Central Asia Metals (CAML.L) has signed a ‘framework agreement’ to acquire an 80% stake in the 200 square kilometer Northern Kazakhstan Shuak copper-gold project. The 80% could be acquired by spending $2M on exploration in the first five years of the option agreement. The remaining 20% will be held by local partners, and it doesn’t sound like Central Asia will be able to acquire the final 20% without negotiating with those local partners.
This project was previously explored during the soviet era and hosts two types of mineralization CAML will be focusing on. One of the zones is a saprolite hosted oxide Cu-Au-Mb system which could be amenable for processing by SX-EW methods, whilst a second, larger zone could very well be a porphyry zone.
The project hasn’t been exposed to modern exploration techniques since 1991, but there is a historic database with assay results of 45,000 meters which resulted in a historic resource estimate of almost 50 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.66% copper, for a total of 327,000 tonnes (720 million pounds) of copper. CAML will hit the ground running in the second quarter and will spend approximately $1M on a 1,800 meter trenching program and a 8,000 meter drill program.
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The author has a long position in Central Asia Metals. Please read the disclaimer
