4th May 2006 10:25
Amur Minerals Corporation04 May 2006 4 May 2006 Amur Minerals Corporation (AIM: AMC) Commencement of Exploration Field Season at Kun-Manie Amur Minerals Corporation ("Amur" or "the Company"), the AIM-listed nickelcopper exploration company with assets in far east Russia, announces that itwill begin its 2006 exploration programme on its Kun-Manie nickel projectlocated in the Amur Province within the next two weeks. This year's programmehas been reviewed and approved by management. All materials and supplies necessary to complete this year's programme are nowon site. The winterised equipment has been re-commissioned, inspected andpreventative maintenance has been completed on the diamond drill core rig, theall terrain vehicles and the bull dozers. The current site crew is continuingpreparation of the camp facilities for the upcoming season. This programme will include ground geophysics, approximately 4,000 metres ofdrilling, 600 linear metres of trenching, geochemical sampling and geologicalmapping within the main geological structure identified as the Krumkon Trend.As stated in the Competent Person's Report by SRK Consulting, which was includedin Amur's Admission Document ("SRK Report"), this 40 kilometre long trend hostsmore than 100 flat lying websterite sills which are the primary hosts of thenickel and copper mineralisation. The sills range in thickness from one metreto more than 40 metres in thickness. During the last two years, three areas have been explored by diamond coredrilling and are located within a five kilometre long segment of the trend. Thedeposits are identified as Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon. Based on the 2004and 2005 diamond core drill programmes and the associated analytical results,the SRK Report estimated that the resource within Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoecontains 209,000 tonnes of nickel and 58,500 tonnes of copper. Past exploration has also identified three additional drill targets along thestrike of the trend to both the east and west. These represent areas requiringdrilling and further exploration and are known as Maly Krumkon, Chornie Ispeleneand Kubuk. All six areas thus far identified are contained within a 15 kilometre longsegment of the 40 kilometre long trend. The remaining 25 kilometres remainshighly prospective as geological mapping and sampling confirms the presence ofwebsterite sills and anomalous nickel grades. As in the two past seasons, the Company's annual exploration programme has athree tiered approach comprised of the following: • Generation Of New Drill Targets: This on going investigative workwill be conducted in areas along the Krumkon Trend where limited reconnaissancework has been completed to date. It will focus on areas of interest defined bythe presence of geologically mapped websterite sills and associated anomalousnickel values. Two crews of two geologists each will be dedicated to this task. • Testing Of New Targets: Each year, the Company drill tests a newtarget. This year's focus is the Maly Krumkon area located approximately fivekilometres to the west of Vodorazdelny. Here existing geological mappingresults, geochemical sampling and trenching confirm the presence of anomalousnickel values in excess of 0.4%. The zone is mapped as having a length of morethan one kilometre with a thickness ranging from 3 to 70 metres. Diamond coredrilling is scheduled for this area during May and June at programme start up.A total of nine holes are budgeted containing 1,150 planned metres. Fourtrenches having a total of 320 linear metres are planned. • Resource Development: The primary focus of this year's programme willremain on the five kilometre long area where the past diamond core drillingresults have identified the three deposits of Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon. This area's programme includes the completion of 360 linear metres oftrenching and approximately 2,850 metres of drilling in 36 planned drill holes.This work is designed to accomplish the following: 1. Drilling will be completed between existing holes. This will increasethe confidence in the existing Indicated and Inferred resource as defined by SRKand should allow for upgrading the resources by category. 2. Holes will be completed beyond those that contain mineralisationpresently located at the edges of the existing drill pattern. This part of theprogramme is intended to define additional mineralisation and potentiallyincrease the current resource inventory. Completion of the Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe programme will ultimately providethe Company with a resource drilled at an appropriate spacing to allow for thecalculation of a resource estimate suitable for submission to the StateCommittee of Reserves (GKZ). The timing of the submission is planned for theend of this year or in the first quarter of 2007. Once approved, Amur will havemet its final obligation required under the terms of its exploration licence.Though not required until December 2008, the Company intends to complete thisobligation as soon as possible to allow Amur to apply for a Discovery andsubsequently convert the five year exploration licence into a Mining /Production licence which will have a 20 year life. Commenting on the upcoming programme, CEO Robin Young stated, "We are pleased tobe in a position to trigger this year's exploration programme on schedule andwith a well defined set of objectives. Each of the previous two explorationseasons has allowed us to build value in the Kun-Manie asset. Our aim is tocontinue to do so and we are optimistic about the coming year." Ends Enquiries: Amur Minerals Corp. Nabarro Wells & Co. Limited Parkgreen CommunicationsRobin Young John Wilkes Justine HowarthCEO 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-PGM deposit located in the Amur Province in the fareast of the Russian Federation. The Kun-Manie licence area is approximately 950km(2) and is located 700 km northeast of the capital city of Blagoveshchensk andis 750km north of the Chinese border. In April 2004 ZAO Kun-Manie, a whollyowned subsidiary of Amur, was granted a licence to explore for nickel andrelated metals, including copper, 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 three mineralisedtargets, the Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoe and Falcon zones each of which warrantfurther exploration. The three deposits are located within a five kilometerlong segment of the 40 kilometre long Krumkon Trend which is the primaryexploration target within the licence area. An additional three targetsidentified as Maly Krumkon, Chornie Ispelene and Kubuk have been identifiedwithin the trend and require additional geological investigation and drilling.In combination, the six deposits are located along approximately 50% of thelength of the Krumkon Trend whilst the remainder of the trend also containsadditional potential based on geochemical sampling and geological mapping whichhas identified anomalously mineralised host structures needing additionalreconnaissance and detailed exploration work. To date and within 10- 15% of the Krumkon host structure, detailed explorationand an independently calculated resource estimate compiled by SRK Consultingindicates the presences of Indicated and Inferred resources. These arecontained within the two deposits of the Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe zones. Asdisclosed in the Competent Person's Report within the Amur Admission Documentdated 10th March 2006, these total some 46.1Mt at a mean grade of 0.45% nickel,giving 209,000 tonnes of contained nickel; 0.13% copper, giving 58,500 tonnes ofcontained copper. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange