The ASIA Miner - Reporting Important Issues to Mining Companies in the Asia Pacific Region
Issue link: https://asiaminer.epubxp.com/i/830355
Volume 14 • Issue 2 | 2017 | ASIA Miner | 45 Central Asia ORSU Metals Corporation is dependent upon completing the sale of its Karchiga Copper Project in Kazakhstan before it can satisfy a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire the Sergeevskoe Gold Project in eastern Russia. With the Karchiga sale to Karasat Trading FZE not closing as expected on February 15, Orsu has negotiated an amendment to the SPA. One of the closing conditions of the SPA was the requirement for Orsu to have US$3 million cash equivalents at closing of the SPA but the failure of the Karchiga sale to close meant Orsu was unable to meet this condition. The Sergeevskoe licence is owned by Sibzoloto Investments, which is the sole owner of LLC GK Alexandrovskoe, holder of the Sergeevskoe licence, and LLC Investco Realty, owner of a work camp and infrastructure to support the project. On closing the SPA Orsu was to purchase shares of Sibzoloto from the sellers by the issue of 146,605,683 new common shares in Orsu and payment of US$180,000 cash. The sellers and Orsu have amended the SPA to modify the terms to compensate for not meeting the closing condition so that: • The payment of the US$180,000 at closing will be deferred until the earlier of Orsu being funded by equity or the Karchiga sale closing and that the interest rate for this deferred payment be 8% per annum from closing date; • The number of shares to be issued for the first 30% will be adjusted to 165,591,520 new common shares of Orsu from 146,605,683; and • The Karchiga Long-Stop Date in the SPA is changed from June 30, 2017 to September 30, 2017. If the sale of Karch- iga closes before September 30, the sellers will assign the 70% balance of the shares of Sibzoloto to Orsu for the nom- inal par value consideration. In the event the sale does not close before September 30, Orsu will then own a participat- ing interest in 30% of shares of Sibzoloto and the sellers will own 70%. Orsu and the sellers will negotiate the terms of a shareholder's agreement at that time to govern the operations of Sibzoloto and provide for an option for Orsu to acquire the remaining 70% of the shares of Sibzoloto. WHITE Cliff Minerals has engaged consultants to complete a new resource estimate for the Aucu Gold Project in the Kyrgyz Republic. The new estimate is expected to add to the existing resource of 1.2 million tonnes @ 4.2 g/t for 156,000 ounces of gold. The resource, which is amenable to open pit mining, starts at sur- face and has excellent metallurgical characteristics with 88.6% of gold reporting to the gravity concentrate and total recoverable gold of 99% via cyanide extraction. The new estimate being prepared by Optiro will incorporate high grade gold mineralisation identified at the Quartz Zone in 2016. Mineralisation starts at surface, extends over 300 metres long and down to 120 metres depth. The zone contains substantial visible gold, both in outcrop at surface and in drill holes at depth with min- eralisation still open in both directions and at depth. The company expects further drilling in 2017 will substantially ex- pand the zone. White Cliff has submitted all mineralised intervals from its 2016 drilling program to Bureau Veritas laboratory in Perth for gold, cop- per and base metal assays. This analysis forms part of the stan- dard quality assurance protocols associated with conducting JORC-compliant resource estimations. In addition, the company has received bulk density results from drill samples that confirm the density used in the initial resource estimate. These results are essential to enable inferred resources to be upgraded to the indicated category. The company is also conducting substantial test work to better outline potential processing options. Provided this produces the high gravity gold recoveries encountered in previous studies, the company believes a low-cost simple gravity plant could allow the project to provide substantial cash flow within a short time frame. Experienced mining consultant Dr Evan Kirby has been retained to oversee the compilation of mining study parameters for the upcom- ing mining optimisation study. Initially he will assist with establishing the appropriate process scale based on the upcoming metallurgical costs followed by detailed costing for plant, infrastructure and op- erations. Following the resource estimate a preliminary open pit mining opti- misation study using these mining parameters will be conducted to establish the baseline economics of the project, to form part of an application for a mining licence and to assist with optimising future drill programs. Orsu sweats on finalising Karchiga sale Setting up a drill rig on a prospect at White Cliff Minerals' Aucu Gold Project. White Cliff expects new Aucu estimate