Ivanhoe Mines (NASDAQ: HUGO, WKN 901508 ) ist zwar kein reiner Explorer mehr, (Cu Produktion in Indonesien und Eisen in Australien) aber ihr Hauptprojekt und der Großteil ihrer Ausgaben werden derzeit in der Mongolei für Explorertätigkeiten ausgegeben.
Wie schaut eigentlich dieses Projekt im Vergleich zu anderen Cu Projekten, wie das von Oxiana Resources in Laos oder zu anderen Explorern in Südamerika aus ?
Die Nähe zum Hauptmarkt und zum derzeit größten Cu Verbraucher, China, läßt das ganze doch (auch wegen der Transportkosten, die in letzter Zeit in die Höhe gegangen sind) profitabel aussehen.
Dazu die letzte Pressemeldung:
Press Release Source: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.
Southern Oyu Tolgoi measured and indicated copper and gold resources increased by 109% in new independent resource estimate
Wednesday August 18, 8:00 am ET
ULAANBAATAR, MONGOLIA, Aug. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - John Macken, President of Ivanhoe Mines, announced today that a new, independent estimate prepared by AMEC E&C Services (AMEC) of Canada has upgraded 100% of the identified gold and copper resources contained within the planned open-pit deposits in the southern part of the company's Oyu Tolgoi (Turquoise Hill) Project, into the measured and indicated resource categories. Within the important high-grade, gold-rich Southwest Oyu starter pit, virtually all resources are now classified as measured.
The new, independent AMEC estimate calculates that Oyu Tolgoi now contains:
- Measured and indicated resources of 1.06 billion tonnes, grading
0.47% copper and 0.36 grams of gold (g/t) per tonne (a copper
equivalent grade of 0.71%), at a 0.30% copper equivalent cut-off
down to 560 metres below surface and 0.60% copper equivalent
cut-off below a depth of 560 metres, which contains approximately
11.2 billion pounds of copper and 12.4 million ounces of gold.
- At a higher, 0.60% copper equivalent cut-off, the project contains
measured and indicated resources of 511.6 million tonnes grading
0.64% copper and 0.59 g/t gold (a copper equivalent grade of
1.00%), containing approximately 7.2 billion pounds of copper and
9.3 million ounces of gold.
- Additional inferred resources of 1.2 billion tonnes, primarily
contained in the Hugo Dummett Deposits, grading 1.25% copper and
0.24 g/t gold (a copper equivalent grade of 1.38%), at a
0.60% copper equivalent cut-off, containing approximately
33.7 billion pounds of copper and 9.4 million ounces of gold.
"AMEC's new estimate provides further confirmation that the Oyu Tolgoi project hosts one of the world's largest and highest-grade copper/gold porphyry systems," said Mr. Macken. "The resource estimate provides Ivanhoe with an independent, strong foundation from which we are designing and optimizing the open pits that provide the basis for the initial development of the Oyu Tolgoi Project."
AMEC's August, 2004, estimate increases and upgrades the near-surface resources contained in the project's Southern Oyu Deposits, which include Southwest Oyu, Far Southwest Oyu, Central Oyu, South Oyu, and the recently discovered Bridge, Wedge and Southern Sliver zones. The deposits lie at the southern end of a series of co-genetic copper and gold deposits delineated to date along a 5.3-kilometre-long chain of deposits at Oyu Tolgoi.
Extensive drilling has taken place this year to bring the resources contained within the planned open pits in the southern part of the Oyu Tolgoi project to a measured and indicated resource classification for use in feasibility studies. A total of 539 holes, totalling 255,000 metres, have now been completed on the Southern Oyu Deposits. This compares to 155 holes used in the last AMEC independent resource estimate for the Southern Oyu Deposits in February, 2003. To date, the company has drilled 934 holes, totalling more than 500,000 metres, on the entire Oyu Tolgoi Project.
AMEC's new independent estimate splits the resources delineated at the Southern Oyu Deposits into resources lying above and below a depth of 560 metres below surface (an elevation of 600 metres above sea level), which Ivanhoe's engineers consider to be a conservative depth for a large-scale, open-pit mining operation. The resources above the depth of 560 metres from surface have been estimated using a 0.30% copper equivalent cut-off (Table 2). The resources lying below a depth of 560 metres from surface were estimated using a 0.60% copper equivalent cut-off (Table 3). The contained gold and copper estimates used in this release have not been adjusted for metallurgical recoveries. As the tables indicate, the majority of the measured and indicated resources delineated to date lie above a depth of 560 metres.
