Eurasian Minerals mining company listed in Toronto and NY stock markets owned IG Copper LLC reported on additional license which was granted for the Malmyzh copper-gold porphyry project in Far East Russia.
The Malmyzh licenses are held by IGC (51%) and Freeport-McMoRan Exploration Corporation (49%) (the “Joint Venture”), with IGC operating and managing the project. The new “Malmzyh Flanks” exploration license expands the Joint Venture’s land position covering the Malmyzh district for a total of 226.9 square kilometers, and includes additional areas for potential infrastructure development as well as extensions to known exploration targets. EMX is IGC’s largest shareholder with 42.2% of the issued and outstanding shares.
Malmyzh Flanks Discussion and Project Overview. The Malmyzh Flanks exploration license (74.1 sq km) surrounds the previously granted Malmyzh and Malmyzh North exploration and mining licenses (152.8 sq km) on three sides, and provides additional areas for potential development with improved access to the Amur River. In addition, the new license includes a projection of the Freedom “magnetic cluster” to the north-northeast, and possible extensions of the reconnaissance drilled copper-gold mineralization at the North Slope and Destiny prospects. This exploration potential further highlights the project’s upside, which includes four inferred resource deposits open for expansion and eight additional prospects with drilled porphyry copper-gold mineralization.
The Malmyzh project’s inferred resources include the Valley, Freedom (SE), Central and Flats deposits. The open pit constrained inferred resources at a 0.30% copper equivalent cut-off are 1,661 million tonnes at average grades of 0.34% copper and 0.17 g/t gold, or 0.42% copper equivalent, containing 5.65 million tonnes (12.45 billion pounds) copper and 9.11 million ounces gold, or 7.06 million tonnes (15.56 billion pounds) copper equivalent (CuEq% = Cu% + (Au g/t x 0.5)). All four resource deposits are open at depth (> 350-600 m), and importantly, there are zones of shallow, higher grade copper-gold mineralization at the Valley and Freedom (SE) deposits, and high grade below the resource pit at Central. Furthermore, there is higher grade copper-gold mineralization at the Freedom (NW) prospect not currently included in the Malmyzh inferred resource estimate due to the need for in-fill drilling. Please see EMX news release dated May 26, 2015 and SEDAR filed report titled “NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Malmyzh Copper-Gold Project, Khabarovsk Krai, Russian Federation” with an effective date of May 1, 2015 for more information1.
The Joint Venture is proceeding with acquiring project approvals to continue with the “advanced exploration and mining phase” of development as required for “strategically significant” deposits in the Russian Federation. IGC has informed EMX that the process is moving forward at a steady pace. Government support for IGC and the Joint Venture is underscored by the recent award of a “Certificate of First Discovery” for the Malmyzh project. This important acknowledgement officially recognizes the Joint Venture’s sole responsibility for an important grassroots discovery and serves to further underpin support for achieving government approvals. This recognition is complemented by the “Explorer of the Year” award received at the recent MINEX Forum in Moscow. Overall, the Russian government strongly supports mining investment and development in their Far East Krais (administrative regions), as evidenced by IGC’s recent agreement with the Far East Development Fund to facilitate high-level investments from across the Russian Federation and Asia (see EMX news release dated November 4, 2015). Taken together, IGC is encouraged by, and appreciative of, these strong measures of support for advancing a project recognized as an exceptional asset with world-class potential.
IGC has 100% control of the 390 square kilometer Shelekhovo property (also known as Shelekhovskaya). IGC recently completed geologic reconnaissance, a ground magnetic survey, and a soil survey consisting of approximately 1,500 samples. The program focused on an interpreted nested caldera complex adjacent to the regional scale Sikhote Alin structural zone in an area marked by multiple gold anomalies and abundant quartz-alunite alteration identified from Soviet-era work. IGC’s geologists confirmed the widespread occurrence of quartz-alunite alteration in a geologic setting characteristic of a high sulfidation epithermal system. Results from the program are expected to be available in early 2016.
IGC also 100% controls the nearby 260 square kilometer Salasinskaya property that is considered to be the northern extension of the Shelekhovo anomaly cluster. Both properties occur approximately 150 kilometers along trend to the northeast of Malmyzh. Together, the Malmyzh, Shelekhovo, and Salasinskaya properties cover approximately 877 square kilometers of exploration ground occurring along a ~200 kilometer belt of prospective Cretaceous-age arc terrane rocks.
