Bluebird Merchant Ventures (EPIC: BMV), the Asian focused resource development group is pleased to announce that it has made further advances at the Kochang Mine and has received more surface sampling assay results from the Gubong Mine.
Highlights:
- Access gained to the next level of the Kochang Mine
- Visible ore in situ and pillars, remnant areas and broken ore discovered at old production areas
- Excellent ground conditions
- Gubong tailings samples return significant value
- Surface ‘waste’ rockpiles at Gubong yield assay results of up to 10.5 g/t
Having gained access to the main adit and lowest production level (RL245) a week ago to the Kochang Mine, the team were able to get up a raise to the next level (RL265) to examine it. The team found an old production area with pillars, remnant areas and broken ore left above pillars and in the ore drive itself. Spans (distances between pillars) of over 10 metres were observed and no timber support could be seen; all confirming the excellent ground conditions first observed on the lower level. The contact between the vein and footwall is very planar and smooth which greatly facilitates cleaning after a blast.
Further encouraging results were obtained from surface sampling at the Gubong Mine. Two augured scout holes were drilled on the tailings dam area and returned significant value; all the more significant given they were so shallow (less than 1 metre). A full study of the tailings will be carried out later this year to determine the economic feasibility.
The surface area covered by the Gubong Mine hill has vast quantities of broken rock strewn over it, mostly assumed to be waste. Bluebird took six samples from various positions on the hill and five returned values in excess of 1g/t (see table below). Based on these results, Bluebird intends to document the occurrences of these rock piles in an attempt to quantify this inexpensive resource.
| Sample No. | Sample Type | Sample Position | Au (ppm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| KRS350001 | Tailings | Tailings Dam #1 | 1.15 |
| KRS350002 | Tailings | Tailings Dam #2 | 0.80 |
| KRS350003 | Grab | Old Coarse Ore Bin | 2.09 |
| KRS350004 | Grab | Nursery Area | 2.07 |
| KRS350005 | Grab | Near Incline Shaft | 10.50 |
| KRS350008 | Grab | Waste Stockpile #2 | 1.24 |
Charles Barclay, COO, commented:
“I am pleased with the progress at Kochang which is aided by the excellent ground conditions. When reopening old mines, the initial targets are broken ore and remnant pillars within old production areas. We are seeing this at Kochang. The mine closed when the gold price was USD 140/oz so we would expect that what was unpayable ore then is now economic. The results at Gubong of the tailings are most exciting and they certainly warrant a full program to determine the viability of reworking them. The results obtained from rock piles at Gubong announced today indicate that they could be a very cheap resource and we will be working on this over the coming weeks.”
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION EU 596/2014 (“MAR”)