Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) is ahead of schedule with its Maly Kurumkon/Flangovy (MKF) drilling programme at its Kun-Manie nickel project in far east Russia.
An early start to the drilling season, combined with higher than planned drill rates, has enabled the company to complete a total of 54 holes as of 1 August 2016, shifting 11,979 metres of soil in the process.
Amur said 34 resource definition holes have been completed and 2,100 metres of the current MKF 2,500 metre length is now considered to be completely drilled for resource and reserve determination. This 2,100 metre length also includes 400 metres of newly discovered resource extension located at the western limit of the deposit, Amur disclosed.
All of the planned 20 metallurgical drill holes have also been completed, a full three months ahead of schedule, providing a 6.9 tonne bulk metallurgical sample that is currently being inventoried in the company's core storage facility in Khabarvosk.
The bulk metallurgical sample will be used for the evaluation of the metallurgical response of the MKF ore, which is a key element for the definitive feasibility study of the project.
The remainder of the drill season will focus on the eastern end of the MKF deposit, where the company wants to shift up to 9.2mln tonnes of ore from the inferred resource category to the indicated resource category. Amur is also looking at a potential resource expansion eastward of the last drill section toward the Gorny deposit.
"This year's drill season has already produced remarkable results in less than 90 days of drilling. We have been able to identify new resources at the western limits of Maly Kurumkon / Flangovy and drill these out to what we anticipate to be Indicated by JORC standards based on parameters used by SRK Consulting,” said Robin Young, chief executive officer of Amur.
“Infill drilling has also resulted in attaining a drill spacing where the next resource update should convert these to Indicated as well, not to mention much greater thicknesses and higher grades have been identified to be present within the zone. The combination of these two efforts has now substantially enhanced the reserve potential over a length of nearly 700 metres adding substantially to the reserve inventory for inclusion in the definitive feasibility study,” Young added.
Shares in Amur rose 2.6% in early deals to 3.95p.