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Asiamet Resources (LON:ARS) said it has now identified two near-surface, high-grade areas within its BKM copper deposit in Indonesia that it expects will have a “highly positive impact” on the economics of the project.
The latest drill results have unearthed 35 metres of mineralisation at 1.73% copper from 20 metres depth. Within that was an 11-metre section at 3.49% copper and a 2 metre intercept at 10.15% copper.
A second drill hole yielded 55 metres at 0.58%, with a best intercept of a metre at 12.5% copper.
Bumper grades have now been identified in the BK044 and the southern BK058 zones.
Asiamet chief executive Tony Manini said: "The delineation of these two discrete areas of higher grade copper mineralization within the BKM resource envelope is a promising development for the Beruang Kanan copper project.
“With further drilling we expect the continuity of these two shallow zones to be confirmed and anticipate that they will have a highly positive impact on the project economics when our evaluation of various mining scenarios commences in the fourth quarter.
“Asiamet looks forward to providing further results from ongoing drilling and metallurgical test work, and a Resource update for BKM, in the coming weeks."
Broker Optiva Securities, said: “Initial metallurgical testing has shown early promise, with around 95% of the copper in samples being soluble and potentially amenable to heap leaching.”
In all Asiamet plans to drill 80 holes to complete 6,500 metres of resource evaluation work – so far it has completed 66 holes for 5,605 metres.
The results from a further two holes are expected shortly.
The main zone of the BK deposit is estimated to be host to a 47mln tonne resource grading 0.6% copper.
It is a shallow dipping and follows the contour of a hill. Work going forward will concentrate on assessing the potential of the copper mineralisation within the first 50 metres from surface.
This suggests the strip ratio (i.e. how much soil has to be removed to expose the ore) ought to be extremely low.
In turn the low strip ratio ought to mean low cost of production – assuming the metallurgy works and the grade is economic.
CEO Manini has big plans for Asiamet, formerly known as Kalimantan Gold, and has called in long-time collaborator Stephen Hughes and Mansur Geiger, discoverer of the Kalimantan project, to help.
Their task is quite straightforward – to get the BKM copper deposit (part of the wider BK project) up and into production.
The new boss came on board at the turn of the year when Kalimantan Gold bought the Beutong copper-gold asset in Sumatra in an all share deal from private company, Tiger’s Realm Minerals, run by Manini and partner Hegarty.
Beutong is a potential monster and will be part of the longer term thinking of the company.
The copper-gold deposit contains a total of 1.241b lbs of contained copper in measured and indicated resources grading 0.61% copper and a further 4bn lbs of contained copper in inferred resources grading 0.45% copper.
The plan is to apply for the mining licence before exploring and developing it further, possibly in tandem with a deeper-pocketed partner.
Likewise Jelai, Asiamet’s gold asset, could be partnered out. Equally it could be sold or even spun off as a separate entity if the market conditions improve.