Results of activities of MONTERRA QASAQSTAN
for 8 months of 2020
At September 17th, 2020, a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council MONTERRA QASAQSTAN was held in Almaty following the results of the Company's activities for 8 months of 2020.
The meeting was opened by Johann Stoll, the Chairman of the Board of MONTERRA QASAQSTAN. During the meeting the representatives of the Company and its partners announced the results of their activities and told about their vision of further work.
Since 2016, the Company has drilled more than 17 thousand linear meters of holes, drilled 14.5 thousand linear meters of trenches, collected more than 26 thousand samples of various types and purposes and carried out a significant amount of thematic and auxiliary work.
The work carried out at the Karatas-Maybulak prospecting area resulted in the discovery of the first 15 tons of gold at the Karatas deposit and 1.5 tons of gold at the Maybulak Vostochny deposit.
The meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council ended with the signing of a Report with the calculation of reserves of gold ores for the Karatas and Maybulak Vostochny deposit in the Karatas-Maybulak prospecting area of the Zhambyl region.
The success of the exploration work carried out proves the well-coordinated and agreed work between the Company and the MONTERRA QASAQSTAN partners.
High resources, high reserves, favorable mineralization
The expanded exploration work on the 244 km² license area of Monterra in Kazakhstan shows results that go beyond the optimistic calculation case. Various types of prospecting work have been carried out, e.g. B. geophysical work using high-precision magnetic prospecting methods inducing polarization with depths of up to 300 meters as well as geochemical works. In addition, (comparative) mining and drilling work was carried out. In total, more than 6000 samples were taken.
The samples were later analyzed in independent laboratories and by experts in their fields. The results are now being published. The expected gold reserves of industrial categories C1 + C2 in the Karatas-Maibulak area are 45 tons. The projected resources of the Karatas-Maibulak area are currently estimated at 95.7 tons of gold. Based on the results of the geochemical survey conducted throughout the license area, 37 gold anomalies were identified in the eastern area of the field. The concentration of gold and mineralization support the very positive outlook.
The geophysical and geochemical work was extensive. However, much of the license area was not fully covered, so further information is likely in future investigations. Monterra is continuing the development of an extensive gold mining project in Kazakhstan.
Latest results confirm previous explorations and hint to unexpected mineral body extensions at Monterras license area
Newest results from the Karatas-Maibulak site confirm the positive expectations based on past drillings and geological groundworks. On top of that, the results provide strong evidence of extensions of the orebodies with minable mineralization and depths.
The exploration works on several deposits in our license area were pursued over the last months and before being impacted by the Corona crisis. The explorations were made underground by drilling, on the ground by geophysical works and from the air by drones and lead to a significant better knowledge about the individual and connected deposits on the site.
Based on the geological and lab analysis the Karatas site shows gold resources of 5.6 tons with an average grade of 4.65g/t. The deposit is suitable for open pit and subsequent underground mining. On the Sauskan site new ore bodies have been identified. Ditches made at our Eastern Maybulak site showed grades 6g/t to 17.8g/t. On the Taspoly site on a thickness of up to five meters of trenching the grade was found to be 9.44g/t and up to 20 meters of explored trench a grade of up 1-2g/t was additionally found.
The testing is on a halt now due to corona but the modelling for the mining plant, infrastructural works and drone-based analysis are going on.
Results of the fieldworks from 2019 are available
The results of drilling in Q3 and Q4 2019 under the guidance of senior geologist Dmitry Balykov are available. At various points in the license area, more than five thousand samples were taken from an area of several square kilometers , from drillings to a depth of 320m and from trenching.
The results of older studies, including those from 1987, were updated and a substantially higher gold content compared to the former results was found. Individual samples from examined deposits show a gold content of up to 8 g / t. In addition, new gold-bearing ore bodies were identified. Individual mineral clusters turned out to be far larger than expected, but have not yet been mapped.
The work is ongoing and complements the previous findings in preparation for the planned JORC-compatible documentation in 2020.