calm before the storm??, page-3

Reminder of what Jordan said last August in ResourceStocks:

"While exact production from the soviet era is not known, two mines within the district contain resources of 1.35 billion tonnes grading 0.5
per cent copper and 0.16gpt gold for approximately 6.5 million tonnes contained copper. this provides an indication of the scale that individual deposits in this region can reach,” Luckett said

“Within Great Western’s project area, there are eight prospects where trenching and/or drilling activities during the soviet era intersected wide zones of ore-grade copper mineralisation.”
What Luckett and his exploration team intend to do now is to verify
the historical data with present-day drilling results and evaluate the near- term production potential. “Much of the guesswork has already been taken out of the equation ... we can see the copper outcropping from the surface so we know it is there,” he said.
an initial diamond drill program will be carried out to confirm
the width and grade of copper mineralisation of at least four of
the known prospects once drilling approvals have been received.
“We have drill rigs and a local soil and geological mapping company on standby so it is just a matter of getting the go-ahead,” Luckett said.
“the optimal period for working out in the field is in the summer months from June to November, although drilling can be completed during most of the year. We have already started to visit some of the 120 prospects with a portable XrF and we are hoping to complete some modern eM [electromagnetic] surveying and most of our drilling program prior to Christmas.
“the exploration strategy for spasskaya is to target replacement style mineralisation that consists of high grade copper within disseminated to massive sulfide mineralisation. the historical data already has indicated this style
of mineralisation at a number of locations and the plan is to delineate
enough high-grade copper to start a smaller operation.” he said.
“What we like about spasskaya is that it has great potential for high value ore that can be brought into production early at low capital costs that then can be used to fund the ongoing assessment of the larger lower grade deposits and complete the regional exploration to build the resource base and lift production over time.
“also, the company has lots of exploration experience with massive sulfide mineralisation and can
apply modern eM geophysics to the region, which will greatly increase the probability of success both in and around the known areas and generating new exploration targets.
“Porphyry copper deposits can end up being very valuable and hugely profitable but they present a financial challenge for juniors because of the high costs of drilling required to get to the economies of scale required for development.
“to develop a one billion tonne project at a 0.5 per cent grade in Kazakhstan for example, you are looking at a capital cost exceeding $Us2.5 billion. the rewards are huge but it can be very difficult for a junior with no cash flow to get to that point.
“We have access to a number of very good projects there but we do not have access to a lot of money so we have to balance what we do against what we can reasonably fund.
“We are confident that once we execute the drilling at spasskaya and start getting the results through, that the potential of the project will become obvious to the market.”