Following a significant copper resource upgrade at the Beruan Kanan Main (BKM) deposit in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Asiamet Resources has received some highly encouraging drill results from a potential satellite deposit.

The results are from the Beruang Kanan South (BKS) prospect, which is around 1km from the BKM deposit that contains an estimated 887 million pounds of copper. Both sites form part of Asiamet’s KSK project.

One hole yielded 10 metres at 2.52% copper from less than 20 metres below surface and within this was a two-metre section grading 7.45% copper. Grades across the other four holes drilled, which were fairly widely spaced, ranged from between 0.67% at the low end to 3.83% at the upper end. They were found over thicknesses of one to 3.5 metres and occurred at between 7.5 metres and 58.5 metres below surface.

“With receipt of these highly promising results from wide-spaced scout drilling at BKS, Asiamet has met its objectives for the current program,” said the company’s CEO Tony Manini.

“The combination of solid first pass drill results associated with widespread copper in soils and some very high grade copper rock chip results clearly demonstrate excellent potential for adding further tonnages of higher grade copper mineralization close to the BKM deposit.”

The next major step for Asiamet will be the preliminary economic assessment of BKM, which is expected to be published in the first quarter of next year. This will provide some guide to the economics of a low-cost mining operation on the site.

The figures will be helped by a 43% increase to the resource base, which weighs in at just over 400,000 tonnes. The resource confidence has also been significantly upgraded with 26% now in the indicated category.

Asiamet reckons there is a ‘substantial inventory’ of further copper at a 0.5% cut-off grade that provides a ‘solid basis’ for the upcoming mining studies.