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Mining industry

Ivanhoe Mines Commences 15,000-Metre Drill Campaign in Kazakhstan's Chu-Sarysu Basin

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Exploration activities at the company's new joint venture project have made significant progress, with outcropping copper mineralization discovered in the south of the Chu-Sarysu Basin. Following the discovery, a 15,000-metre diamond drill campaign has commenced in the western section of the joint venture's licence package on the Glubokoe licence. The campaign aims to prioritize mapping the structures, where mineralization is structurally controlled, in detail, with higher-resolution magnetic surveys. Ivanhoe Mines has formed a Strategic Alliance and Joint Venture Agreement with UK-based Pallas Resources, which has accumulated a licence package totaling more than 16,000 km², spread across seven projects.

Key Takeaways:

  • Ivanhoe Mines has commenced a 15,000-metre diamond drill campaign in the western section of the joint venture's licence package on the Glubokoe licence.
  • The campaign aims to prioritize mapping the structures, where mineralization is structurally controlled, in detail, with higher-resolution magnetic surveys.
  • The licence package area is over seven times larger than Ivanhoe's Western Forelands Exploration Project, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • The discovery of copper mineralization is significant in that it strongly supports the thesis that mineralization is structurally controlled.
  • The licence is located in the south of the Chu-Sarysu Basin, and includes a 36-kilometre-long, historically-identified stratigraphic trend, with multiple samples returning between 1.0% and 5.0% copper.
  • Ivanhoe Mines will sole-fund up to $18.7 million over the first two years, and can elect to earn into all seven projects under the alliance, up to 80%, for a maximum consideration of $115 million over four years.

Statistics:

  • 15,000-metre diamond drill campaign to be conducted at the Glubokoe licence.
  • Initial drill holes from the program are expected to be between 800 and 1,000 metres deep.
  • The Chu-Sarysu Basin is the world's third-largest sedimentary copper basin, hosting 27 million tonnes of known copper.
  • The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that there remains approximately 25 million tonnes of undiscovered copper in the Chu-Sarysu Basin.
  • The licence package area totals over 16,000 km².

Sources:

  • Newsfile Corp.
  • Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF)
  • Pallas Resources
  • US Geological Survey (USGS)
  • S&P Global
  • Robert Friedland
  • Ivanhoe Mines
  • Tommy Horton
  • Tanya Todd

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