LONDON (Alliance News) - Amur Minerals Corp Thursday said the maiden resource estimate for the Kubuk deposit in the Kun Manie nickel-copper project in far eastern Russia has been updated which has led to a portion of the inferred resource being upgraded to the indicated category.
The Russian miner has been working on the Kun Manie project for around a decade, and in December it received a maiden resource estimate for the Kubuk deposit from SRK Consulting Ltd, which totalled 20.6 million tonnes of ore averaging 0.58% nickel and 0.16% copper per tonne for 118,900 tonnes of nickel and 32,900 tonnes of copper, all of which was in the inferred category.
Following the update, 17% of the maiden resource has now been upgraded to the indicated category, which now stands at 23,400 tonnes of nickel and 6,100 tonnes of copper from 3.5 million tonnes of ore at grades of 0.68% nickel and 0.18% copper.
Amur said the majority of the newly defined indicated resource is contained within the conceptual pit designs for the 6.0 million tonne per year operation planned by the company at Kun Manie.
"SRK has concluded that the nickel and copper values determined during the compilation of the maiden resource are based on independently verified information allowing for a portion of the maiden resource to be upgraded in resource classification," said Amur.
As a result, the inferred resource has now been reduced due to the 17% portion being moved to the indicated category. The new inferred resource now stands at 17.1 million tonnes at 0.56% nickel and 0.16% copper for a total of 95,500 tonnes of nickel and 26,800 tonnes of copper.
"The resource reclassification at Kubuk has multiple impacts on the project. The first of which is a reduction of in-fill drilling to confirm the resource available to open pit mining. Secondly, the confidence in the resource and reserves derived for the newly classified model is increased and portions can be utilised in bankable study work planned for the future," said the company.
Amur shares rose by 7.9% to 11.60 pence per share Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Amur Minerals (AMC)