29th Sep 2005 08:39
Peter Hambro Mining PLC29 September 2005 Acquisition of 74.9% stake in YamalMining 29 September Peter Hambro Mining plc ("PHM" or the "Group") announces that it has subscribedfor 74.9% of the shares of OAO "Yamalskaya Gornaya Kompania" ("YamalMining").The consideration, payable in Roubles, is c.US$10.8 million. The Groupannounced in the interim results, published on 22nd September 2005, thatdiscussions were ongoing and expected to be finalised in October. YamalMining owns a number of attractive assets in the Yamal Nenetsk AutonomousDistrict ("Yamal District"). These include: •The 10% of OAO "YamalZoloto" ("YamalZoloto") not already owned by the Group. YamalZoloto is the company currently owning all of the Group's interests in the Yamal District of Russia (see 2004 Annual Report & Accounts for more information); •Further exploration licences close to PHM's YamalZoloto licence area. Details of the resources already identified in these licence areas are set out below. •A 24% stake in a profitable local chrome exploration and extraction business. Both YamalZoloto and YamalMining are located within the Polar Arctic Circle andare headquartered in Salekhard, the capital of the Yamal District, which is oneof Russia's largest natural gas producing regions. PHM believes the acquisition considerably strengthens the Group's position inthe region and adds to the Group's resource base without a significant drain onthe Group's cash, since the consideration is being paid as a subscription intoYamalMining which becomes a Group company. Commenting on the announcement, Peter Hambro, Executive Chairman of PHM, said: "In April 2004, with our stake in YamalZoloto, we invested for the first time inthe Yamal District. We have used the same business model that we have used forover 11 years in the Amur region, which involves the acquisition of high qualityassets that are supported by local expertise and rely on excellentinfrastructure. Exploration results from our existing licences in the Yamal District -Novogodnee Monto deposit and PetroPavlovsk ore occurrence, both physical andanalytical, have been encouraging. A feasibility study on the development ofNovogodnee Monto is expected in early 2006. Exceptionally easy access to the railway, some 400 metres away from theYamalZoloto licence area, and to the airport make this area one of the mostaccessible mining areas in Russia. We believe that the new investment, which gives us an increased share in ourexisting assets in this region, additional resources and the potential to expandour exploration activity in a new area, shows our belief that the region will bea very exciting one for Peter Hambro Mining's future growth." YamalMining's Exploration Licences YamalMining owns a number of early stage exploration licenses for polymetallicore occurrences and anomalies on the territory of the Yamal District in closeproximity to the area covered by the Novogodnee Monto licence (owned by theGroup though YamalZoloto). The Group's exploration team believe there is good potential for upgrading ofthe early stage Russian P category resource deposits to C category reserves byadditional exploration and feasibility study work. On the basis of the information available to date the parts of the licenceterritory which we believe to have the most potential are as follows: 1. Ozerno-Pyatirechenskaya zone (ore subzones Ozernii and Pyatirechenskii) (c.80 km South of YamalZoloto licence area) Exploration of the first zone shows mineralisation of chalcopyrite andpyrrhotite, and to the lesser extent by magnetite, pyrite, millerite,cobaltiferous pentlandite, sphalerite and galena. Six drill holes 400 m. in length intersected lenticular orebodies up to 20m inthickness followed to a depth of 150m. Sample analysis shows :- Copper grades of 1.16%,Zinc 0.1%,Iron oxide 12%. 20 samples analysed indicated the following approximate grades: Platinum 0.2 g/tGold 0.4 g/tPalladium 0.2 g/tSilver 4.5g/t Copper reserves in the explored area have the potential to be qualified as 150000 tonnes of C2 type. P2 Resources in this zone are currently estimated as follows: Copper 1.5m tonnesTitanium 300,000 tonnesIron 10m tonnesCobalt 55,000 tonnesGold 60 tonnesSilver 600 tonnesPGM 30 tonnes 2. Rudnogorskii zone (ore subzones Rudnaya Gorka 3 and Rudnaya Gorka 1 ) (c.80km South of YamalZoloto licence area) The Rudnogorskii Zone skarn-magnetite occurrences are located 10-15km to theeast of Ozerno-Pyatirechenskaya zone within a volcano-plutonic belt as a seriesof magnetite ore occurrences and deposits with a geological structure verysimilar to the Novogodnee Monto type. These occurrences are represented bysulphide magnetite skarns and metasomatite zones with sulphides. Rudnaya Gorka 3 is located on the watershed of the river Tan'yu and El'kashor.Exploration was carried out in 1952 and discovered a sulphide-magnetite depositrepresented by lenticular and tabular ore bodies with three bodies 50 meters inlength and 3 meters thickness and two bodies 150m x 6m and 25m x 4m.Aeromagnetic surveying suggested a complex copper-gold-platinum-palladium orestructure. Results of 65 trench samples and 60 point samples indicate the presence of highconcentrations of Copper up to 1.41%Gold up to 2.15g/tPalladium up to 1.66 g/tPlatinum up to 0.26 g/t with a considerable correlation between the distribution of precious metals andbase metal sulphides. P2 resources in this zone are currentlyestimated as follows: Copper 1m tonnesPGM 40 tonnesIron 10m tonnesTitanium 700 tonnesVanadium 1.5m tonnesGold 40-50 tonnesMagnetite ores (P2+P3) 345m. tonnes 3. Shuchinskaya metallogenic zone (c.100 km North of YamalZoloto licence area) Magnetite-skarn deposits of Shuchinskauya metallogenic zone (associated with theNerutsvakha ore deposit) include the deposit Yun'-Yaga and 18 ore occurrencesaround it containing C2 reserves of iron oxide of 72m tonnes and P1 and P2resources of 139m tonnes. The Sibileinaya ore occurrence P2+P3 category is estimated at 219m tonnes ofiron oxide. The mineralisation was not systematically analysed for gold, butisolated samples with grades of 10.5g/t, 7.6g/t., 5.3g/t indicate the presenceof gold mineralisation. By analogy with other deposits of a similar type, itcan be estimated that this represents a P3 category resource of 400 tonnes ofgold. Chromite Company YamalMining owns 24% of the issued capital of OAO "Kongor-Chrom", a chromiteconcentrate mining company, the majority shareholder of which is OAO"Chelyabinskii Elektrometallurgicheski Kombinat" the main buyer of theconcentrate. OAO "Kongor-Chrom" in 2004 mined c.300,000 tonnes of chromite ore per annum(with planned expansion to 1 million tonnes per annum) with grades of 0.25-45%and enriches it to 40-50% by preliminary crushing, selection, dryelectromagnetic separation and wet gravitation. Brief details supplied to PHM are: •The cost per tone of concentrate ranges from US$60-$80/t •The market price of 40% concentrate is US$130/t •The reserves/resource base is at C1 30m tonnes and P2+P3 400,000m tonnes Enquiries: Investor Relations, Peter Hambro Mining Alya Samokvalova (Director of External Communications) / Marianna Adams +44 (0) 20 7201 8900 Merlin Tom Randell / Maria Suleymanova +44 (0) 20 7653 6620 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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