the independently compiled Resource
Estimate consists of a total of 53.3 Mt at a mean grade of 0.48% nickel and
0.14% copper containing 254,500 tonnes of nickel; and 73,000 tonnes of copper.
This is summarised in the following table.
SRK Consulting's 2006 Year End Resource Report
Orebody Tonnage Ni Ni Cu Cu
(Mt) (%) (t) (%) (t)
Vodorazdelny
Indicated 5.9 0.71 41,800 0.20 11,800
Ikenskoe
Measured 3.7 0.61 22,700 0.16 5,800
Indicated 26.8 0.42 111,300 0.12 32,700
Sub-total 30.5 0.44 134,000 0.13 38,500
Inferred 5.9 0.49 28,700 0.13 7,500
Total Ikenskoe 36.4 0.45 162,700 0.13 46,000
Maly Krumkon
Inferred 11.0 0.45 50,000 0.14 15,200
Total Measured 3.7 0.61 22,700 0.16 5,800
Total Indicated 32.7 0.47 153,100 0.14 44,500
Total Inferred 16.9 0.47 78,700 0.13 22,700
Grand Total 53.3 0.48 254,500 0.14 73,000
Presently, Amur is compiling a prefeasibility study on the Kun-Manie Project to
be completed in the second quarter of 2007. Concurrently, work is also being
conducted on the assembly of a report to be submitted to the State Committee on
Reserves (GKZ). Upon approval, the GKZ shall issue a certificate of
'Discovery'. This certification allows the Company to continue along the
process of converting portions of the exploration licence into a mining licence.
Immediately to the east of the Kun-Manie licence and across the Amur Oblast and
Khabarovsk Krai border, Amur has acquired the Kustakskaya Project. This 1,034
square kilometre, 25 year exploration and production licence contains two
geological terrains. Each terrain contains a different mineralisation type
target. The southern half of the licence is interpreted to be a continuation of
the Krumkon Trend identified within the Kun-Manie exploration licence. The
northern half of the licence area contains Mesozoic granitic intrusives wherein
historical Russian results indicate the potential for copper, cobalt and minor
nickel to be present. The Company will undertake field exploration of this
licence area in 2008 in accordance with the terms of the licence. Having
recently acquired this licence, the Company places no value on this property.
Amur also controls the Anadjakan gold-copper exploration licence in Kharaborvsk
Krai near the well-infrastructured city of Elban. The Company chooses not to
report any value on this asset until it concludes its comprehensive review of
all information and verifies existing Russian results. The 2007 exploration
programme for this area is designed to check the historical results and define
future drill targets. The exploration of this licence area will begin during
the 2007 field season.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange