KGL Resources farms-out Bashkol gold-copper project to Robust...

KGL Resources farms-out Bashkol gold-copper project to Robust Resources
Thursday, September 05, 2013 by Bevis Yeo


KGL Resources farms-out Bashkol gold-copper project to Robust Resources

KGL Resources (ASX: KGL) will farm-out its Bashkol gold-copper project in the Kyrgyz Republic to Robust Resources (ASX: ROL), allowing it to focus on the exploration and development of the Jervois copper project in the Northern Territory.

Under the agreement, Robust has been granted a sole and exclusive right to earn up to 70% equity interest in CJSC Kentor, which owns a 100% interest in Baskol.

“Farming out the Bashkol project in the Kyrgyz Republic allows us to be fully focussed on the exploration and development of the Jervois copper project in the Northern Territory,” KGL managing director Simon Milroy said.

Robust can earn a 51% interest in CJSC Kentor by contributing an initial expenditure of $2 million by 31 December 2017 and a further 19% by investing an additional $5 million in the period ending 31 December 2021.

It must contribute a minimum annual expenditure to keep the Bashkol Tenement in good standing, currently estimated at US $375,000 per annum

Kentor currently owns 80% of CJSC Kentor while the remaining 20% is held by the Kyrgyz Geophysical Expedition (KGE). This will be reduced to 10% following completion of the Robust farm-in.

A 2,000 metre diamond drilling program at Bashkol is due to commence this month.

Bashkol

The Bashkol licence area is located in the northeast of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Tien Shan Gold Belt adjacent to a suture line which separates two tectonic units – the Northern Tien Shan and the Middle Tien Shan.

This is a similar structural position to the Kumtor deposit which sits adjacent to the same suture line about 75 kilometres along strike to the southwest.

Centerra Gold’s (TSE: CG) Kumtor Gold Mine began operation in 1997 and had produced a total of 8.6 million ounces of gold between 1997 and the end of 2012.

The Bashkol licence area is at an altitude of 3,400 metres to 3,800 metres and has no permanent inhabitants.

The Bekbulaktor prospect within the Bashkol tenement has two gold mineralised zones, Bekbulaktor South and Bekbulaktor North, defined over a strike length of 2 kilometres.

The full extent of the mineralisation is masked by Cainozoic surface cover with the full potential of the mineralisation likely to be revealed by drilling.

Channel sampling at Bekbulaktor South delivered high grade results including: 12 metres at 14.07 grams per tonne gold; and 8 metres at 5.65g/t gold; along with broader results such as 37 metres at 2.65g/t gold.

Jervois

The Jervois Copper-Silver-Gold Project in the Northern Territory on the Plenty Highway about 250 kilometres from Alice Springs to Darwin railway has a current Indicated and Inferred Resources of 13.5 million tonnes at 1.3% copper and 25.8 grams per tonne copper, or 170,415 tonnes copper and 11.6 million ounces silver.

It also hosts 69,000 ounces of gold, 26,000 tonnes of lead and 22,000 tonnes of zinc.

Jervois contains strata-bound copper gold deposits hosted in siltstones and sandstones of the Bonya Schist, which is part of the Palaeo-proterozoic Eastern Arunta Province.

It has a prospective strike length of about 12 kilometres and has been variously described as VMS, IOCG or Skarn.

The 20,000 metre diamond and reverse circulation program consists of step out drilling around the known ore bodies to increase the resource and a separate exploration program designed to test new targets around the exploration lease.

Reprocessed historical Induced Polarisation (IP) data shows chargeability anomalies that correlate well with the known resources at both the Marshall and Reward deposits.

The results show a continuation of the chargeability anomaly to the south of Marshall and a second, large chargeability anomaly to the east of the Reward lode.

Both areas will be tested in the drilling program.

Analysis

Along with the recent sale of its Andash project in the Kyrgyz Republic for $15 million (also to Robust), KGL can now focus solely on its Jervois project, which it considers to be a high quality exploration project.

It also retains exposure to any upside Bashkol with little or no risk.

Notably, with an available cash balance of about $11.3 million, its current market capitalisation of $12.74 million on a share price of $0.091 assigns little value to Jervois.

Any success in the Jervois drilling program of 20,000 metres is expected to translate into share price growth for the company.



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