19th Mar 2007 07:01
Amur Minerals Corporation19 March 2007 19 March 2007 Amur Minerals Corporation ("Amur" or "the Company") Amur Signs Contract for 2007 Field Season at Kun-Manie Amur Minerals Corporation (AIM: AMC) announces its Kun-Manie subsidiary hassigned a contract with Dalgeophysica for exploration work for the 2007 fieldseason. Summary €2007 field season to include 5,520 metres of diamond core drilling, including: •Continued development drilling in the Vodorazdelny and Ikenskoe areas •Resource enlargement drilling at Maly Krumkon •Scout drilling at Yan Hegd •Geophysics in drill targets and adjacent areas •Contract value includes field camp support, transportation and other logistical support •Contract value 90.6 million Roubles (US$ 3.5 million) Robin Young, Amur's Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This contract is hardevidence of our continued commitment to developing a mine at Kun-Manie. In 2007we will look to continue our track record of adding value to the project. We areconfident that we can add at least 50,000 tons of contained nickel during thisyear." The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed and approved bythe CEO of Amur, Robin Young. Mr. Young is a Geological Engineer (cum laude) andis a Qualified Professional Geologist, as defined by the Toronto and VancouverStock Exchanges. Enquiries: Amur Minerals Corp. RBC Capital Markets Parkgreen CommunicationsRobin Young Andrew Smith Victoria ThomasCEO Martin Eales+44 (0) 7981 126 818 +44 (0) 20 7029 7881 +44 (0) 20 7851 7480 Notes to Editors About Amur Minerals Amur's principal asset is the 100% owned Kun-Manie exploration licence, anickel-copper deposit located in the Amur Province in the far east of theRussian Federation. The Kun-Manie licence area is approximately 950 km(2) and islocated 700 km northeast of the capital city of Blagoveshchensk and is 750kmnorth 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, three ofwhich warrant further exploration as the limits of the mineralisation have notbeen identified. The four zones are located within a 15 kilometre long segmentof the 40 kilometre long Krumkon Trend. This trend is the primary explorationtarget within the licence area. An additional three targets identified asChornie Ispelene, Yan Hegd and Kubuk (also referred to as Ata) have beenidentified as additional drill targets. Chornie Ispelene and Kubuk lie withinthe trend whilst Yan Hegd is located approximately 8 kilometres to its north.Approximately 50% of the Krumkon Trend remains to be examined by reconnaissancework where existing Soviet data indicates potential exists to identifyadditional drill targets. Exploration drill results have been utilised by SRK Consulting to calculateresources. These include resources of the Measured, Indicated and Inferredcategories which have been estimated for the deposits of Vodorazdelny, Ikenskoeand Maly Krumkon. Effective January, 2007, the independently compiled ResourceEstimate consists of a total of 53.3 Mt at a mean grade of 0.48% nickel and0.14% copper containing 254,500 tonnes of nickel; and 73,000 tonnes of copper.This is summarised in the following table. SRK Consulting's 2006 Year End Resource Report =========== ======== ====== ====== ===== ======Orebody Tonnage Ni Ni Cu Cu (Mt) (%) (t) (%) (t)=========== ======== ====== ====== ===== ======VodorazdelnyIndicated 5.9 0.71 41,800 0.20 11,800 IkenskoeMeasured 3.7 0.61 22,700 0.16 5,800Indicated 26.8 0.42 111,300 0.12 32,700Sub-total 30.5 0.44 134,000 0.13 38,500Inferred 5.9 0.49 28,700 0.13 7,500Total Ikenskoe 36.4 0.45 162,700 0.13 46,000 Maly KrumkonInferred 11.0 0.45 50,000 0.14 15,200 Total Measured 3.7 0.61 22,700 0.16 5,800Total Indicated 32.7 0.47 153,100 0.14 44,500Total Inferred 16.9 0.47 78,700 0.13 22,700Grand Total 53.3 0.48 254,500 0.14 73,000----------- -------- ------ -------- ----- ------- Presently, Amur is compiling a prefeasibility study on the Kun-Manie Project tobe completed in the second quarter of 2007. Concurrently, work is also beingconducted on the assembly of a report to be submitted to the State Committee onReserves (GKZ). Upon approval, the GKZ shall issue a certificate of "Discovery".This certification allows the Company to continue along the process ofconverting portions of the exploration licence into a mining licence. Immediately to the east of the Kun-Manie licence and across the Amur Oblast andKhabarovsk Krai border, Amur has acquired the Kustakskaya Project. This 1,034square kilometre, 25 year exploration and production licence contains twogeological terrains. Each terrain contains a different mineralisation typetarget. The southern half of the licence is interpreted to be a continuation ofthe Krumkon Trend identified within the Kun-Manie exploration licence. Thenorthern half of the licence area contains Mesozoic granitic intrusives whereinhistorical Russian results indicate the potential for copper, cobalt and minornickel to be present. The Company will undertake field exploration of thislicence area in 2008 in accordance with the terms of the licence. Havingrecently acquired this licence, the Company places no value on this property. Amur also controls the Anadjakan gold-copper exploration licence in KharaborvskKrai near the well-infrastructured city of Elban. The Company chooses not toreport any value on this asset until it concludes its comprehensive review ofall information and verifies existing Russian results. The 2007 explorationprogramme for this area is designed to check the historical results and definefuture drill targets. The exploration of this licence area will begin during the2007 field season. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange