Amur Minerals reports 12% increase in resource estimates at Kun-Manie project 

Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) announced a 12% increase in JORC-resource estimates at its Kun-Manie nickel-copper sulphide project in Russia’s far east.

The overall ore tonnage increased by 19.2mln tonnes (Mt) to 174.3 Mt, based on a 0.3% nickel equivalent cut-off grade versus 0.4% cut-off for the previous estimate. Nickel estimates were raised by 156,000 tonnes to 1.31 Mt and for copper by 53,000 tonnes to 372,000 tonnes.

The global measured plus indicated resource is now 148.3 Mt containing 1.11 Mt nickel and 0.31 Mt copper. Only measured and indicated categories qualify for inclusion into a JORC-compliant ore reserve estimate.

“The newly released JORC resource estimate on the Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide deposit is a major step in the update to all future study work associated with western market and funding,” said chief executive Robin Young.

“Not only has the resource been expanded but the resource categories suited for the definition of JORC mining reserves have also been increased by as much as 25%. 

“Copper will serve to provide additional revenues which had been completely excluded in our February 2019 operational base case. That base case was then comprised of a single nickel only payable concentrate sold into one of the three major nickel consuming nations of China, Japan and South Korea. 

“The addition of the copper revenue will likely have a material impact on the results presented in the independently audited February 2019 PFS [pre-feasability study],” he said.

The AIM-listed explorer also released its results for 2020 which showed pretax losses growing to US$2.7mln (£2.0mln) from a restated US$2.4mln the previous year.

As at end December 2020, the company had cash reserves of US$2.8mln, after a number of funding initiatives, up from US$0.4mln at the start of 2020. It remains debt free.

Story by ProactiveInvestors