20 March 2024
East Star Resources
Plc
("East Star" or the
"Company")
Award of 2nd
Copper Porphyry Exploration Licence
East Star Resources Plc (LSE:EST), the Kazakhstan focused copper exploration and
resource development company, is pleased to announce the award of
its second copper porphyry exploration licence under the new copper
porphyry exploration strategy initially funded through a US$500,000
grant from the BHP Xplor programme.
Highlights:
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121 km2 tenement ("Snowy
Project") shows historical soil anomalies indicating its potential
prospectivity for a copper porphyry deposit
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6km long and 3km wide silica lithocap
located ~150km north of the large Kounrad
open pit copper mine and smelter (~800Mt @ 0.62% Cu
and up to 0.76g/t Au)
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BHP Xplor grant to cover the cost of all
licence fees and the initial work programme
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Together with BHP Xplor, East Star
is conducting regional target generation for copper porphyry
deposits, principally focussed on the Balkash-Ili magmatic arc,
host to the Kounrad deposit (~800Mt @ 0.62% Cu and up to 0.76g/t
Au) and Aktogai-Aidarly deposits (~2.5Bt @ 0.39% Cu). By applying
modern mineral systems concepts with advanced desktop analytical
techniques and on-the-ground geological confirmation, East Star
intends to secure several further exploration licences within the
area of interest for future field work. The BHP Xplor grant will be
directed towards licence costs, field programmes, desktop
evaluation work, and staff and administrative costs in the
execution of the work plan. The programme will be managed by East
Star with input from BHP and a wider team of experts.
Chris van Wijk, East Star Technical Director,
commented:
"We are delighted to have our second copper porphyry licence
granted since the beginning of BHP Xplor programme. This is also
the third licence granted to East Star using the newly implemented
Kazakh online portal system. This demonstrates that East Star is
able to promptly formulate compliant applications for new licences
and that the Kazakh ministerial process for granting new
applications is working efficiently.
The Snowy Project was subjected to an initial site visit in
September 2023 and we were able to confirm several zones of
hydrothermal alteration near to a very large silica lithocap which
was identified from satellite imagery. We are looking forward
to starting
our planned programme of geological mapping and soil sampling to
advance this project as well as continuing to generate other
prospects within our area of interest as part of our BHP
Xplor-backed programme."
Regional
Setting
The licence is located on the western end of
the paleozoic Balkash-Ili volcanic arc. The Balkash-Ili arc is
known to host multiple copper and gold rich porphyry and skarn
deposits with the best-known examples including Kounrad (5Mt
contained copper) which is located 160km to the south of the
licence, the Akzhal lead-zinc mine located around 50km to the
south-west and Aktogai-Aidarly further to the east.
The Kounrad ore deposit is related to the
intrusion of Middle Carboniferous (~330 Ma) granitic bodies into a
sequence of Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous
volcano-sedimentary and related rocks. Kounrad contained
approximately 5Mt of contained copper and 600t of gold at the start
of mining. Kounrad is also notable in that it featured a supergene
enriched zone, exploited in its early years which ranged between
150-200m thick and hosted grades in excess of 1% Cu (Seltmann, R.
& Porter, M. 2005).
The work history of the licence is still being
compiled from archive data; however, the prospect was identified
during soviet era mapping which shows several large 'secondary
quartzites' and anomalous copper, lead and mercury in several zones
around the licence as well as a broad surrounding tungsten halo.
All of these are pathfinder metals for porphyry copper systems and
reinforce the prospectivity of this licence.
'Secondary quartzites' were a soviet term used
to refer to the residual, leached silica lithocaps which are
commonly associated with porphyry intrusions. This lithocap has
also been identified through analysis of ASTER multispectral data
collected and processed by the USGS and has been
classified as Argillic alteration which has been confirmed by
a field visit carried out in 2023 (see Photo 1 below).
Photo
1: Silica lithocap in central Snowy Project
licence, with argillic alteration immediately behind the field
vehicle and the entire hill in the background. View looking
north.
The licence is well served by existing
infrastructure including the national highway running from Balkash
to Astana, located some 35km to the south-west, a rail line which
runs parallel to the national highway, and numerous powerlines
servicing the towns along the highway as well as a system of gravel
roads running from the highway into the interior providing for easy
vehicle access.
Work
Programme
Initial work on the licence shall consist of
confirmatory geological mapping and broadly spaced soil samples
combined with Terraspec analysis. The results of this exploration
will enable the Company to confirm or negate the prospectivity of
the system through analysis of the metal zonation patterns and the
clay species within the soils.
Figure 1:
Snowy Project licence map with silica lithocaps
inside a broad area of argillic alteration.
About BHP Xplor
BHP Xplor is a cohort-based world-first
accelerator programme, dedicated to unearthing new critical mineral
deposits by uniting BHP experts, thought leaders and innovative
mineral explorers to offer participants with the opportunity to
accelerate their exploration concepts and the potential to
establish a long-term partnership with BHP. The programme offers
participants funding, mentorship and coaching, and connection into
BHP's network of suppliers and service providers.
BHP Xplor merges concepts from both
venture-capital and early-stage accelerators, to establish a
fit-for-purpose exploration portfolio of innovative, early-stage
mineral exploration companies and helps drive their exploration
campaigns. The programme provides candidates with a one-off,
non-dilutive grant of up to US$500,000, together with in-kind
services, mentorship, networking opportunities with industry and
investors and connections. The grant is a once off opportunity and
there are no obligations or commitments on East Star beyond the
conclusion of the Xplor programme; however, East Star has committed
to grant BHP certain pre-emption rights with respect to investments
in East Star or its projects within the programme.
The Xplor programme is designed to create
disruptive results in mineral exploration by identifying new
concepts, leveraging new data and testing opportunities at a much
faster pace than discoveries to date.
1Seltmann, R. and Porter, T.M., 2005 - The Porphyry Cu-Au/Mo
Deposits of Central Eurasia: Tectonic, Geologic & Metallogenic
Setting and Significant Deposits; in Porter, T.M. (Ed.), Super Porphyry Copper
& Gold Deposits: A Global Perspective. PGC Publishing,
Adelaide, v. 2, pp 467-512.
East Star
Resources Plc
Alex Walker, Chief Executive
Officer
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234 (via Vigo
Consulting)
SI
Capital (Corporate Broker)
Nick Emerson
Tel: +44 (0)1483 413 500
Peterhouse Capital Limited (Corporate
Broker)
Peter Greensmith
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0930
Vigo Consulting (Investor Relations)
Ben Simons / Peter Jacob
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234
About East
Star Resources Plc
East Star Resources is focused on the discovery
and development of strategic minerals required for the energy
revolution. With eight licences covering 1,190.3 km² in three
mineral rich districts of Kazakhstan, East Star is undertaking
an intensive exploration programme, applying modern geophysics to
discover minerals in levels that were not previously explored. East
Star's most advanced project is a copper deposit on the world-class
Rudny Altai VMS Belt where the Company is working towards the
delivery of a JORC compliant open pit copper resource close to
infrastructure, within trucking distance of third-party mills with
excess capacity. East Star's management are based permanently on
the ground, supported by local expertise, a joint venture with the
state mining company on certain projects, and grant funding from
BHP through the BHP Xplor programme for copper porphyry
exploration.
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The person who
arranged for the release of this announcement was Alex Walker, CEO
of the Company.
This announcement contains inside information
for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 2014/596/EU which is
part of domestic UK law pursuant to the Market Abuse (Amendment)
(EU Exit) Regulations (SI 2019/310) ("UK MAR"). Upon the
publication of this announcement, this inside information (as
defined in UK MAR) is now considered to be in the public
domain.