2007 Exploration Update
Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd
05 December 2007
6 December 2007
For immediate release
Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd
('Chaarat' or 'the Company')
Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd (AIM:CGH) Announces the Completion of the 2007
Surface Exploration Programme and Continuation of Underground Exploration
Operations
• 2007 core drill programme completed
• Metallurgical test work and underground exploration continues
• Three new targets drilled and trenched, individual grades up to 86g/t gold
• Known strike lengths on two targets extended from a total of 890 to 1,120 m
Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (06 December 2007). Chaarat Gold
Holdings Ltd ('Chaarat' or 'the Company') announces that it completed its 2007
surface exploration program on 22 November as planned, on its 100% held, 604.6
square kilometre exploration licence in Western Kyrgyzstan. The underground
exploration operations will continue throughout the winter, as will the
metallurgical testwork and other studies.
During the summer and autumn of 2007 eight core rigs were deployed on the
Licence Area and Chaarat have drilled 53 coreholes, for a total of 10,200 m of
drilling. Most of this work was aimed at in-fill and extension drilling of known
mineralised zones, both down dip and along strike, in five project areas
(Projects) where Mineral Resources of 1.9 million ounces at a grade of 4.1 g/t
Au, had been delineated at the end of the 2006 drilling programme. These holes
were planned to provide intercepts through the mineralisation at 40-m intervals
both on strike and down dip. In addition, preliminary drilling was undertaken
in 2007 on three new Project areas discovered last year, namely M4400, M5600 and
M6000. The spacing of these holes varies between 40 and 80 m. A plan of the
licence area with all the Projects and Targets can be viewed at
www.chaarat.com/Default.aspx?Cont=17
The Company also continued with its extensive surface exploration programme
through 2007 and a total of 16,100 metres of new roads were completed to provide
access to drill sites and to expose mineralised zones, of which 6,390 metres
were sampled. These excavations exposed the subcrop of mineralised zones, both
as strike extensions to known mineralisation and on recently discovered zones.
Furthermore, a total of 1,996 metres of trenches were excavated in these and
other areas, and 14,700 metres of gold geochemical soil sampling traverses
completed over two regional targets known as Ishakuldy and Minteke.
Drilling Programme
Main Zone
The M2400 Project Area was the focus of most of the drilling on the Main Zone in
2007 and eight drill holes (1,628 m) intersected mineralisation. Some assay
results are awaited from the laboratory and the full results will be reported
once these have been received. Based on the 2006 results, Resources of 2.06
million tonnes at an average grade of 4.5g/t Au (298,000 oz., JORC compliant
Indicated and Inferred) were declared in this project area. The mineralisation
has an average true width of 5 m and the drilling and trenching in 2007 have
increased the mineralised strike from 570 to 620 m.
The M6000 (Karator) Project Area is considered to be a fault-displaced strike
extension to the Main Zone with similar mineralisation characteristics.
Bulldozer cuts completed in 2006 exposed a 3 to 5 m wide (true width)
mineralised zone with a strike of 320 m. Further work in 2007 has extended the
strike of this zone to 580 m. Nine holes (1,118 m) were also drilled on this
Project Area with the objective of delineating a Resource. Assay results from
this drilling are pending.
Contact Zone
Mineralisation in the Contact Zone can be traced for some 10 km with strike
lengths of between 300 and 450 m for individual zones. Prior to the 2007
drilling, a JORC compliant Indicated and Inferred mineral resource had been
delineated in three of these Project Areas (C5300, C4600 and C4000) as tabulated
below:
Project Strike Drilling Indicated Inferred Total Total Au Grade Grade Grade
Area (metres) to 2006 Resources Resources Resources Resources
(metres) Mill Tonnes Mill Tonnes Mill Tonnes Mill Oz
Au g/t Ag g/t Sb %
C5300 450 3098 2.869 0.939 3.809 0.47 3.88 22 0.47
C4600 300 1371 1.22 0.863 2.083 0.24 3.64 22 0.26
C4000 300 1291 0.226 0.45 0.676 0.06 2.75 11 0.62
Total 1050 5760 4.315 2.252 6.568 0.78 3.69 20.87 0.42
(Average)
During the 2007 season 19 holes were drilled in the Contact Zone, 12, three and
four holes in the C5300, C4600 and C4000 Areas respectively. The assay results
from this drilling are awaited.
Tulkubash Zone
The T0700 zone is hosted by quartzites of Tulkubash formation at the southern
end of a 5 km long belt of soil anomalies, which are between 40 and 160 metres
wide (defined by a 1g/t Au assay threshold).
Based on the drilling completed to the end of the 2006 exploration season, a
JORC compliant (Indicated and Inferred) Resource of 1.26Mt at 4.88 g/t Au
(198,000 ozs) was declared. During the 2007 exploration season an additional 12
drill holes (2,375 m) were drilled in the T0700 Project and again assay results
are awaited.
Underground Exploration
The Company started excavation of an adit in 2006 to facilitate exploration in
the C5300 Project Area on the Contact Zone. The adit is scheduled to intersect
the mineralised Contact Zone at a depth of 235 m below surface and 290 m down
dip from outcrop of the mineralised zone. This work continued through 2007 and
is scheduled to be completed in 2008. Underground drilling from drill stations
off the adit will test the down dip extension of the mineralisation, commencing
in February 2008.
Competent Person
The Competent Person with overall responsibility for this press release is
Anthony Martin, PrSciNat, MGSZ, MAuS IMM, PhD who is an employee of SRK
(Zimbabwe) (Pvt) Limited. Dr Anthony Martin is an exploration geologist with 35
years experience in the resource industry and has been responsible for the
reviewing of exploration programmes on various properties internationally during
the past five years and the Chaarat project since August 2005; he has made four
site visits since that time.
Exploration Methodologies
Soil Sampling and Trenching
In the gold geochemical soil sampling programmes, soil samples are collected on
traverses spaced approximately 200 m apart, with samples taken every 40 m along
the traverse. Samples of the thin, poorly developed soils are sieved to -80 mesh
(180 micron) and analyzed for Au by fire assay. Altogether 14,700 m of traverses
were completed in 2007 and 472 samples collected and analysed.
Trenches are excavated to bedrock, mainly to establish the source of the gold
soil anomalies but also for additional Resource data. Continuous channel samples
are taken at 1m intervals with each sample weighing 3 to 4 kg. Samples are
submitted for Au fire assay and ICP analysis for Ag, As, Cu, Mo and Sb. Results
of 1,209 trench samples (of 1,542 taken in 2007) have been received with 80 of
these above 1 g/t and up to 33 g/t.
Similar sampling procedures were followed for the bulldozer excavations where
these intersected visually mineralised zones. A total of 4,663 samples were
taken in 2007 and of 2,596 results received, 325 recorded a gold content above
1 g /t with the highest value at 86g/t.
Assaying
All samples are sent to a laboratory in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Scientific
Research Laboratory, JSC Kara Balta, (CSRL), accredited by the UK Accreditation
Service, for sample preparation and initial assays. All samples with gold above
1 g/ t are then submitted to Genalysis, Australia, a NATA ISO/IEC 17025
accredited laboratory for analysis by fire assay. Only results received from
Genalysis are included in the Mineral Resource database.
Assays will be reported once all the results for a specific project area have
been received and subjected to QA/QC testing. The results for the 2007
exploration season will be reported over the next three months.
About the Chaarat Gold Project
The Chaarat project is situated within the Middle Tien Shan Mountains of
Kyrgyzstan which form part of the Tien Shan gold belt. At the completion of the
2006 exploration season, a Mineral Resource of 1.87Moz Au (JORC compliant) in
the Indicated and Inferred categories had been delineated. The Company's
exploration programme is aimed at increasing the confidence levels in this
Resource through infill drilling and increasing the size of the Resource through
down-dip and along-strike extension drilling. In addition the company intends
to explore the remaining gold occurrences outside of those currently drilled in
the central 6 km of the 40 km length of the licence.
About Chaarat Gold Holdings or the Company
Chaarat Gold Holding is an exploration company founded for the purpose of
developing its sole asset, being the Chaarat License Area. Chaarat was admitted
to AIM on 8 November 2007.
Disclaimer
This press release includes forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important
factors beyond Chaarat's control that would cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of Chaarat to be materially different from future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-
looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous
assumptions regarding Chaarat's present and future business strategies and the
environment in which Chaarat will operate in the future. Any forward-looking
statements speak only as at the date of this document. Chaarat expressly
disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions
to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in
Chaarat's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions
or circumstances on which any such statements are based. As a result of these
factors, the events described in the forward-looking statements in this press
release may not occur either partially or at all.
Enquiries:
Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7499 2612
Dekel Golan - Dekel@chaarat.com
Terry Cross - terry_cross@btconnect.com
Canaccord Adams Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7050 6500
Mike Jones
Robin Birchall
Glossary:
Au chemical symbol for gold
Ag chemical symbol for silver
As chemical symbol for arsenic
Cu chemical symbol for copper
Mo chemical symbol for molybdenum
Sb chemical symbol for antimony
AIM the Alternative Investment Market
BVI British Virgin Islands
CGP the Chaarat Gold Project
CPs Competent Persons
CSRL Central Scientific Research Laboratory
ICP Inductively Coupled Plasma method of analysis
MAuS IMM Member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
MGSZ Member of the Geological Society of Zimbabwe
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
PrSciNat Professional Natural Scientist (South Africa)
UNITS
g/t grammes per metric tonne of gold
km a kilometre
km2 a thousand square metres
m a metre
m2 a square metre
m3 a cubic metre
Moz a million troy ounces
Mt a million metric tonnes
oz a troy ounce
t a metric tonne
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange