As part of Erdene Resource Development Corp’s aim of establishing a large-scale, centralised gold production complex in Mongolia, the company will continue work this year, including a 24,000 metre drilling program, to determine the size potential of its numerous targets.
Once that aspect is relatively well understood, the next stage will be to define to a high confidence level the potential mineral resource area.
Following the definition of resources and characterisation of the deposits based on ore type and amenability to different mining and processing methods, it is anticipated that preliminary economic assessments will be carried out.
This will progress through a series of increasingly more detailed assessments leading to an eventual feasibility decision which then could potentially lead to mine and plant development, construction and initial commercial production.
Coincident with the resource definition and economic assessment studies, a series of studies will be completed to support a mining licence application. The timeline for these studies will be better defined following the 2017 exploration program, which includes a 24,000 metre drill program at Bayan Khundii, Altan Nar and Altan Arrow, with the majority of the drilling dedicated to Bayan Khundii.
Quarter-end reviews of technical information will be undertaken to determine whether to expand drill programs, commence the resource estimate work leading to economic studies, or a combination of both.
Erdene’s president and CEO Peter Akerley said, “We are very pleased with our achievements over the past several years in a very difficult commodity market. During that period, our team’s disciplined spending and optimisation of limited financial resources enabled the funding of high quality exploration, which led to discovery. “We now enter Q2 of 2017 with a very strong cash position to complement the highest quality portfolio of mineral projects amassed in the company’s history.
“These projects, particularly Bayan Khundii and Altan Nar, have strong growth potential in the known areas of gold mineralisation and tremendous exploration upside outside of those core areas within our current licence boundaries.
“With the $14.3 million of proceeds from our Q1 2017 financings, our technical team will now commence a comprehensive exploration and drilling program within this significant new gold district, covering an approximate area of 20km by 10km.
“We envision a productive 2017, starting with an initial 24,000 metre drill program, balancing our dual objectives of resource definition and expansion drilling within the current target resource areas, while continuing to build up the district-scale potential at neighbouring gold targets.”
Erdene