Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited Operational Update at Gubong Mine (5158S)
October 03 2017 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMBMV
RNS Number : 5158S
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited
03 October 2017
3 October 2017
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
(the "Company" or "Bluebird")
Operational Update at the Gubong Mine
Over 17,000 Metres of Historical Exploration Drilling Examined
to Augment Future Planning
Bluebird Merchant Ventures (EPIC: BMV), the Asian focused
resource development group, is pleased to announce that work
undertaken at Gubong Mine in South Korea has progressed to the
point where the company can start to develop conceptual future
production plans.
The main access points to the mine have been selected for
further civil work to provide permanent entrances to the project.
Whilst data analysis and research is ongoing, sufficient historical
data has been analysed that has enabled the Company to develop a 3D
model of the Gubong Mine that will form the basis for developing a
production plan.
Two major factors which are relevant to this work are old drill
hole results on the property and the Resource announced by state
owned enterprise, Korean Resources Corporation (KORES) of 2.34Mt @
7.3g/t. The Company cautions that KORES resource numbers are not
JORC resources but also note that the methodology is logical and
deals with some aspects required to declare JORC resources.
Historic Drill holes at Gubong
Fifty-seven historic drill holes have been drilled at Gubong and
the surrounding areas for a total of 17,715.3 metres. The drilling
covers the period from 1968 to 2015; with 3 holes drilled in 1968,
2 holes in 1969, 25 holes in 1989, 12 holes in 1990, 8 holes in
1991, 2 holes in 2004, 1 hole in 2012 and 4 holes in 2015.
Drill hole downhole depths varied from 9m to 950m, with an
average depth of 321.8m. All drill holes were drilled by Korea
Resources Corporation (KORES), except the 2012 and 2015 drill holes
which were drilled by Southern Gold Korea predecessor, Hee Song
Metals.
Eighteen drill holes contained significant intersections greater
than 1g/t Au, and these are tabled below.
The Company notes that the drill results are very encouraging.
The fact that a significant percentage of the holes have returned
economic grade is typical for an Orogenic deposit as they are
highly variable in mineralisation and intersecting structure is
considered almost as important as grade for delineating a
successful resource.
Click on, or paste the following link into your web browser, to
view the drilling table.
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/5158S_1-2017-10-3.pdf
The model of the mine that Bluebird has developed shows it to be
approximately 2km on dip and 1.5 km on strike. The area under
examination has 5 surrounding areas which have further underground
workings at various depths.
The main mine is now confirmed at an approximate depth of 500
metres below ground (valley) level. This is encouraging news on two
counts; Orogenic Deposits such as Gubong typically exhibit depths
of 2km and more, which suggests that there is plenty of scope for
extending the resource and future life of the mine. It also means
that the future cost of dewatering is reduced considerably from
initial expectations.
The Company has selected the upper workings of the mine as the
initial target for production as it is above the valley floor and
not flooded. Whilst dewatering parts of the mine is not expected to
be problematic, access is more easily gained into the dry areas of
the mine and dewatering can be achieved from cashflow.
Reopening old mines is considerably cheaper than developing new
mines. The Gubong Mine has over 120 kilometres of underground
development. In today's terms this would cost approximately
USD3,000 per metre for new development. Additionally, the mine
closed in 1971 when the gold price was below US$40/ounce, which
means that many areas unmined in those days, due to being
unpayable, will now be economic. Over the coming weeks, the Company
intends to carry out the civil works to gain permanent entry to the
mine and then carry out mapping and sampling work to further
develop the mining plan. Following this metallurgical work will
commence.
Colin Patterson, CEO, noted that "The mine model that is being
developed reveals the enormous size of what was South Korea's
second largest gold mine. The drill results show some exceptionally
high grade intercepts which is very encouraging. The fact that the
mine closed in a day without any systematic salvage plan suggests
that there is significant ore left behind. Gubong is a multiple
vein gold mine and as such we certainly expect to substantially
increase the life of the mine."
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES
OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION EU 596/2014 ("MAR")
Enquiries:
Bluebird Merchant Ventures
Ltd +44 (0)7797 859986
Jonathan Morley-Kirk,
Non-Executive Chairman
SP Angel Corporate Finance
LLP
Ewan Leggat
Small Company Capital
Ltd
Rupert Williams/Jeremy + 44 (0)203 470 0470
Woodgate +44 (0)203 651 2910
Walbrook PR Limited +44 (0)207 933 8783
Gary Middleton / Nick
Rome
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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