Georgian Mining confirms significant resource upgrade for Kvemo Bolnisi

Georgian Mining said an upgraded mineral resource estimate for the Kvemo Bolnisi East copper zone has increased the total tonnage of in-situ copper metal by 92% in comparison to the initial estimate announced on 30 January 2017.

It said the JORC-optimised in-pit 1.2m tonnes @ 1.03% Cu at a 0.4% Cu cut off triggered the commencement of detailed discussions with the company's joint-venture partner regarding the delivery of an initial 1Mt @ 1% Cu for toll treatment.

Total JORC mineral resource estimate of 2.22m tonnes @ 0.8% Cu and 0.1 g/t Au at a 0.3% Cu cut-off.

Managing director Greg Kuenzel said Georgian Mining was extremely pleased to have met the requirements of its JV partner to achieve early production.

"Resource drilling to date validates the board's confidence in its exploration programme and confirms that copper-gold sulphide and gold oxide mineralisation extends well beyond the limits of the original discovery programme," said Kuenzel.

The recent identification of Kvemo Bolnisi's low sulphidation epithermal setting significantly expanded Georgian Mining's opportunity to explore both bulk tonnage and also high grade gold and copper-gold targets, said Kuenzel.

"We have retained Greg Corbett, an internationally renowned specialist on epithermal mineral occurrences, to advise on how best to exploit the significant new opportunities now presented," he added.

Georgian Mining was also in the process of establishing an initial gold resource and hoped to be in a position to announce this shortly.

"We believe that this will present us with a similar opportunity to the copper resource for delivering near term, proof of concept production."

At 11:56 BST, shares in AIM-traded Georgian Mining were up 9.76% to 11.25p each.