Xanadu Mines intends to take immediate advantage of the renewed investment interest now evident in Mongolia following the recent signing of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement.
The unlisted Australian-based explorer intends to accelerate exploration on its coal, copper and gold projects in Mongolia.
Xanadu’s chairman Brian Thornton says, “With four projects under way, including drilling on three, a successful recent capital raising and a rising gold and copper price, Xanadu’s exposure to one of the last great frontiers of mining and the adjacent powerhouse that is China, presents an unrivalled opportunity.”
The signing of the long-term Oyu Tolgoi agreement was the result of more than four years of negotiation between the government and the project’s owners, Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, which will bring to fruition, what is potentially the world’s largest copper gold project.
It is also expected to be a catalyst for further development of Mongolia’s mineral resources.
Brian Thornton says beside the major mining houses, Xanadu is one of the very few Mongolian focused explorers who will take immediate advantage of the new ‘minerals blueprint’ in Mongolia, which includes the removal of the windfall tax on copper and gold.
Xanadu has four major exploration and development initiatives in train:
• At the Khar Tarvaga thermal coal project in the main Trans-Mongolian railway corridor, Nexant Inc is undertaking a Coal to Liquids (CTL) technical scoping study on Xanadu’s 327 million tonnes JORC resource.
• It is evaluating and drilling two new coal projects in Southern Mongolia near China which, if concluded, would potentially take Xanadu’s total coal resources to in excess of 500 million tonne.
• Further diamond drilling is taking place at the Hutag Uul porphyry copper project in the South East Gobi near China.
• Drilling at the Elgen-Zos gold exploration joint venture, also in the South East Gobi, is targeting a large sediment hosted gold system with widespread anomalous gold in rock chips up to 5.5 grams/tonne gold.
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