Arras Minerals (TSXV:ARK) has announced promising results from the re-analysis of samples from three historic diamond drill holes from the Berezski East project located within the Company’s Elemes exploration licence in northeastern Kazakhstan. The 425 square kilometre Elemes mineral exploration license, which hosts the Berezski East project, is located approximately 80 kilometres east of Arras Minerals’ flagship Beskauga copper-gold deposit and is not included in the Teck-Arras Strategic Exploration Alliance.
Tim Barry, CEO of Arras Minerals, commented in a press release: “The recent re-analysis program at Berezski East and Quartzite-Gorka has underscored the promising mineralizing system developing within our Elemes Licence. Our efforts over the past year have revealed a significant at-surface zone of mineralization, extending across a 5-kilometre strike, with potential expansions in every direction. To date, key areas of interest include “porphyry style” mineralization found at the Berezski East, Berezski Central, and Quartzite Gorka prospects, and “epithermal style” mineralization found at the Karagandy-Ozek prospect. Re-logging and re-assay of historic drill holes has verified intercepts of high-grade of mineralization often exceeding 100 meters in thickness and often starting from surface. It is also important to note that many of historical drill holes end in mineralization as most of the drilling was quite shallow, averaging between 200-300 meters in depth.”
The Elemes licence is situated within the highly productive Bozshakol-Chingiz metallogenic belt in northeastern Kazakhstan that also hosts KAZ Minerals’ large Bozshakol porphyry copper-gold mine located roughly 60 kilometers northwest of Berezski East. The Elemes license benefits from excellent infrastructure, including close proximity to Arras Minerals’ operational base in the nearby city of Ekibastuz. A paved highway and heavy rail lines lie within 15 kilometers of Berezski East, while 1100 KVA power lines run within 1 kilometer of the project area.
Between 2007 and 2010, the previous operators at Berezski East completed 19 diamond drill holes totaling 5,695 metres, with an average depth of 299.7 meters per hole. Mineralization at Berezski East remains open along strike and at depth based on the results of the historical drilling. Arras Minerals has acquired all available drill core and coarse rejects from the previous operators’ drilling campaigns and has relocated the materials to the Company’s core storage facility in Ekibastuz for detailed re-logging and analysis.
Arras Minerals’ technical team has re-logged the available historical drill core from Berezski East in order to systematically document lithology, structure, alteration, and mineralization characteristics. These core re-logging results, combined with the encouraging re-assaying of coarse rejects from historical drilling, have provided valuable insights into the geology and metallogenesis of the Berezski East mineral system.
The style of mineralization identified at Berezski East is interpreted by Arras geologists to represent part of a larger gold-rich porphyry copper-gold district within the Elemes licence area. Additional prospects identified to date on the Elemes property include Berezski Central, Quartzite Gorka, and Karagandy-Ozek.
The re-analysis work by Arras of coarse rejects from three historical drill holes at Berezski East confirms the presence of high-grade gold, copper and silver mineralization. Individual sample assays returned up to 18.0 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au), 1.01% copper (Cu) and 47.7 g/t silver (Ag).
The gold-rich mineralization at Berezski East consists of sheeted and stockwork quartz-magnetite-chalcopyrite-bornite veins with associated potassic alteration halos. Additional vein types identified include magnetite-only and quartz-chalcopyrite veins. Disseminated chalcopyrite, bornite and pyrite are also locally present. Late anhydrite and epidote-carbonate veins crosscut the earlier porphyry-style veins.
The Ordovician-aged host diorite intrusion is fine-grained, equigranular and typically highly magnetic. Pervasive potassic alteration (K-feldspar+quartz+magnetite+biotite) affects the diorite locally, overprinted by intermediate argillic alteration (illite+chlorite). An upper oxidized zone exhibits intense kaolinite-iron oxide alteration with minor supergene copper enrichment.
Results from a detailed high-resolution airborne magnetic survey by Arras, along with 3D inversion modeling of the magnetic data, reveal that the known mineralization at Berezski East lies on the margin of a strong northwest-trending magnetic high. This magnetic feature extends towards and links up with the Karagandy-Ozek epithermal gold prospect where Soviet-era exploration reportedly discovered high-grade gold mineralization in trenches. The airborne magnetic survey has greatly improved Arras’ understanding of the structural setting of Berezski East mineralization and has generated compelling new drill targets near known zones of porphyry and epithermal Au-Cu mineralization.
Arras is highly encouraged by the re-analysis results and new geologic insights from its comprehensive re-logging program on the historical drill core from the Berezski East project within the Company’s 100% owned Elemes license. The Company will incorporate these positive developments into upcoming exploration plans for the Elemes property. Arras’ technical team believes Berezski East and the broader Elemes license represent a major new gold-rich porphyry copper-gold district opportunity in northeastern Kazakhstan. Further drilling and exploration work is warranted based on the re-interpretation of the historic Berezski East data and the additional targets defined by the recent airborne magnetic survey. With its close proximity to excellent infrastructure, Berezski East highlights the untapped discovery potential remaining within Arras’ prospective project portfolio in this prolific but under-explored mineral belt.
- Bz6 – 108.0 meters (“m”) of mineralization grading 0.94 % CuEq or 1.33 /t AuEq (1.30 g/t gold (“Au”), 0.19 % copper (“Cu”) and 1.5 g/t silver (“Ag”)) starting at surface.
- Including 30.8 m grading 2.21 % CuEq or 2.66 g/t AuEq (3.14 g/t Au, 0.39 % Cu and 3.0 g/t Ag) starting at surface.
- Bz16 – 46.0 m of mineralization grading 0.71 % CuEq or 0.86 g/t AuEq (0.95 g/t Au, 0.17 % Cu and 0.8 g/t Ag) starting at 87.0 m depth down-hole.
- Including 18.0 m grading 1.05 % CuEq or 1.28 g/t AuEq (1.54 g/t Au, 0.17 % Cu and 0.7 g/t Ag) from 102.0 m depth down-hole.
- Bz20 – 94.0 m of mineralization grading 0.59 % CuEq or 0.71 g/t AuEq (0.81 g/t Au, 0.12 % Cu and 0.9 g/t Ag) starting at 199.0 m depth down-hole.
- Including 42.0 m grading 0.99 % CuEq or 1.20 g/t AuEq (1.43 g/t Au, 0.17 % Cu and 1.0 g/t Ag) from 227.0 m depth down-hole.
Notes: Copper Equivalent (“CuEq”) grades reported for the drill holes at Berezski East were calculated using the following formula: CuEq % = Copper (%) + (Gold (g/t) x 0.8264) + (Silver (g/t) x 0.0107). Gold Equivalent (“AuEq”) grades reported for the drill holes at Berezski were calculated using the following formula: AuEq g/t = Gold (g/t) + (Copper (%) x 1.2100) + (Silver (g/t) x 0.0129). Assumptions used for the copper and gold equivalent calculations were metal prices of US$3.00/lb. Copper, US$1,700/oz Gold, US$22/oz Silver, and metallurgical recoveries were assumed to be 90% for Cu and Au and 50% for Ag and Mo. Intervals are core-length and original core recovery is estimated to be > 90 %. Source: Arras Minerals
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