Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) has completed the annual task of building a winter ice road to the Kun Manie site, in Russia’s Far East, and it is now making preparations for the 2016 field season.
The winter ice road is approximately 350 kilometres long joining Kun Manie to a rail connection in Baikal, Siberia.
So far Amur has sent three supply convoys to the site carrying 114 tonnes of fuel and 85 tonnes of spare parts and other supplies. A total of 240 tonnes of fuel and 160 tonnes of supplies will be transported to Kun Manie to support work programmes at the site in the 2016 season.
An excavator and a diamond drilling rig are also being transported to the project.
The restocking of Kun Manie will enable a 15,000 metre drilling and bulk sampling programme at the site.
Work planned for 2016 will focus on the Maly Kurumkon / Flangovy deposit. Programmes are designed to either extend the proposed mine’s existing mineral resources or to gather samples and data for metallurgical testing purposes.
It is being informed by preliminary resource results, provided by consultant SRK, which are anticipated to convert ‘inferred’ resources indentified in 2015 into the higher confidence ‘indicated’ resource category.
Additionally, Amur said it expects to have added some 400 metres to the existing Flangovy resource boundaries, at the eastern end of the previously defined deposit.
Amur added also that an internal review of the Maly Kurumkon / Flangovy resource is complete, and results will be communicated to investors shortly.
Robin Yound, Amur chief executive, said: "The annual mobilisation effort to resupply the Kun-Manie project site is the most cost effective way to support the project and is the culmination of 5 months of planning by our experienced staff.
“This is no small task. Identification of the field season work programme, staffing requirements and all the materials needed to accomplish a season's objectives must be identified, purchased, and transported to our base station on the BAM rail line.
“Lead time planning is critical and our staff has again excelled in the successful startup of the ice road.”
He added: “I complement our team's efforts to have all the materials to conduct a 15,000 metre drill programme requiring nearly 100 site staff ready for shipment along the company constructed ice road during this seasonal window.”