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LONDON (Alliance News) - Eurasia Mining PLC said Thursday drilling at its West Kytlim mine in the Urals mountains in central Russia has been completed with total produced raw platinum "well in advance" of management expectations.
The gold and platinum miner said the infill reserves upgrade was carried out in 2017 and 2018 and the work was completed on schedule. Work at the site is now being prepared for the 2019 drilling programme.
A total of 895 metres of regular diameter core drilling took place in 2017 and 2018, with a further 67 metres of large diameter core drilling to verify core grades.
Eurasia said there was evidence for "bonanza" grade ore pockets within the Kluchiki site.
"These new drilling data are very much in line with our expectations from many years working in the area. The grades from the drilling program, and in our reserve calculation are very much in line with our previous resource and reserve grades," said Christian Schaffalitzky, chairman.
The company said it will update the market when it has further calculated the reserves based on the information from the drilling programme.
Schaffalitzky continued: "Grades reported during the mining season have been far in excess of our resource grades, as it is only through actually mining a deposit like West Kytlim that the true grade of the material can be measured."
Eurasia said raw platinum occurs at all grain sizes but a "pronounced nugget effect" shows a marked increase from reserve grade to run of mine ore grades.
Schaffalitzky added: "Our appreciation of the West Kytlim project's potential, and indeed it's value to the company, has been recast during this first year of significant production, with total platinum produced at around 165 kilograms, or 165% of the company's estimates."
Shares in Eurasia Mining were down 3.3% Thursday at 0.38 pence each.
