FML.L Regulatory News (FML)

9 Dec 2005 08:00

Frontier Mining Ltd09 December 2005 9 December 2005 AIM: FML Frontier Mining Ltd. ("the Company" or "Frontier") Results of 2005 Kotansor Copper Prospect Exploration Programme Frontier is pleased to announce the results of its 2005 exploration programme atthe Kotansor copper prospect. Highlights • Disseminated copper mineralisation is hosted by a 3 km long and 1 km wide granodiorite intrusive. Approximately 0.51 km(2), or 17%, of the intrusive was explored in 2005. • The explored area contains three historic mine workings with reported production in the 1870's of about 1,000 tonnes of copper. • The quartz-sericite alteration zone enveloping the oxide copper mineralisation covered 0.4 km(2). • The preliminary inferred geologic resource (C2-P1) to a depth of 120 metres is estimated by management to contain approximately 14.2 million tonnes of ore at 0.22% Cu, or 31,400 tonnes of contained copper. Drilling indicated the oxide ore occurs from surface to a depth of 45 metres, and the chalcosite-rich secondary enrichment zone continues to a depth of 75 metres. • Several drill holes contained intercepts of sulfide mineralisation with grades approaching 1% at depths of more than 100 metres. Management believes this mineralisation belongs to a district-wide deep-seated porphyry copper system. • The Kotansor oxide ore is believed to be amenable to solvent extraction/ electrowinning ("SX-EW") processing and may serve as an additional resource to the larger copper resources at Baitimir, Beschoku and Yubileiny. The 2005 exploration programme covered approximately 0.51 km2, just 0.17%, ofthe total 231.2 km2 Beschoku-Yubileiny commercial discovery area. The programmeincluded 0.51 km2 of alteration mapping; 263 soil geochemical samples coveringan area of 0.51 km2; a ground magnetic survey covering 0.51 km2; InducedPolarization ("IP") and Chargeability geophysics covering an area of 0.51 km2;and 973.5 metres of drilling consisting of 13 core holes ranging in depth from50 to 123.6 metres. Brian Savage, CEO of Frontier, comments, "We have only just begun to exploreKotansor. The preliminary grade estimate is 0.22% copper and we have foundadditional mineralisation along the copper trend. We recognise that not all ofour initial exploration efforts will produce economic deposits but it doesprovide useful information for our ongoing exploration programme, and we willprioritise our efforts on those targets that offer the best potential." Kotansor prospect oxide and sulphide resource summary Deposit Present size Cu Cu Contained (km2) Ore Grade Copper (mln t) (%) (tonnes)Kotansor oxide 0.16 7.240 0.29 21,000Kotansor sulphide 0.16 7.086 0.16 11,338Total oxide and sulphide 0.16 14.256 0.22 31,400 2005 Kotansor copper prospect exploration update The 2005 exploration programme included the following: Hydrothermal alteration mapping indicates that the 0.4 km(2) quartz-sericitealteration zone envelops the oxide copper mineralisation. Alteration zoningtypical for porphyry copper systems were found to exist and were mapped asfollows: • propylitic: 0.03 km2 • K-feldspar: 0.01 km2 • quartz-sericite: 0.4 km2 Copper in soil geochemical survey covered an area of approximately 0.51 km2.Within this area sampling was conducted on a 200 metres by 40 metres grid andyielded 62 samples. More detailed sampling was carried out in intenselymineralised areas on a 50 metres by 20 metres grid and yielded an additional 201samples. Highlights of the survey were: • Anomaly with copper varying from 500 ppm to 1,000 ppm over a 0.08 km2 area • Anomaly with more than 1,000 ppm copper cover 0.02 sq. km2 Ground magnetic survey covered 2.6 km(2) along 6 profiles. Magnetic anomaliesmarked the oxide mineralisation zone in granodiorite located near its contactwith basaltic host rocks. Induced Polarisation/ Chargeability survey consisted of 1 IP profile which is440 metres long and 6 magnetic profiles totaling 2.6 line km. Diamond drilling programme at Kotansor consisted of 13 drill holes totaling973.5 metres and 607 samples. All holes were drilled to test the copper in soilgeochemical and geophysical anomalies. Results of the drilling programmeinclude: • Thickness of individual copper intervals vary from 0.6 metres to 8.0 metres • Cummulative thickness of mineralised intervals in drill holes reaches 32.6 metres • Oxide copper grade varies from 0.12% to 1.40% Future plans Frontier plans to explore the remainder of the mineralised granodioriteintrusive to find higher grade intercepts. Enquiries: Frontier Mining Ltd Brian Savage +44 (0)20 7849 6530Parkgreen Communications Cathy Malins / Annabel Leather +44 (0)20 7493 3713 About Frontier Frontier Mining Ltd. is a mineral exploration and development company that wasincorporated in the state of Delaware, USA, on August 5, 1998 for the purpose ofexploring and developing gold and copper deposits in the Republic of Kazakhstan.Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Frontier locates, evaluates,acquires, explores and develops mineral properties. Frontier has two licenses owned by its wholly owned subsidiaries in Kazakhstan.They are the Naimanjal exploration and mining licence, held by FML Kazakhstan,and the Baltemir exploration licence, held by Baltemir LLP. Frontier has oneproducing gold mine, Naimanjal; one pre-feasibility stage gold project,Koskuduk; and one exploration stage gold prospect, Baltemir. Naimanjal isforecast by management to produce 25,000 ounces of gold in 2006 at a cash costof $250 per ounce. Frontier currently intends to double its gold production to50,000 ounces in 2007 and double it again to 100,000 ounces in 2008. Managementbelieves its gold projects contain more than two million ounces of oxide goldresource. Frontier also has one pre-feasibility stage copper porphyry deposit withassociated gold and molybdenum, Baitimir; and several copper/gold prospectsalong a 25-km trend including both VMS and porphyry types. Metallurgical testson its Beschoku and Yubileiny copper projects confirm the oxide copper ore isamenable to extraction using low cost SX-EW technology. Management believes thecopper projects contain more than 1,000,000 tonnes (2.2 billion pounds) ofcopper (P1) resource with significant potential for increase. Frontier iscurrently evaluating acquisition opportunities in uranium, gold, and copper inKazakhstan and the CIS countries. Frontier shares are traded on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.Frontier has 89,209,931 ordinary shares issued and 10,723,747 outstandingoptions and warrants, giving 99,933,678 fully diluted ordinary shares. Further company information may be accessed at the Frontier Mining Ltd. websiteat: www.frontiermining.com KOTANSOR 2005 Drill Hole Programme Summary copper assay results above 0.1% Cu cut-off Important note: total for the "To" column refers to the total drill hole depth total for the "Thickness, m" column refers to the sum of the thickness intervalsin each hole ave is the weighted average grade of copper in the mineralised zones. Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-14 Kotansor 9.0 14.5 5.5 0.17 BCH-14 Kotansor 16.3 18.8 2.5 0.13 BCH-14 Kotansor 28.0 32.0 4.0 0.10 BCH-14 Kotansor 50.5 53.5 3.0 0.25 BCH-14 Kotansor 101.6 103.0 1.4 0.12 BCH-14 Kotansor 104.5 106.0 1.5 0.10 BCH-14 Kotansor 108.5 114.5 6.0 0.39 BCH-14 Kotansor 121.9 123.6 1.7 0.23total or ave 123.6 31.1 0.20 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-19 Kotansor 0.00 4.5 4.5 0.30 BCH-19 Kotansor 6.0 7.5 1.5 0.18 BCH-19 Kotansor 9.0 10.5 1.5 0.51 BCH-19 Kotansor 21.0 22.5 1.5 0.12 BCH-19 Kotansor 24.0 28.0 4.0 0.19 BCH-19 Kotansor 29.5 30.5 1.0 0.11 BCH-19 Kotansor 38.5 40.0 1.5 0.32 BCH-19 Kotansor 43.0 48.0 5.0 0.25 BCH-19 Kotansor 57.0 60.6 3.6 0.17 BCH-19 Kotansor 86.5 94.5 8.0 0.15 BCH-19 Kotansor 99.0 105.0 6.0 0.32total or ave 113.0 38.1 0.23 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-21 Kotansor 0.5 7.5 7.0 0.18 BCH-21 Kotansor 15.0 16.5 1.5 0.09 BCH-21 Kotansor 21.0 22.5 1.5 0.59 BCH-21 Kotansor 51.7 57.4 5.7 0.13 BCH-21 Kotansor 69.4 70.9 1.5 0.14total or ave 112.5 17.2 0.18 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-26 Kotansor 19.5 20.4 0.9 0.17 BCH-26 Kotansor 60.0 62.8 2.8 0.21 BCH-26 Kotansor 65.8 67.4 1.6 0.13total or ave 67.4 5.3 0.17 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-28 Kotansor 7.8 11.3 3.5 0.26 BCH-28 Kotansor 14.5 18.0 3.5 0.23 BCH-28 Kotansor 24.0 27.1 3.1 0.12 BCH-28 Kotansor 34.6 36.1 1.5 0.10 BCH-28 Kotansor 61.6 63.1 1.5 0.11total or ave 80.8 13.1 0.18 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-29 Kotansor 11.3 12.8 1.5 0.11 BCH-29 Kotansor 16.3 18.8 2.5 0.13 BCH-29 Kotansor 19.9 21.7 1.8 0.14 BCH-29 Kotansor 41.9 46.4 4.5 0.14 BCH-29 Kotansor 49.2 50.7 1.5 0.41 BCH-29 Kotansor 54.6 55.8 1.2 0.15 BCH-29 Kotansor 68.4 69.7 1.3 0.10total or ave 70.7 14.3 0.16 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-30 Kotansor 5.3 7.1 1.8 0.15 BCH-30 Kotansor 27.5 28.7 1.2 1.40 BCH-30 Kotansor 31.3 37.0 5.7 0.62total or ave 52.1 8.7 0.63 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-31 Kotansor 43.9 46.9 3.0 0.13total or ave 50.0 3.0 0.13 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-32 Kotansor 0.2 3.0 2.8 0.34 BCH-32 Kotansor 30.6 31.4 0.8 0.19 BCH-32 Kotansor 32.8 33.8 1.0 0.26 BCH-32 Kotansor 39.4 40.9 1.5 0.37 BCH-32 Kotansor 45.5 47.0 1.5 0.59 BCH-32 Kotansor 50.0 51.5 1.5 0.16 BCH-32 Kotansor 53.0 59.2 6.2 0.40total or ave 61.5 15.3 0.36 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-33 Kotansor 1.6 4.6 3.0 0.19 BCH-33 Kotansor 13.0 13.6 0.6 0.16 BCH-33 Kotansor 22.4 23.8 1.4 0.12 BCH-33 Kotansor 40.6 41.6 1.0 0.17total or ave 62.2 6.0 0.17 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-34 Kotansor 4.4 5.5 1.1 0.17 BCH-34 Kotansor 15.1 16.6 1.5 0.11 BCH-34 Kotansor 25.9 33.4 7.5 0.56 BCH-34 Kotansor 34.8 36.3 1.5 0.13 BCH-34 Kotansor 37.8 39.3 1.5 0.12total or ave 69.4 13.1 0.37 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-35 Kotansor 32.9 34.4 1.5 0.16total or ave 59.1 1.5 0.16 Hole No. Site From To Thickness, Cu, % M BCH-36 Kotansor 0.1 3.6 3.5 0.15 BCH-36 Kotansor 17.0 19.1 2.1 0.34 BCH-36 Kotansor 21.5 23.6 2.1 0.23 BCH-36 Kotansor 28.5 29.5 1.0 0.10 BCH-36 Kotansor 32.7 35.7 3.0 0.24 BCH-36 Kotansor 37.2 38.3 1.1 0.24total or ave 51.2 12.8 0.22 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange