LONDON (Alliance News) - Amur Minerals Corp Wednesday said it has finished drilling the first block on the Flangovy deposit in Russia which may lead to it upgrading the mineral resource estimate for the block.
The Flangovy deposit, part of the company's flagship Kun-Manie project, consists of five distinct blocks which Amur is infill drilling. Amur has so far drilled the first block, which contains around 32% of the total contained metal estimate of the Flangovy resource.
The average grades produced from drilling the first block came in at 0.8% nickel and 0.2% copper, which are both slightly below previous drill intercepts on the block which yielded results of 0.83% nickel and 0.22% copper.
However, the grades are higher than the current JORC resource at Block One, which only stands at 0.6% nickel. Amur is hoping the results will lead to an upgraded resource estimate for Block One.
The other four blocks on Flangovy will be drilled "over the remainder of the field season". The miner has almost completed drilling on the second block, which covers an area of around 250 metres in length.
The second block is thought to contain around another 32% of the total contained metal resource at Flangovy, meaning that Amur will have completed around two-thirds of its drilling once the second block is completed.
Amur secured the production licence for the Kun Manie nickel-copper sulphide deposit back in May after a ten-year wait and began drilling the Flangovy resource after submitting a detailed exploration plan back in June.
The miner is expected to spend around USD1.85 billion over 15 years on the project, comprised of initial capital expenditure of around USD1.38 billion, expended over a two-year period whilst the project is constructed, and sustaining capital expenditure of USD474 million over the 15 year mine life.
Amur shares were trading up 1.8% to 14.00 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Amur Minerals (AMC)