www.frontiermining.com
Frontier Mining Ltd is a mineral exploration and development Company focussed on gold and copper deposits in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, Frontier locates, evaluates, acquires, explores and develops mineral properties. Frontier currently operates two licenses in Kazakhstan, Naimanjal (100% owned) and Benkala (50% owned). Naimanjal operations currently consist of five projects; a producing gold mine, a test stage gold production project, a potential copper porphyry deposit with associated gold and molybdenum, and copper/gold prospects along a 25km trend including both VMS and porphyry types. Benkala is a copper-molybdenum-gold deposit located in north-western Kazakhstan, within the Urals gold/copper ore belt.
Frontier Mining completes acquisition of South Benkala copper deposit - UPDATE
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Frontier Mining (LON:FML) today confirmed that it has completed a deal to acquire additional land near the Benkala copper mine in Kazakhstan.
The land hosts the South Benkala deposit which is estimated to contain 609,600 tonnes of copper.
The deal was originally agreed in May last year and today Frontier confirmed that it has now been approved by the Kazakh authorities.
Frontier has now paid US$2.5 million to the vendor PromSnab2030 LLP and the acquisition is now complete.
South Benkala is located 10 kilometres south of the existing Benkala operation.
Frontier plans to incorporate South Benkala’s copper reserve into its current Benkala project development. This will see the life of the mine’s SX-EW plant, which is currently being built, extend from seven to eleven years.
Or alternatively South Benkala’s oxide resources may expand Benkala’s production capacity from 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of cathode copper per year.
Earlier this month Frontier unveiled a new US$29 million financing arrangement that will help support the development of the Benkala mine.
Plant commission work began at Benkala last month following an official opening ceremony. The final approval on all construction and infrastructure is expected shortly.
Once the mine is established Frontier plans to expand production, taking it up from 7,000 to 10,000 tonnes a year, and later expanding to 20,000 tonnes a year.
Mining analyst John Meyer at City broker Fairfax said: "This is a significant addition to the Benkala copper project and should add meaningful value to the mine and to the company."
He pointed out that the firm had recently agreed a financing package for the expansion of the Benkala mine to 20,000tpa (tonnes per annum) of copper.
"The mine started commissioning in mid December and news of new production is expected shortly following the official opening of the mine last week at the 7,000tpa," said Meyer.
