2017-05-15 07:38 ET - News Release Dr. Alexander Becker reports
KENADYR COMMENCES DRILLING AT SOUTH ZONE
Drilling has commenced on the South zone of Kenadyr Mining (Holdings) Corp.'s 100-per-cent-owned Borubai licence, Kyrgyzstan.
The South Zone is directly adjacent to Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd.'s ("Zijin") Taldy-Bulak Levoberejny ("TBL") Mine deposit, currently in production.
Initial drilling is designed to intersect an area which was previously drilled by the Soviet's between 1970 and 1990, and which intersected significant gold mineralization.
The South Zone is open in three directions and to depth and drilling in this zone has the potential to see increased grade of the mineralization (from historic numbers) as a result of increased core recovery (core recovery during Soviet drilling averaged only 60% recovery) and the use of Fire Assay versus ICP analysis techniques (which were predominately used during Soviet assaying).
The target depth of the initial drill hole is 850 meters.
Kenadyr is in a strong position to embark on this upcoming program, having a strong balance sheet, no debt nor significant payments owing, a strong institutional shareholder base and a management team with extensive in-country operational experience, and merger and acquisition expertise.
Dr. Alexander Becker, Kenadyr Chief Executive Officer, states, "Drilling has now commenced, ahead of schedule and this is a testament to the team's strong efforts in the field along with the efficiency of QED, the drill contractor. The South Zone is a high priority area for Kenadyr with excellent underlying geology. It is open and strongly mineralized at the extent of drilling, according to historical results, and we look forward to retesting this area, to confirm the high grade results reported from previous drilling."
Kenadyr's Borubai project comprises a 100-per-cent-owned exploration licence covering a contiguous 164-square-kilometre land package that encircles the Zijin/Kyrgyz/Altyn newly constructed and operational TBL mine, in northern Kyrgyz Republic.
Zijin, the majority owner of the TBL mine, is one of China's largest gold producers, second-largest copper and zinc producer, as well as a major producer of tungsten and iron ore. In 2015, Zijin's sales revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company reached $11.44-billion (U.S.) and $255-million (U.S.), respectively, ranking first and second, respectively, among 14 major global public gold miners (source: Zijin website). According to a news release published by Zijin. on Aug. 15, 2011, the national resources table of Kyrgyz Republic stated that the TBL field contains (C1 plus C2) 8,906,100 tonnes of gold ore (the average grade is 7.23 grams per tonne) and the gold metal volume is 64,420.5 kilograms, among which the C1 grade (initial mining reserve) is 4,949,754 tonnes of gold ore (the average grade is 7.02 grams per tonne) and the gold metal volume is 34,754.6 kilograms. The TBL mine is designed to produce 125,000 ounces of gold per annum. The TBL mine deposit is directly adjacent to Kenadyr's initial drill target, the South Zone, which was previously drilled by the Soviets, with drilling on the Bourubai License exceeding 98,000 meters.
Readers are cautioned that the resource and reserve estimates relating to the TBL mine do not extend to the Borubai project. Kenadyr has not independently verified the information with respect to the TBL mine provided in this news release and it is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on the Borubai project. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates on the TBL mine as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, and Kenadyr is not aware of the resource and reserve categories, or the key assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare the historical estimates on the TBL mine. Kenadyr is not treating the historical estimates on the TBL mine as current mineral resources or mineral reserves as defined in National Instrument 43-101. While Kenadyr considers the historical estimates on the TBL mine disclosed in this news release to be relevant to investors, Kenadyr cautions readers that they should not be unduly relied upon in drawing inferences on the mineralization on the Borubai project.
Kenadyr's Borubai project, which surrounds the TBL mine, has been the subject of extensive historic exploration including drilling (98,200 metres in 184 diamond drill holes), trenching (13,800 cumulative metres), bulldozer cuts (33,400 cumulative metres), geologic mapping at 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 scales, ridge, spur and grid soil geochemistry for multi-elements (14,200 samples), rock geochemical sampling (2,320 samples), pan concentrate sampling (790 samples), 100 metres of adits, and 184 metres of underground raises. Additionally, the entire area has been subject to airborne magnetic, radiometric and gravity surveys, as well as ground-based resistivity and induced polarization surveys. Additional high grade gold targets exist throughout the Borubai license. The entire license has been subject to extensive geochemical and geophysical surveys, with follow up trenching and drilling on only a few of the identified anomalies.
Additional information in respect of the Corporation's business and the Borubai project is available in the Corporation's filing statement dated February 27, 2017, available under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR.
Kenadyr has an expert team of mine developers with considerable local and regulatory knowledge, led by Chief Executive Officer Dr. Alex Becker, who has operated successfully in the country for much of the past 20 years. The board and management team includes; R. Stuart (Tookie) Angus (Chairman), Alexander Becker (Chief Executive Officer), Bryan Slusarchuk (President), Douglas J. Kirwin (Director), Brian Lueck (Director) and Kevin Ma (Chief Financial Officer). Mark Eaton will act as an adviser to the Corporation.
QED and its predecessor company have a 30-year history and QED has grown their business to be an industry leader in the provision of drilling services to varied clients. QED's services includes diamond drilling, reverse circulation (RC) drilling, RC grade control, geothermal, geotechnical drilling, water boring and slope stability solutions. QED acts as a drill contractor for multiple public and private companies around the world including major, mid-tier and exploration focused companies.
Kenadyr has 83,947,623 common shares issued, along with common share purchase warrants exercisable at various prices for an aggregate of 4,633,044 common shares, and 8,385,000 incentive stock options exercisable at $0.80 per share and subject to vesting.
Brian Lueck, P. Geo, a director of Kenadyr and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information in this news release.