“The drill season’s over and it looks like it was a good one,” says Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) chief executive Robin Young.
At the end of October the third and final phase of drilling at the Maly Kurumkon area of Kun-Manie nickel sulphide project in the Far East of Russia was successfully wrapped up, concluding just over 750 metres of drilling in five holes.
That completed a total of just over 5,800 metres of drilling that was undertaken in the recent field season across what’s known as the Maly Kurumkon/Flangovy deposit, and took the total number of holes that intersected ore to 21.
And that more than met the company’s expectations.
“We’ve had an extremely successful year this year,” continues Young.
“We only had a handful of holes which didn’t intersect ore and the majority of those were condemnation holes.”
It all means the company has more confidence than ever in its understanding of the structure and mineralisation of the Maly Kurumkon/Flangovy deposit.
Continuity of mineralisation has been established on 100 metre spaced drill sections across 1,500 metres of strike, and grades have averaged at an encouraging 0.83% nickel and 0.22% copper.
“We’ve been able to establish good continuity on high grade structures,” says Young, “and that’s going to allow us to really model these.”
It’s still open to question just exactly how the ore will be extracted at Kun-Manie, and the answer at this stage, coming partly as a result of the recent drilling, seems to be that it depends which part of the deposit you’re talking about.
“On Maly Kurumkon it’s probably going to be open pit,” says Young, citing the proximity of the ore to the surface as the primary factor.
“At Flangovy we know we can open pit mine it, but the stripping ratios are such that we may make a much higher profit going underground.”
With a near 1% nickel grade and a sulphide ore that’ll be much easier to process than the now more common nickel laterite ores currently being developed elsewhere in the world, Flangovy as an underground operation and Maly Kurumkon as open pit clearly have a lot going for them.
But there’s much work to be done yet.
First, Amur plans to put together a resource update based around the recent drilling.
Young talks of the conversion of 25mln tonnes of ore being converted from the inferred to the indicated category, and of the additions likely to be generated by the additional 400 metres of strike now drilled out.
We should know more about all that in the first quarter of next year.
Young doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he’s certainly expecting progress. “I anticipate that the resource certainly will increase,” he says.
And while he’s on the topic, he also points out that certain areas of Flangovy still remain open to strike and may yet yield up more ore in any subsequent campaign that’s put together.
For now though, the focus will shift more to the conceptual side of things.
Metallurgical results from Flangovy are due in soon, as well as from Kubuk, another area of Kun-Manie, but the company already has access to considerable amounts of metallurgical data.
It’s putting together a plan relating to the water requirements of the project, another one for road access, and is also looking at other logistical elements.
“There’s bits and pieces that we can do at the bankable feasibility study level now,” says Young.
But a significant piece of work remains – a bulk sample of the ore is now rising up Young’s to-do list, and the results of that will show whether Kun-Manie ore can be processed on an industrial scale.
And the company’s ability to get on and do that work is ensured by its current US$8mln cash pile.
“Typically we spend between US$4mln and US$7mln per year,” says Young.
And although the main funding will continue to come out of global equity markets, Amur isn’t completely on its own.
“We are working with the Far East & Baikal Development Fund,” says Young. “They’re pretty keen to help us in identifying new sources of funding.”
So all told, even if the rigs have stopped turning, the rate of work at Amur looks unlikely to diminish.
“Everyone thinks the winter is quiet,” says Young, “but man, we’re busier than ever!”