Chaarat Gold Regulatory News (CGH)

22 Apr 2008 07:00

Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd22 April 2008 For immediate release Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd Gold Resources Increase to over 3 Million Ounces at its Chaarat Property Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (22nd April 2008). Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd (AIM-CGH) ("Chaarat" or "the Company") is pleased toannounce a significant increase in the estimated gold resources at its 100%owned Chaarat deposit in Kyrgyzstan to 3.134 million ounces, based on resultsfrom the 2007 exploration season. During the exploration programme in the pastyear, 53 diamond drill holes (10,673 metres) were drilled into the widemineralised zones in 11 project areas, over a six kilometre strike length. Theresource estimate was undertaken to JORC compliant standards by Behre Dolbear,an internationally recognised consulting group, who are independent of Chaarat. Highlights • The indicated and inferred resource has increased by 68.52% from 1.861 million ounces in 2006 to 3.134 million ounces in 2007. • The average grade of the resources has increased from 4.13 g/t Au to 4.41 g/t Au • 2.2 million ounces at 4.45g/t Au are in the Indicated resource category and 0.95 million ounces at 4.32 g/t are in the Inferred resource category. • The C5300 project area, where much of the recent drilling has been focused, contains an estimated resource of 912,000 ounces at 4.44 g/t Au over intersected widths up to 24 metres, a strike length of 630 metres and a drilled depth of 396 metres. Table 1: Summary of Estimated Resources at Chaarat (at 15th April 2008) Indicated Resources Inferred Resources Total ResourcesZone Sub-zone Tonnage Grade (g Contained Tonnage Grade Contained Tonnage Grade Contained (kt) /t Au) Gold (koz) (kt) (g/t Gold (koz) (kt) (g/t Gold (koz) Au) Au)Main Zone M2400 2,514 4.29 347 866 2.98 83 3,380 3.96 430 M3000 3,591 4.36 503 408 4.36 57 3,999 4.36 560 M3400 1,096 4.71 166 1,096 4.71 166 M3900 1,192 4.06 156 71 3.44 8 1,264 4.03 164 M4400 274 4.26 38 26 3.15 3 301 4.17 40 M5000 195 7.58 48 156 8.48 42 350 7.98 90 M6000 679 4.68 102 140 3.37 15 820 4.46 117Main Zone 8,446 4.39 1,193 2,762 4.22 374 11,208 4.35 1,567totalContact Zone C4000 587 4.0 76 241 4.08 32 829 4.02 107 C4600 1,090 4.52 158 486 4.55 71 1,576 4.53 230 C5300 3,609 4.54 527 2,775 4.32 385 6,384 4.44 912Contact Zone 5,286 4.48 761 3,503 4.33 488 8,788 4.42 1,248totalTulkubash T0700 1,642 4.70 248 473 4.66 71 2,115 4.69 319Zone Totals 15,374 4.45 2,202 6,738 4.31 933 22,111 4.41 3,134 Dekel Golan CEO comments; "We are delighted with the results of the latestresource estimate on the wide mineralised zones at Chaarat. We are particularlypleased that the past year's drilling has increased the gold resource by overone million ounces and that the grade of the resource has also increased. Thepotential of the resource will be enhanced further when the silver and antimonyvalues, associated with the gold mineralisation, are taken into account. Thedrilling of down dip and strike extensions during this year will aim to increasethese resources towards our initial target of delineating a resource of fourmillion ounces." This resource estimate is compiled from all diamond drill holes completed on 11project areas at Chaarat to date and includes the resources documented in theCompetent Persons Report ("CPR") of September 2007 for the 2006 drilling season,as well as the 2007 drilling results received subsequent to the calculation ofthat resource estimate, together with the samples taken from the adit. Theselater drilling results have all been published in press releases between Januaryand April 2008, after the usual delays in receipt and processing of assayresults. A total of 115 drill holes were included in the resource estimate and weredrilled on the three sub parallel zones of mineralisation at Chaarat, the Main,the Contact and the Tulkubash Zones, which are characterized by mineralisation,up to 24 metres wide and dipping at 55 to 70 degrees to the north west. (Please click on the link below to view the Chaarat Projects & Estimated Resources map): http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/8120s_-2008-4-21.pdf The deepest drill intersection on the C5300 Project Area is 429 metres and onthe M3000 Project Area the deepest intersection is 296 metres. On the other nineproject areas included in the resource estimate, resource drilling is limited todepths of between 115 to 230 metres. On all project areas, the mineralisation remains open down dip and on mostproject areas it is open along strike. Underground drilling continues from theadit on the C5300 Project Area and the 2008 drilling programme will employ 6surface drill rigs with the aim of increasing this resource in the coming year.Simultaneously, a scoping study is nearing completion in which bulk miningmethods, both open pit and underground, are being considered for the mining ofthe wide mineralised zones. QA/QC PROCEDURES; Methodology The estimated resources for the Main, Contact, Normat and Karator mineralisedzones at the Chaarat gold deposit in Kyrgyzstan were re-calculated by BehreDolbear in March-April 2008, using industry standard geological modelling andresource estimation software. The estimation took into account all the available exploration data from all theprevious (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007) exploration and drilling campaigns,including:- drillholes, dozer-cuts, trenches and underground sampling. The data was used to develop new, three-dimensional, geological wireframe modelsfor each mineralised zone using a cutoff grade of 2 g/t Au. Once the 3D-geological solids were built, the assay values were composited through thesolids using a technique of variable length with a minimum intersection intervalof 2m, which was considered appropriate for the variography of the deposit. In the previous (2007) estimation, the Main zone was subdivided into three sub-zones identified as M3000, M3400 and M3900; and the Contact zone was alsodivided into three sub-zones identified as C4000, C4600 and C5300 respectively,which were all considered to be statistically separate for resource estimationpurposes. The recent infill-drilling has demonstrated the depth and width continuity ofthe geological boundaries of the Main and Contact zones and has resulted in asignificant (50%) increase in the volume of the mineralisation compared with theprevious resource estimates. It also showed that the sub-zones aregeostatistically similar in their variography, so the Main and Contact zonescould be considered as single domains and therefore the same estimationparameters could be applied to each of the sub-zones. However, Zone T0700(previously the Normat zone), as well as the Karator zone, were estimatedseparately. The Ordinary Kriging (OK) geostatistical method was used for the estimation ofthe Main and Contact zones. The Squared Inverse Distance (ID2) method was usedfor the T0700 (Normat) zone and the Karator zone was estimated manually usingthe polygonal method. The size of the blocks were 10m x 5m x 10m and the topelevation was 2900masl and the bottom elevation was 2100masl. Indicatedresources were projected a maximum of 50m from the nearest ore-gradeintersection. The minor amounts ( < 5%) of near surface oxidised ore were notdifferentiated. Competent Person Dr. Richard James Fletcher is qualified to act as a "competent person" asdefined in the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, MineralResources and Ore Reserves' and accepts responsibility for the information onExploration Results and Mineral Resources in this report. Behre Dolbear affirmsthat Mr Fletcher:- • has more than 10 years experience in the former Soviet Union region, • is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, • has more than 40 years experience in the estimation, assessment and evaluation of mineral resources and ore reserves that is relevant to the styles of mineralisation and the types of deposits under consideration. About the Chaarat Gold Project The Chaarat project is situated within the Middle Tien Shan Mountains ofKyrgyzstan which form part of the Tien Shan gold belt. The Company's explorationprogramme is aimed at increasing the confidence levels in the resource throughinfill drilling and increasing the resource to four million ounces, throughdown-dip and along-strike extension drilling. In addition, the company intendsto explore the remaining gold occurrences outside of those currently drilled inthe central six kilometres of the 28 kilometres of strike length within theChaarat Licence Area. About Chaarat Gold Holdings Chaarat is an exploration company founded for the purpose of developing theChaarat License Area. Chaarat was admitted to AIM on 8 November 2007. TheCompany has 71.9 million shares issued (78.4 fully diluted). Disclaimer This press release includes forward-looking statements. Such forward-lookingstatements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other importantfactors beyond Chaarat's control that would cause the actual results,performance or achievements of Chaarat to be materially different from futureresults, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerousassumptions regarding Chaarat's present and future business strategies and theenvironment in which Chaarat will operate in the future. Any forward-lookingstatements speak only as at the date of this document. Chaarat expresslydisclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisionsto any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change inChaarat's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditionsor circumstances on which any such statements are based. As a result of thesefactors, the events described in the forward-looking statements in this pressrelease may not occur either partially or at all. Enquiries: Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 20 7499 2612Dekel Golan - Dekel@chaarat.comTerry Cross - terry@caserve.co.ukCanaccord Adams Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7050 6500Mike JonesRobin Birchall This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange