ARS - RNS Part 313 Mar 2020 11:12
The Company is engaged in advanced discussions with a number of potential Asian strategic partners who recognise the rare opportunity presented by the KSK CoW, commencing with development of the BKM copper project. It is the Company's intent to finalise these partnering discussions as soon as is practically possible.
BEUTONG COPPER GOLD PROJECT
Beutong is a large, high-quality, globally significant copper-gold porphyry with current JORC compliant Resources containing 2.43Mt (5.3Blb) copper, 2.11Moz gold and 20.9Moz silver on a 100% basis.
The Beutong project covers 10,000 hectares in Nagan Raya Regency, Aceh, Indonesia and is well served by existing infrastructure with a power station and seaport 60 kilometres from the intended site.
In January 2018, the Beutong project was granted an Izin Usaha Pertambangan Operasi Produksi "IUP-OP", the production licence required to advance Beutong to the development stage. The IUP-OP provides for an initial 20 years of licence tenure which may be extended twice, each for a period of 10 years, totalling 40 years. The Beutong license is held by PT Emas Mineral Murni ("EMM"), in which Asiamet holds an 80% interest.
Beutong is a large high-quality copper, gold, silver, molybdenum deposit which outcrops at surface and remains open in several directions including to depth. Potential to increase the size of the deposits with further drilling is considered very high.
Strong copper, gold and molybdenum grades and the presence of highly mineralised chalcopyrite-bornite-magnetite bearing breccia clasts proximal to a large magnetic body modelled at depth below current drilling highlight excellent potential for the discovery of a high grade core similar to that seen in world class porphyry systems such as Wafi Golpu, PNG (Newcrest)
Highlighted intercepts from previous drilling campaigns at Beutong include:
· BEU0500-01 : 445.0m @ 0.54% Cu, 0.17g/t Au from 7m
· BEU0900-08 : 456.0m @ 0.93% Cu, 0.15g/t Au from 10m
· BEU0800-01 : 215.8m @ 1.20% Cu, 0.20g/t Au from 4.8m
· BEU0800-02 : 320.4m @ 1.11% Cu, 0.19g/t Au from 6.6m
· BEU0700-03 : 384.2m @ 0.68% Cu, 0.21g/t Au from 71.5m
At Beutong, the strategy remains to test the deeper targets and the higher grade copper-gold zones of the porphyry system, and to undertake metallurgical test work aimed at assessing the potential for a staged development via heap leach or alternative mining and processing methods.
The Beutong project represents a rare advanced development stage copper opportunity given its scale and location close to the coast, proximity to excellent infrastructure, production licence tenure and proximity to the key Asian consumer markets.