LONDON (Alliance News) - Highland Gold Mining Ltd Wednesday said that it has acquired a licence for the exploration and mining rights for the North-Western flank of the Mnogovershinnoye, a property next to its mine operations, meaning that it now holds the rights for the entire ore body.
In a statement, the company said that the acquisition came about following an open auction held Thursday last week in the regional capital of Khabarovsk at a bid price of 9.9 billion roubles. The new licence area includes a large section of the Bear zone which the company said possesses good potential to deliver new resources at the Mnogovershinnoye ore body.
Highland Gold said that the Bear zone is about 2.5 kilometres long and 0.25 kilometres wide, and runs parallel to the main and intermediate ore zones, the hosts of MNV's rich ore bodies and the focus of former and current mining activities.
The Bear zone has been partially explored in the past and has reported prognostic resources P1 of 19.8 tonnes of gold, Highland Gold said. It added that previous exploration included trenching and drilling up to 600 m depth which returned several single intersects up to 100 g/t of gold.
"It is anticipated that the resource potential at Bear zone will be explored through a combination of surface drilling and underground exploration, utilising the existing underground infrastructure at Mnogovershinnoye," the company said in a statement.
This acquisition sustains the company's continued focus on its near-mine exploration efforts at MNV, designed to verify and further increase the known near mine mineralised prospects, thereby adding value to and extending the Mnogovershinnoye ongoing operations," Highland Gold added.
Highland Gold shares were Wednesday quoted down 1.4% at 72.00 pence.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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