KAZAKHSTAN - Bakyrchik resources upgraded

An updated NI 43-101 estimate for the Bakyrchik Deposit, which is part of Altynalmas Gold's Kyzyl Gold Project in northeast Kazakhstan, has increased indicated mineral resources by 50%. Altynalmas is 50% owned by Ivanhoe Mines.

Based on drilling results available to December 1, 2010, it is now estimated that the deposit contains 22.16 million tonnes of indicated resources grading 8.72 grams/tonne gold, containing 6.2 million ounces of gold and an additional 9.67 million tonnes of inferred mineral resources grading 7.43 grams/tonne gold, containing 2.3 million ounces.

Altynalmas is continuing its drilling program designed to expand and upgrade the NI 43-101-compliant resources and reserves at Kyzyl.

A total of 78,020 metres were drilled during 2010 and an updated resource estimate based on all 2010 drilling is expected in March.

An additional 25,000 metres are planned to be completed during 2011 on the recently enlarged Bakyrchik Mining Lease and a further 50,000 metres are planned to begin the delineation of the satellite deposits on the surrounding exploration licence.

Recently assayed significant drill intercepts of high-grade gold mineralization included 11 metres @ 15.43 grams/tonne gold and 11 metres at 12.06 grams/tonne gold in Lens 12; and 18 metres at 6.15 grams/tonne gold and 11 metres at 8.17 grams/tonne gold in Lens 9.

The Kyzyl project contains the Bakyrchik and Bolshevik gold deposits, as well as a number of satellite deposits. A pre-feasibility study for the project was completed in August 2010 while the Bakyrchik deposit's definitive feasibility study, which began in September 2010, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2011.

Altynalmas’ president and CEO David Woodall says, “The increase in the Bakyrchik resource base bodes well for the estimation of reserves in the upcoming feasibility study.

“The expected improvement in the economics of the Kyzyl Gold Project, combined with the continuation of the very encouraging drilling results, should provide the basis for the commencement of construction in 2011 of a 1.5-million-tonne per year fluidized-bed roasting plant to process the project's refractory ores.”

The gold deposits at Kyzyl consist of a series of mineralized lenses, or lodes, lying within a large shear zone. Gold mineralization is hosted within sheared carbonaceous sediments of the fault zones and principally is contained within sulphide mineralization occurring in association with quartz stockworks, which crosscut and parallel the foliation of the sediments.

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