IG ASIA Acquires Majority Interest in the Pribrezhniy Porphyry
Copper Deposit in the Republic of Kazakhstan
IG ASIA LLC
(“IG Asia” or the “Company”), a private
Nevis based company, is pleased to announce it has entered
into a conditional agreement with
Rio Tinto International
Holdings Limited (the “Vendor”) to acquire its 75%
ownership interest in the Pribrezhniy porphyry copper deposit
(>1Mt contained copper) and five additional underexplored
prospect areas located in the most prolific porphyry belt in the
Republic of Kazakhstan (the “Project", Figure 1)
(the
“Transaction”). On completion of the Transaction, IG Asia
will acquire 75% of the Project which has a scoping level
engineering analysis performed by Rio Tinto Exploration
Kazakhstan. The remaining 25% of the joint venture is
owned by KazGeology, a Kazakhstan state geological resources
entity. Ongoing exploration work has demonstrated significant
potential for expansion and further discovery.
TRANSACTION HIGHLIGHTS
-
Transaction supports IG Asia’s path toward becoming a
leading regional copper explorer and developer
- This asset is a
flagship project for IG Asia alongside its TN5 project in Mongolia.
TN5 is located between world class Oyu Tolgoi and Kharmagtai
deposits of Rio Tinto and Xanadu Mines where the target is a large
Tier 1 copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry.
- The Company is
proposing technical work at Pribrezhniy with the objective of
further increasing upside in the project through a combination of
increased mineral inventory and optimized processing.
-
Pribrezhniy is ideally located within an established mining
district
- The Project is
located in the most prolific porphyry belt in the Republic of
Kazakhstan containing several commercial discoveries such as the
Aktogay (2.2Bt @ 0.37% Cu), Taysogan, Sayak and Kounrad
deposits.
- Located at the
eastern end of the Kounrad group of copper deposits it boasts
excellent mining infrastructure with access to power, water, a dual
line railway and smelter in the district.
- The Project
license area covers 832km2 of exploration ground with the
exploration stage of the license being valid until February 2029 to
produce a feasibility study on Pribrezhniy and advance two
additional prospects within the license.
-
Transaction terms are focused squarely on the path to
project and mine development
- Upon completion
of the Transaction, the Company shall pay the Vendor USD 2.23M
primarily for reimbursement of exploration work performed in
2023.
- Additional
expenditures of USD 11M to reach a prefeasibility level project by
2029.
- An additional
one-time payment of USD 20M and a NSR royalty are due to the Vendor
upon reaching certain nameplate production milestones.
Richard Leveille, former VP Exploration for Freeport McMoran and
Director and Chief Copper Consultant for IG Asia commented, " The
Pribrezhniy acquisition represents a unique opportunity for IG Asia
to leapfrog from a greenfields explorer to having a scoping-level
project near excellent infrastructure in a favorable
mining-friendly jurisdiction.
Thomas E. Bowens, founder and Executive Director of IG Asia
states, “The acquisition of the Pribrezhniy deposit is a major
development for IG Global and our IG Asia subsidiary. In just over
two years our team has advanced IG Asia from a green fields
exploration company to a multi tiered exploration and development
company. The Pribrezhniy acquisition provides IGA with an advanced
copper molybdenum porphyry deposit that has undergone a successful
scoping study indicating robust economics. This acquisition
provides a major step forward for the company and adds substantial
value to our current portfolio of copper, gold and lithium brine
projects underway in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I am very
proud of our outstanding IG Asia team. IG Asia is well underway to
becoming a major force in the mineral exploration and mining
industry in Central Asia.”
Figure 1: Location of Pribrezhniy and other
deposit areas of interest. P1 = Pribrezhniy; P2 = Prikounradsky; S1
= South Kounrad, NE1 & NE2 = Pribrezhniy Northeast &
Northwest. Shabigon is an exclave located 120km west of the main
area.
GEOLOGY
Pribrezhniy represents the eastward end of the
Kounrad group of copper deposits. The geology comprises typical A,
B and D veins in a porphyry system encompassing breccia zones and
alteration hosted by monzogranite, monzogranite porphyry and
tonalite (Figure 2). Copper mineralization is associated with a
late monzonite porphyry phase, but mineralization is also found in
an earlier phase of monzogranite that forms a wide arc (Northern,
Southern and Eastern Zones).
An additional intrusive phase of monzogranite
was assumed to form a barren core. However, at the end of the final
evaluation drilling campaign (over 50,000m of diamond drilling was
carried out by Rio Tinto Exploration Kazakhstan between 2018-2023),
significant intercepts of mineralised breccia were encountered in
the previously untested central ‘barren’ monzogranite in the last
few diamond drill holes, including (refer to Table 1 and Appendix A
herein):
Table 1: Summary of selected
significant intercepts over down-the-hole thicknesses at campaign
end.
Drillhole ID |
Lithology |
Downholeinterval (m) |
Weighted ave.,Cu % |
Weighted ave.,Ag g/t |
PRIB0109 |
Breccia Hydrothermal |
124.7 |
0.74 |
2.7 |
PRIB0111 |
Breccia Hydrothermal |
64.0 |
0.34 |
1.3 |
PRIB0112 |
Monzogranite |
43.6 |
0.47 |
0.9 |
Figure 2: Geology of
Pribrezhniy showing north and south mineralized zones either side
of a barren core of monzogranite. Holes highlighted in blue are for
geotechnical sampling to support starter open pits, 2023 series
holes are shown in red. IG developed oxide ore zone subtypes shown
in insets: blanket oxide = BOX (red) and supergene subtypes = SUPER
(blue) are shown for each zone.
Figure 3: Mineralised core intercepts from
drillhole P98, Eastern Zone
a) Oxide.78.8m depth.
Hematite-goethite-jarosite weathering with
malachite. 40.0m @ 0.39% Cu
b) Sulphide. 199.8m depth.
Quartz-chalcopyrite-molybdenite veinlet dissemination with sericite
alteration. 18.0m @ 0.64% Cu
Figure 4: Examples of mineralised veinsets from
Eastern Zone
a) P105, 207m depth. B-type
quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite-molybdenite vein in monzodiorite
b) P106, 168m depth. Quartz-chalcopyrite D-type
with sericite selvage cutting rejuvenated A-veins with K-feldspar
in granodiorite
Robust metallurgical, hydrogeological, geotechnical and
environmental studies were carried out between 2018-2020 to advance
a scoping level study including an estimate of mineral
inventory:
Table 2: Global Geology mineral inventory after
2021-2022
MINERALTYPE |
TONNESORE Mt |
TONNES CUMETAL Kt |
TONNES MOMETAL Kt |
CU GRADE % |
MO GRADE % |
CU EQUIVALENT %* |
OXIDE ONLY |
80 |
213 |
- |
0.27 |
- |
0.27 |
COMBINED SULPHIDE |
722 |
2,275 |
100 |
0.31 |
0.014 |
0.38 |
* Cu equivalent is calculated on a price deck of
USD9,000/t for copper and USD44,000/t for molybdenum according to
the formula: Cu eq. grade = [(Cu price x Cu grade + Mo price x Mo
grade)/Cu price x Cu grade] x Cu grade
Prices are based on rounding down the LME daily metal price for
10 April 2024 to Cu = USD4.2/lb and Mo = USD20/lb
Image 1: Copper oxide
mineralization in weathered granite
ECONOMICS
IG Asia performed its own optimization and NSR
studies to produce a high-level financial analysis based on the
following mineral inventory for a stand-alone heap leach operation
recovering from oxide and a combined oxide + hypogene operation
where cash flow is generated from oxide during construction of the
sulphide concentrator. Both bottom-lines for each scenario were
positive with profitability indices >1. Silver, in addition, is
present in sufficient quantities in the copper concentrate (up to
70ppm in Cu scavenger circuits) to be a credit in a smelter
contract and the Company will look to include it in future resource
estimates.
Table 3: In-Pit Mineralisation (satisficer
shells) 2023
PIT |
REVENUEFACTOR |
TONNESORE Mt |
AVE CU % |
TONNESWASTE Mt |
TONNESTOTAL Mt |
SR |
NPV10 M$ |
LoMYrs |
PAYBACKYrs |
IRR % |
ProfitIndex |
OXIDE ONLY |
0.89 |
43 |
0.29 |
119 |
162 |
2.74 |
$147 |
4.3 |
2 |
53 |
>2 |
COMBINEDSULPHIDE |
0.62 |
700 |
0.24 |
301 |
1,001 |
0.43 |
$716 |
26.4 |
9 |
18 |
1.6 |
Given the very favourable economic conditions, enhanced by
excellent mining infrastructure (access to power, water, dual line
railway and smelter in the district), IG embarked on producing a
preliminary 3D model of oxide ore subtypes based on extracting acid
leachable copper and cyanide leachable copper phase analyses from
the Vendor’s comprehensive database:
- AsCu >65% = BOX (will heap leach)
- AsCu 50-64% = OTHER (may heap leach if blended)
- CNCu >35% = SUPER (will heap leach)
To yield an estimation of heap leachable oxide resources.
Volumes and tonnages for each mineral category are quoted at 0.1%
Cu cut-off grade:
Table 4: IG in-house
preliminary estimates of oxide ore subtypes based on drill data up
to November 2023.
№ |
Name |
|
Volume m3 |
Tonnage t |
Grade Cu % |
In-situ Cu content t |
1 |
BOX |
|
6 452 000 |
16 711 000 |
0.29 |
49 000 |
2 |
SUPER |
|
11 095 000 |
28 736 000 |
0.26 |
75 000 |
3 |
OTHER |
|
916 000 |
2 374 000 |
0.28 |
6 000 |
|
|
Total potentially leachable |
47 821 000 |
0.27 |
130 000 |
The estimates represent an order of magnitude
assessment, given wide data spacing and lack of rigorous
application of mining modifying factors but can be used as an
optimistic scenario for an 8–10-year SX/EW operation fed from
within the Prebrezhniy deposit area alone.
NEXT STEPS
IG Asia will use the expenditure commitment of USD 9M to
February 2029 to carry out the following strategy:
- Oxide Only Project
- Fully outline and define resources, particularly supergene,
eastern extensions and centre within the Pribrezhniy deposit and
investigate oxide copper concentrations at the other prospects
within the license.
- Perform heap leach specific testwork on representative ore
subtypes.
- Combined Sulphide Project
- Fully outline newly discovered high-grade breccia from surface
–with an aim to define the full extent of the higher-grade breccia
‘sweetener’.
- Improve sulphide resource definition.
- Increase level of accuracy in project metrics including water
management plan to benefit local users where water is a scarce
resource.
- Definition Phase StudiesThree main study areas
to complete are:
- Comprehensive ESIA including upgraded 3D hydrogeological model
integrated with a water management plan.
- Preliminary oxide Mine Development Project Plan on SXEW
operation over 8 yr LoM.
- Combined oxide + sulphide Pre-Feasibility Study at +/- 30%
level of accuracy.
Image 2:
Drilling at Central Zone, Pribrezhniy
Qualified Person, Technical Information
Steve McRobbie, MAusIMM. Vice President Projects of IG Asia
LLC, has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style
of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration to
qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the
“Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral
Resources and Ore Reserves, and has prepared, validated and
approved the technical and scientific content of this news
release.
About IG Asia
IG Asia is focused on world class opportunities in the
mineral-rich countries of Kazakhstan and Mongolia. On the heels of
IG Global Group’s successful exploration and discoveries at IG
Copper and IG Tintic, founder Thomas E. Bowens formed IG Asia
recognizing the vast mineral discovery potential of Kazakhstan and
Mongolia, and the opportunity presented by the modernization of
their attractive foreign investment frameworks. IGG’s
exceptional technical team and regional experience is its strategic
advantage. For more information: www.igasia.com
About IG Global Group LLC
IGG is a private international holding company focused on
the exploration and development of world class mineral deposits.
The Company’s activities include mineral exploration, mining
operations and mining services. Founded in 2010 by Thomas E.
Bowens, a Certified Professional Geologist, with degrees in
Economics, Geological Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) and a master’s
degree in Geology (the latter two from the Colorado School of
Mines). IGG brings together experienced professionals who are
innovators in their fields with selected technical consultants who
are well-versed in the latest industry exploration and mine
development techniques and technologies. For more information
igglobalgroup.com.
CONTACT |
Steven McRobbie, VP Projects:
smcrobbie@igglobalgroup.com |
|
Stephanie Ashton, VP
Business Development:
sashton@igglobalgroup.com |
APPENDIX A
SELECTED DRILL RESULTS FROM FINAL HOLES
OF RTX’S 2023 DRILLING CAMPAIGN (Refer Figure 2
for location on the deposit)
Photos accompanying this announcement are available
athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0fd75a4b-5401-466d-bfdc-941282c35801
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/75124aa2-26c6-44dd-aee1-0d551e051d0f
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/834735ab-9818-4633-bba3-e7263f5a1138
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7ed9fbb4-071b-44a0-be42-11d9a765d9b1
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8ee55458-291c-4d86-aad3-061088fa1ac0
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/38073eb3-d3fa-4446-84af-2f6981335acc
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1ad468a1-2490-4e2d-a319-03e351a8980b
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/65e26b50-43f7-4001-b883-ef9b4403faad
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e7c655f2-f575-439b-8ae8-26abf3e6a72c