Amur makes solid progress at Kun-Manie deposits

Russia-focussed nickel-copper sulphide mineral exploration and resource development company Amur Minerals Corporation announced its progress through 14 June on its 2017 drill programme at the Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky (IKEN ) and Kubuk (KUB) deposits of Kun-Manie on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded company said the 2017 drill programme was focused on the deposits of IKEN and KUB, and began four weeks ahead of schedule on 5 May.

It said the programme was designed to convert existing inferred resource to indicated, define the updip and downdip limits of mineralisation for mine planning purposes, expand resources between IKEN and KUB - a 2.5 kilometre long target - where drilling had not yet been completed, and to derive additional sample for metallurgical test work.

Through 14 June, a total of 5,903.5 metres of drilling had been completed, representing about 30% of the planned 20,000 metres.

The average daily drill rate was 137.3 metres.

Amur said the company-pwned owned LF70 drill rig was drilling at IKEN and had completed 2,804.5 metres within 16 holes.

Of those, six holes had been completed to establish the limits of mineralisation for mine planning purposes, while an additional two holes were completed as infill holes and eight holes were designated as step out holes for resource expansion toward KUB to the southeast of the previously defined IKEN ore zone.

At KUB, the company-owned LF90 had drilled 3,099.0 metres contained within 16 holes through 14 June.

Seven holes had been completed as infill holes to convert inferred resource to that of indicated.

The remaining nine holes were considered to be a combination of resource expansion and mineral limit determination holes located at the northern and eastern limits of the previously drill-defined boundaries of the deposit.

Analytical results for 25 of the 32 completed holes had been generated at the company’s onsite sample preparation facility using two Niton XL2 500 X-Ray Fluorescence units.

The results were under review and subject to release via an RNS announcement once the RFA calibration verification programme was complete, scheduled for 23 June.

Completion of the annual verification process allowed management to report the RFA results which were preliminary in nature and internally derived.

Ore host rock types, mineralisation and sulphide content were similar to that identified by previous drill seasons, the board claimed, and it anticipated that ore grade mineralisation would be reported in the near-term and on completion of the calibration verification results.

“I am pleased to provide an update on our drill accomplishments at Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky and the Kubuk deposits,” said Amur CEO Robin Young.

“Getting an early start, we are ahead of schedule and are now verifying our internally derived results to enable us to report mineralised grades and thicknesses.

“As we are drilling two deposits, we plan to successively issue results individually by deposit to provide a clear and coherent presentation of results in what will be an interesting year as we test our largest existing 2.5 kilometres long undrilled target located between these two deposits.”

Young said the company planned for weekly updates, with the next update including results from Ikenskoe / Sobolevsky, then Kubuk, then hydrological results followed by a “comprehensive summary” of the previous results.