Central Asia Resources is focusing immediate exploration efforts on two of its six Kazakhstan gold prospects - Alyntas and new Dalabai tenement.

It will accelerate the investigation of Dalabai, which it purchased late last year, on a number of fronts, including extension drilling, metallurgy test work and feasibility studies.

It will continue to investigate the much larger Alyntas project, albeit at a slower pace than Dalabai.

A revised strategic plan for 2009 and 2010 will also see the company direct some attention to other prospects, including infill drilling at Uenke Bulak, preliminary investigation of the new Bizhe prospect and additional drilling at the Kepken and Kengir deposits.

The plan has also pushed out the company’s proposal to achieve large-scale production, which reflects the likely climate for capital raising throughout 2009 and 2010.

The company is pleased with developments at Alyntas and continues to believe it has the potential to be a very attractive mining operation. The focus has been on near-surface mineralization that could potentially be mined using simple open pit methods.

The maiden inferred resource of 5.41 million tonnes grading 1.65 grams/tonne gold for 287,000 contained ounces was announced in March 2008, however, there has been significant exploration at the site since then and it is likely that the resource estimate will increase as this work continues.

Drilling results: 43.6 metres from 6.9 metres @ 19.3 grams/tonne, including 16.4 metres from 6.9 metres @ 49.6 grams/tonne, with 4.3 metres from 10.7 metres @ 141 grams/tonne; 39.8 metres from 40.6 metres @ 2.46 grams/tonne, including 12.1 metres from 41.6 metres @ 4.98 grams/tonne; and 6.6 metres from 124.7 metres @ 2.56 grams/tonne, including 1.8 metres from 127.7 metres @ 6.60 grams/tonne.

Dalabai is a gold prospect 150km north of Almaty and contains an area that has been mined via several small open pits with heap leach processing on site. As it has been in production previously, it is expected that the start-up process and reinstatement of production permitting will be a relatively quick process.

The company views it as a low capex project capable of early positive cashflows and it is targeting to be sufficiently advanced at Dalabai to begin construction before the end of the year.

www.centralasia.com.au