AMC.L Regulatory News (AMC)

30 Oct 2006 07:01

Amur Minerals Corporation30 October 2006 October 30, 2006 Amur Minerals Corporation (AIM: AMC) Maly Krumkon Open Pit Potential Confirmed By SRK Consulting In October 2006, SRK Consulting completed a conceptual design assessment of theopen pit potential on Amur Minerals Corporation's ("Amur" or "the Company") MalyKrumkon nickel-copper deposit. The deposit is one of three contained within theCompany's Kun-Manie nickel copper licence for which this has been undertaken.Amur is an AIM-listed resource exploration and development company with assetsin far eastern Russia. Results from SRK's evaluation confirm the following: • The Maly Krumkon structure, mineralisation and orientation can potentially be recovered by conventional open pit mining methods. • In-fill drilling to confirm the continuity of the mineralisation is required to verify the conceptual open pit results. • Additional potential remains along strike where reconnaissance work confirms the zone's presence and which has not been included in the conceptual open pit analysis. Amur discovered the Maly Krumkon deposit in June 2006 during its wildcatdrilling phase which it conducts at the beginning of each year. The mineralisedzone has a geologically mapped length of approximately three kilometres whichcan be traced for approximately one kilometre with four diamond core drill holesand four trenches. Subsequent resource estimation work on Maly Krumkoncompleted by SRK Consulting identified the presence of an inferred in situgeological resource totalling 11.0 million tonnes at a mean grade of 0.45%nickel and 0.14% copper containing 50,000 tonnes of nickel and 15,200 tonnes ofcopper. This additional resource increases the Company's total inferred andindicated resources to 259,000 tonnes of nickel and 73,700 tonnes of copperwithin 57.1 million tonnes. A detailed categorisation of the resource inventoryis presented at the end of this announcement. To assist in exploration planning for the 2007 calendar year, Amur requested SRKConsulting to compile a second resource model wherein the preliminarily exploredarea of the zone was extended down dip and between exploration drill holes andtrenches. This non-compliant JORC model was then used to assess the open pitpotential of the deposit. Using the Lerchs Grossman algorithm, a significantportion of the non-compliant model "mines" within an open pit outline,indicating that exploration within the area is warranted and should becontinued. Should exploration in-fill work be successful, the Directors believethat the resource tonnage could be significantly increased from that containedwithin the JORC compliant resource estimate. Commenting on the results, CEO Robin Young stated, "We have again advanced thisproject another hurdle closer to production. This highly positive result buildson our already substantial base and should improve the results of the on goingpre-feasibility study to be released within the next six months." (The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approvedon behalf of SRK Consulting (UK) Limited by Dr Mike Armitage. Dr Armitage is aQualified Professional Geologist.) SRK Consulting Independently Estimated In Situ Geological Resource - October 30, 2006 JORC Compliant Deposit Tonnage Ni Ni Cu Cu (Mt) (t) (%) (t) (%) Indicated Resource Maly Krumkon - - - - - Vodorazdelny 7.1 42,900 0.60 12,000 0.17 Ikenskoe 21.3 89,500 0.42 25,800 0.12 Total Resource =SUM(ABOVE) 28.4 =SUM(ABOVE) 132,400 0.47 =SUM(ABOVE) 37,800 0.13 Inferred Resource Maly Krumkon 11.0 50,000 0.45 15,200 0.14 Vodorazdelny 3.6 22,500 0.62 6,700 0.19 Ikenskoe 14.1 54,200 0.39 14,000 0.10 Total Resource =SUM(ABOVE) 28.7 =SUM(ABOVE) 126,700 0.44 =SUM(ABOVE) 35,900 0.13 Total Indicated + Inferred Resource Maly Krumkon 11.0 50,000 0.45 15,200 0.14 Vodorazdelny 10.7 65,400 0.61 18,700 0.17 Ikenskoe 35.4 143,600 0.41 39,800 0.11 Total Resource =SUM(ABOVE) 57.1 =SUM(ABOVE) 259,000 0.45 =SUM(ABOVE) 73,700 0.13 Ends Enquiries: Amur Minerals Corp. Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited Parkgreen CommunicationsRobin Young John Wilkes Victoria ThomasCEO Director+44 (0) 7981 126 818 +44 (0) 20 7710 7400 +44 (0) 20 7493 3713 Notes to Editors The Amur Group's principal asset is the 100% owned Kun-Manie explorationlicence, a nickel-copper deposit located in the Amur Province in the far east ofthe Russian Federation. The Kun-Manie licence area is approximately 950 km(2)and is located 700 km northeast of the capital city of Blagoveshchensk and is750km north of the Chinese border. In April 2004 ZAO Kun-Manie, a wholly ownedsubsidiary of Amur, was granted a licence to explore for nickel and relatedmetals, including copper and platinum, in respect of the Kun-Manie licence. Work carried out to date on the Kun-Manie licence including diamond coredrilling, trenching and geological mapping has identified four mineralisedtargets, the Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe, Maly Krumkon and Falcon zones each of whichwarrant further exploration. The four zones are located within a 15 kilometerlong segment of the 40 kilometre long Krumkon Trend. This trend is the primaryexploration target within the licence area. An additional two targetsidentified as Chornie Ispelene and Kubuk have been identified within the trendand require additional geological investigation and drilling. In combination,the six zones are located along approximately 50% of the length of the KrumkonTrend. The remainder of the trend also contains additional potential based ongeochemical sampling and geological mapping which has identified anomalouslymineralized host structures needing additional reconnaissance and detailedexploration work. To date, detailed exploration and an independently calculated resource estimatecompiled by SRK Consulting indicates the presence of Indicated and Inferredresources. These are contained within the three deposits, the Vodorazdelny,Ikenskoe and Maly Krumkon zones. An update to the Competent Person's Reportwithin the Amur Admission Document dated 10th March 2006 now indicates thesethree zones contain a total of 57.1Mt at a mean grade of 0.45% nickel, yielding259,000 tonnes of contained nickel; 0.13% copper, containing 73,700 tonnes ofcontained copper. Amur also owns the Anadjakan gold-copper exploration licence in Kharaborvsk Krainear the well infrastructured city of Elban. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange