Chaarat Gold is an exploration and development company operating in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Company’s main activity is the development of the Kiziltash and Tulkubash projects situated within the Middle Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, which form part of the Tien Shan gold belt. The Company has delineated a JORC compliant mineral resource of 4.406Moz at a grade of 4.20g/t gold across both projects. Chaarat's key objective is to become a low cost gold producer; with initial production from the Tulkubash project, targeting annual production of over 200,000 ounces per annum as the Kiziltash project comes on stream.
05/12/11
Kyrgyzstan is already a significant exporter of gold thanks to the country’s Kumtor mine, which after 16 years in operation has produced several million ounces of gold. Chaarat believes it has an opportunity to duplicate that success
07/02/11
The junior gold company unveiled a £51 million funding that will fast-track the first gold pour to 2012. It will initially start open-pit mining from the Tulkubash open pit later this year. This lower-cost operation will help fund a massive underground development that will access over 4 million ounces of contained gold. We caught up with Mark Heyhoe of Westhouse Securities to get his take on this compelling central Asian gold story.
02/11/10
Chaarat Gold will split its 4 million ounce gold project in the Kyrgyz Republic, to bring the Tulkubash open pit into production quicker, with first gold expected as early as Q4 2011. Meanwhile the company is still progressing the Main Project's underground development, with a drilling programme being readied to facilitate a definitive feasibility study.
17/08/10
We get a progress report from boss Dekel Golan and find him in an up-beat and confident mood about the potential of Chaarat's mine in Kyrgyzstan.
09/03/10
Shares rose more than 10 percent in reaction to the good news from the Chaarat deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic, where evaluation of recent drilling added 670,000oz to the total resource.
16/04/12
Chaarat Gold enters talks with Kyrgyz govt over potential changes to fiscal regime05/03/12
Chaarat Gold: Total resources increase 27 pct to 5.59 mln ounces22/12/11
Chaarat Gold issues share options to directors07/12/11
Chaarat Gold’s Tulkubash project on target to start production in 201322/11/11
UPDATE: Chaarat upbeat over Tulkubash extension drilling
21/05/2012
15/03/2012
21/09/2011
20/09/2011
26/11/2009
Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd is a gold exploration and development company which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM:CGH).
Chaarat Gold holds several licenses for exploration and development in the Kyrgyz Republic, the principal asset being the Chaarat Gold Project. This license area hosts a mineralised system almost 40 km long which continues at depth. The limited work already completed by the Company has already delineated over 5 Million ounces of gold. It is widely believed that this is the tip of the iceberg and that Chaarat hosts a much larger resource.
Chaarat’s objective is to become a low cost, large scale gold producer. This project is well underway; fully funded for the first gold pour due in 2013.
The Chaarat Gold Project is located in the Tien Shan mountain range, a prolific gold belt that hosts many of the world’s major gold deposits. Chaarat is nestled between Muruntau – the world’s largest deposit with 62m+ ounces of reserves— to the west, and Kumtor— which hosts about 20 million ounces— to the east.
Highlights
· $80m raised and so fully funded for first production.
· Resource developed to over 5 Million ounces at a grade of 4.28 g/t.
Initial production from the Tulkubash zone, one of the three mineralised zones currently being delineated, is targeted to commence at a rate of about 35,000 ounces per annum. Production is planned to ramp up quickly to over 200,000 ounces per annum.
Work on the two major infrastructure items - road construction and connection to electrical generating capacity – is well underway, supported by local and international construction companies.
Additional preliminary works, including the start of earthworks in the plant area and the construction of two camps, has also started.
Chaarat has developed a strong exploration team which is also applying its knowhow and experience to developing additional prospects owned by the company, including those at Chontash, Minteke, Mironovskoye, Kashkasu and Kizil Ompil.
Chaarat Gold Project Overview
The Company plans to develop the Chaarat Gold Project in three stages:
The first stage will process primarily ore which has a low sulphur content which is to be found in the Tulkubash zone. The ore will be mined from an open pit. The processing capacity of this stage will be only 1,000 tpd and the expected annual production is 30,000-40,000 ounces of gold pa.
This first stage will include significant investment in infrastructure such as developing an access road, internal roads, power distribution and power back up systems and permanent camps.
The company is fully funded for the first stage as described above.
Whilst bringing the first phase to production and "de-risking" the project, the company expects to complete a feasibility study for the second phase which will see the plant expanding to 2,500 tpd. The mining will be done from underground where grades are higher and the plant will include an oxidation unit to maximize doré production.
The third phase will double production to 5,000 tpd and enable gold production to rise to 180,000 – 200,000 ounces pa.
The potential exists to increase production further by setting up a larger production facility.
Chaarat Gold Project Exploration
The Company’s exploration programme commenced with regional exploration in 2004 and included mapping and trenching of the known mineralised zones in the central part of the license area. In addition, some of the regional gold occurrences and areas of gold geochemical soil anomalies were mapped.
Following this work the Company applied to the Government to enlarge the license area so as to include the three identified prospects; Chaarat, Kashkasu and Minteke.
Exploration to date however has focused mainly within an area of the southernmost six kilometers of the 12 km Strike of the Chaarat Target. In this area the mineralisation is hosted in zones of up to 25 meters wide. Work to date at Minteke and Kashkasu is rather limited.
Underground development in the form of an adit, drifts and drill chambers in the Contact Zone has allowed the resource to be drill tested to a depth of 520 metres down dip with positive results.
Works include surface and underground drilling in a small section of about 1 km of the Contact Zone, surface drilling in a few areas of the Main zone and drilling and trenching in the Tulkubash zone.
As of the beginning of 2011 the exploration works is focused on bringing the resources to be mined by the company to such level as to allow the issuing of a mining permit and commence production.
The Chaarat Gold Project is currently confined to approximately ten kilometres along strike at the centre of the Sandalash License Area. Access to the Northern part of the Project is restricted by the mountainous terrain, but as road development advances additional targets are being identified which will be drilled.
Chaarat benefits from three parallel mineralized zones; the Contact Zone, the Tulkubash Zone and the Main Zone.
For more detailed information on Exploration of the Chaarat Gold Project click here
Chaarat Gold Project Resource/ Reserve Calculation
Chaarat Gold Project Geology
The Chaarat Gold Project is located at the centre of the Sandalash License Area. The gold mineralisation, typical of the Tien Shan belt, is associated with a series of sericiticaly altered sulfide rich lodes (tabular zones), within a quartzitic and shale rich meta-sedimentary succession. The lodes occur in three mineralised zones; the Main Zone, the Contact Zone and the Tulkubash Zone
The Mineralised System
Mineralisation in Chaarat is “deep epithermal” due the presence of Au, Ag, Sb and As. At the time of formation the depth, based on stratigraphic reconstruction, was in excess of 1,000 metres.
Mineralisation was controlled by the chemical reaction of hydrothermal solutions with wall rocks, as opposed to physical processes of cooling and boiling, dominating “shallow epithermal” systems. The pervasive sericitization, disseminated sulfides and ankeritization within mineralised lodes, and the relative paucity of quartz veinlets (usually less than 5% volume) are taken as indications of the lesser importance of cooling and the importance of reaction of solutions with feldspar rich wall rocks in controllingmineralisation.
Deep epithermal systems are formed in nearly isothermal conditions and are less controlled by near surface sharp temperature gradients which dominate in “shallow epithermal systems” and as a result can extend to great depths. Mineralisation in Chaarat has been demonstrated over a vertical range of close to 800 metres, between elevations of 2800 metres to 2000 metres ASL, and is still open at depth.
The best analogies to the Chaarat ore bodies are the world class Natalka, Maisk and Olimpiada gold deposits in Russia which extend over a vertical range of a few thousand meters. ( A.V. Volkov, 2007, “Model of multilevel structure of ore-columns and conditions of formation of large and superlarge Au-As-Sb disseminated deposits of invisible, refractory gold” Proc. 9th biennial meeting of the Soc. Geol. applied to Mineral deposits, Dublin, pp.573-576). We believe Chaarat has a similar depth potential.
Also noteworthy is the connection between porphyrytic diorite intrusives and mineralisation, manifested locally in mineralisation along intrusive contacts, and in the spatial association between areas with abundant intrusives and mineralisation, evident in the Contact Zone (but not in the Main or Tulkubash zones).
The presence of prograde metamorphic, high temperature calcsilicates (pyroxene-garnet) along the diorite contacts suggests gold is related to late retrograde sericitic alteration, both along intrusive contacts and mostly along high angle fault zones.
The mineralised zones are generally developed sub-parallel to the strike and dip at between 45 and 90 degrees. The gold mineralisation is associated with silver and arsenic mineralisation.
The Three Mineralised Zones
The Project divides into three zones – the Main Zone, Contact Zone and Tulkubash Zone. The Zones may ultimately prove to be connected but currently the Company is treating them as separate mineralised structures within the Chaarat Gold Project
Project Geology
The Main Zone
The Main Zone is a north-east, south-west trending, system of anastomising and braided oblique slip faults steeply dipping to the north-west. Abundant conjugate structures and riedel shear intersections provide favourable areas for mineralization. The Main Zone structure is developed within the siltstones of the Chaarat formation on the lower slopes of the Sandalash River valley and includes several discrete mineralised bodies along the strike.
The Contact Zone
The Contact Zone is a shear system developed between the Main and Tulkubash formations. Mineralisation in this zone has been discovered intermittently over a length of ten kilometres. The Contact Zone structure strikes north-east, south-west and dips at 45° to 60° to the north-west. Three separate project areas occurring along strike have been drilled: C5300, C4600 and C4000 with extensive underground development at C5300. Gold mineralisation is hosted in sheared siltstones which display sericitic alteration with minor quartz veins and calcite-ankerite, and contains some 10 to 15% pyrite, stibnite, tetrahedrite and arsenopyrite, associated with the gold mineralisation.
The Tulkubash Zone
The Tulkubash Zone is hosted in quartzites and the mineralised zones exhibit pervasive silicification and pyritization (quartz-pyrite) with local argillic alteration. Stibnite is usually present in mineralised zones, both as disseminations and in thin veinlets. The Tulkubash Zone strikes parallel to the Contact and Main Zones along most of its strike, but to the south, in the M0700 area, mineralisation also occurs along east-south-east trends where it occurs as steeply dipping en-echelon vein sets and sometimes brecciated zones between north-east, south-west oblique-slip structures, dipping north-west at 40°.
Chaarat Gold Project Metallurgy
Extensive metallurgical testwork has defined that the most effective gold recovery process for Chaarat is whole ore pressure oxidation followed by cyanidation to produce gold and silver doré. Overall gold recovery using this process has been estimated at 92%. Based on these design criteria a conventional crushing, screening and grinding circuit has been designed using three stages of crushing followed by a ball mill. The milled material after treatment for pH adjustment and pre heating is fed into an autoclave where it is heated under pressure in the presence of oxygen to oxidise the sulphidic minerals. The oxidised material is fed into a CIL battery of tanks where it is stripped of gold. Tailings from the CIL circuit will be detoxified prior to disposal in a conventional tailings dam.
The plant will be operated continuously with a planned throughput of 1,850,000t per year. Annual gold production will average approximately 202,000oz with a total of 2.48Moz of gold to be recovered over the life of the mine. Doré produced on site will be sold for further refining.
In order to reduce the technological risk, initially or in general, it is possible to add a flotation circuit and process the flotation concentrate by the same POX method. The gold recovery from the concentrate will improve to 95% but as the gold collection to the concentrate will only be 86%-90%, the overall gold recovery was conservatively estimated to be 82% for this scenario. This alternative was not evaluated at the same level of detail as the whole ore treatment.
Chaarat Gold Project Infrastructure
Accessibility and Roads
The Chaarat deposit is situated some 320km south-west of Bishkek and 145 km north-east of Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Driving distance to the deposit is 500km from Bishkek and 195km from Maimak the nearest rail terminal where the company intends to build a marshalling court.
Access to the deposit is from the main all weather road running along the Chatkal valley. This road can be accessed either from the Talas valley up north going through two mountain passes Too Ashu Pass to and the Karabura pass or from the South from the Chapchama pass.
The road to the deposit from the Chatkal valley runs along a 35 km route across the Sandalash ridge and the Kumbel mountain pass (3280 ASL) into the Sandalash. This road is currently being upgraded and converted to an all weather road.
Power
The project will be connected to the grid by a 103 km power line with a backup station located near the process plant. Approximately one third of the power line, the 5 MW back-up power station and the complete internal distribution system is being currently built. The company is preparing a detailed study of a power line from one of the main sub-stations of the country in Kristal to Chaarat. Finance will be sought in due course to complete the power line all the way to the grid hence reducing significantly the cost of power and the cost of production.
Other Licences
Additional exploration has also been undertaken at other properties, although the Company’s current focus is firmly on the Chaarat Project.
Chontash is an extremely promising gold-molybdenum-copper deposit. Whilst very little work has been completed to date a Maiden resource estimate has been compiled by Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) producing an Inferred resource of 3.6Mt of ore at 0.16% molybdenum (Mo) for 5,627 tonnes of Mo, 0.2% copper (Cu) for 7,190t of Cu, 0.045% rare earth elements (REE) for 1,627t, and 0.112% gold (Au) for 13,000oz.
At Mironovskoye, a local company has been retained to prepare a Feasibility Study in order to facilitate its sale or introduction of a partner
For information on Chaarat’s other Exploration projects click here
Board of Directors
Christopher Palmer-Tomkinson
(Non-Executive Chairman)
Christopher graduated from Oxford University and joined Cazenove in 1963. He served as a partner from 1972 until 2001 and as managing director of international corporate finance until May 2002. He was responsible at various times for Cazenove’s African and Australian business focussing on the resource sector. Christopher is also a former director of Highland Gold Mining Limited. He is a member of both the Remuneration Committee and the Audit Committee.
Dekel Golan
(Chief Executive Officer)
Dekel Golan is a graduate of Tel Aviv University. Formerly president of Apex Asia LDC, a subsidiary of Apex Silver Mines Limited, he has extensive experience in developing businesses, in emerging economies as well as the developed world. Dekel was the founder and Executive Chairman of APC Limited, a coffee and tea producer in Africa. In addition, he has advised a number of international and Israeli companies on business development. Prior to those activities Dekel was Vice President of Business Development of Supersol, the largest retail operator in Israel and worked at Dead Sea Bromine Group, the world’s largest bromine producer.
Alexander Novak
(Executive Director)
Alex Novak is a graduate of the Kazakh Polytechnic Institute (M.Sc). He has assisted companies investing in Kyrgyzstan in various aspects of finance, administration and representation with the authorities since 2000. He has more than 25 years experience in all aspects of business management in Central Asia including negotiations with governmental institutions, contractors, preparation of development plans, monitoring of operations and public relations.
From 1992 to 1995, he was a founding partner and a director of Maya Elev Diamond Limited, a diamond processing plant in Russia. From 1978 though to 1990, Mr Novak held several positions at numerous construction companies in Kazakhstan, including Director of KazStroiMontajAvtomatika. Alex is the sole director of Chaarat Zaav.
Linda Naylor
(Finance Director)
Linda is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. A former partner in Grant Thornton UK LLP, her experience gained over more than twenty years included working as a nominated adviser in the Capital Markets team from 1996 and as an audit partner specialising in the natural resource sector.
Dr Robert Weinberg MA, DPhil, FGS, FIMMM
(Non-Executive Director)
Rob Weinberg gained his doctorate in geology from Oxford University and has more than 35 years of international mining industry experience. He is an independent mining research analyst and consultant. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and also a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Rob brings a wealth of marketing and investment banking experience to the Company having held executive positions that include being Managing Director, Institutional Investment at the World Gold Council. Previously he was a Director of the Investment Banking Division of Deutsche Bank in London, head of the global mining research team at SG Warburg Securities and head of the mining team at James Capel & Co. He was formerly Marketing Manager of the Gold and Uranium Division of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Ltd.
Dr Weinberg has been an independent non-executive Director of Kasbah Resources Ltd, listed on the ASX, since 15th November 2006, also of Medusa Mining Ltd since July 1st 2006 (listed on the ASX , LSE and TSX), and of AIM listed Solomon Gold plc since 22nd November 2005. He is also an independent non-executive Director of Metallon Corporation Plc, a private company.
He is Chairman of both Chaarat's Audit and the Remuneration Committees.
Senior Management
John Scott
(Acting Project Manager)
John Scott is a mechanical engineer by profession and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Handling and a member of the Project Management Institute.
He has over 35 years experience in project engineering and project management. He has extensive expertise in the management of medium and large minerals and metals processing plant projects including the Venetia Diamond Mine, Hartley Platinum, Tubatse Ferrochrome and the Moma Mineral Sands projects.
He has been study manager on numerous feasibility studies, at all levels, for gold, diamond, platinum, mineral sands, cobalt and iron ore facilities mainly with Bateman Engineering and recently with SNC-Lavalin.
Dushen Kasenov
(Deputy Project Manager)
Dushen completed his PhD at the Institute of Civil Engineering in Moscow in 1986, he is also a gradute in Civil Engineering of Frunze Institute, Bishkek. He holds various vocational qualifications in management, health and safety and Engineering. In 1997 he was awarded an Honorary Diploma from the Kyrgyz Republic for his commissioning and construction of the Kumtor Gold Mine.
Dushen has worked extensively in Kygyzstan and has far reaching knowledge of development and engineering processes and strategies within the country. -
During his time at Kumtor he worked as a manager in many areas including environment, projects and safety. Dushen has also worked as Deputy General Director of construction for Kazakhmys Gold Kyrgyzstan LLC as well as a supervisor for UrAsia in Kyrgyzstan and as a consultant for Kazakhmys Projects LLC, Karaganda & Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan.
Sunit Patel
(Vice President - Geology)
Sunit Patel holds a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Geology from Sambalpur University, India and a M.Sc. (Geology) from Berhampur University, India. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of India, the Geological Society of London and a Member of the Geological Society of South Africa and has more than 20 research publications to his credit. Sunit was a Senior Exploration Geologist with the Geological Survey of India.
He has more than 20 years in Greenfield and Brownfield exploration including gold exploration in Noa Dihing valley - India. Before joining Chaarat, he established and led a large exploration department for CHEMAF s.p.r.l. in DRC. Prior to his move to the commercial sector Sunit served the Geological Survey of India as Senior Exploration Geologist.
Suresh Kalathil
(Mine Manager)
Suresh graduated from Bangalore University as a mining engineer in 1992. During his 17 years of operating experience he has held open pit and underground Mine and Operations Manager roles for Vedanta Resources plc and Mawarid Mining in India, Armenia, Zambia and Oman. His expertise is in all aspects of mine operations, development and management.
He has recently been responsible responsible for fast tracking two new open pit mines in Oman to production.
Company Secretary
Linda Naylor
c/o Central Asia Services Limited
6 Conduit Street
London W1S 2XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7499 2612
Fax: +44 (0) 5601 264 433
Registered Office
Palm Grove House
PO Box 438
Road Town, Tortola
British Virgin Islands, VG1110
Company Number
1420336
Nominated Advisor and broker
Numis Securities Ltd
The London Stock Exchange Building
10 Paternoster Square
London EC4M 7LT
Solicitors to the Company as to English law
Maclay Murray & Spens
One London Wall
London, EC2Y 5AB
Watson, Farley & Williams
15 Appold Street
London
EC2A 2HB
Solicitors to the Company as to Kyrgyz law
Kalikova & Associates
71 Erkindik Boulevard, Bishkek
720040
Kyrgyz Republic
Solicitors to the Company as to BVI law
TMF Group Limited
PO Box 438
Road Town, Tortola
British Virgin Islands
Auditors
PKF UK LLP
Farringdon Place
20 Farringdon Road
EC1M 3AP
Financial Public Relations
Bankside Consultants Limited
6 Middle Street
London
EC1A 7PH
Tel: +44 (0)20 7367 8888
Principal Bankers
Royal Bank of Scotland International
Royal Bank Place
1 Glategny Esplanade
St Peter Port
Guernsey
Registrars
Capita Registrars (Guernsey) Limited
2nd Floor, No 1 Le Truchot
St Peter Port
Guernsey
Depositary
Capita IRG Trustees Limited
The Registry
34 Beckenham Road
Beckenham
Kent, BR3 4TU
Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited
PO Box 438
Palm Grove House
Road Town
TORTOLA
British Virgin Islands
Postal address only:
c/o Central Asia Services Limited
6 Conduit Street
London W1S 2XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7499 2612
Fax: +44 (0) 5601 264 433
Email: info@chaarat.com
Media Enquiries:
Simon Rothschild
Bankside Consultants Limited
1 Frederick's Place
London EC2R 8AE
DD: +44 (0)20 7367 8871
Tel: +44 (0)20 7367 8888
Mob: +44 (0)77 0316 7065
Fax: +44 (0)20 7367 8899
Email: simon.rothschild@bankside.com
| Shares Held | % | |
| Not in public hands | 36,524,113 | 14.58% |
| Total shares in issue | 250,477,868 | |
| China Nonferrous Int'l Mining Co. Ltd | 8.97% | |
| First State Investments Int'l (UK) Ltd | 7.49% | |
| Cazenove Capital Management Ltd | 7.41% | |
| D Golan | 5.84% | |
| TT International Investment Management Ltd | 4.89% | |
| Richmond Capital LLP | 4.57% | |
| A Novak | 4.38% | |
| C Palmer-Tomkinson | 4.03% | |
| Black Rock Investment Management Ltd | 3.59% | |
| GIC Asset Management Pte Ltd | 3.31% |
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