Steppe expands Mizek project in Kazakstan

Junior Steppe Gold (SPE-V) is exploring two recently acquired polymetallic deposits on its 59%-owned Mizek property in Kazakstan.

Steppe is buying the deposits from a private Kazakstani company in return for US$16 million, to be paid in cash over a 5-year period.

Known as Kosmurun and Akbastau, the deposits contain a combined resource of about 2.3 billion lb. copper, 355,000 tonnes zinc, 1.1 million oz. gold and 25 million oz. silver.

Discovered in the 1950s, they were first tested for base metals. In the 1970s, open-pit mining of the oxide gold ore from the Kosmurun deposit removed 390,000 tonnes grading 23 grams gold and 255 grams silver per tonne.

Kosmurun

The Kosmurun deposit consists of an Oxide zone (mined in the 1970s), an Upper zone and a deeper Main zone. Proven and probable reserves total 19 million tonnes grading 3.4% copper, 1% zinc, 1.1 grams gold and 20 grams silver.

The base of the open pit is 100 metres wide and consists almost entirely of massive sulphides. The Upper zone starts at the base of the pit and extends along strike for 200 metres and to a depth of 150 metres.

The Main zone, which Steppe believes is amenable to bulk underground mining methods, extends from the base of the Upper zone to a depth of at least 500 metres and remains open at depth. Previous drilling of this zone, carried out by the Soviets, returned 87 metres grading 6% copper, 2.9% zinc and 3.3 grams gold at a depth of 350 metres, as well as 60 metres of 3.9% copper and 57 metres of 2.6% copper at a depth of 400 metres.

Akbastau

Situated 6 km to the west, the Akbastau deposit does not contain massive sulphide mineralization, though it does boast a 60-to-95-metre layer of supergene enriched ore. Proven and probable reserves stand at 9.3 million tonnes grading 1.8% copper, 1.1% zinc, 0.56 gram gold and 15.2 grams silver.

The first 150 metres of the deposit contains 65% of the resource, which Steppe envisages mining at a stripping ratio of about 4-to-1.

Soviet drilling of the Akbastau intersected 63 metres of 4.5% copper at a depth of 15 metres, as well as 119 metres of 2.4% copper and 40 metres of 1.6% copper and 2.5% zinc at a depth of 47 metres.

Steppe believes there is still potential for additional reserves at depth and along strike.

A recent geochemical survey revealed a gold, copper, zinc and lead anomaly extending 2 km north of the Akbastau deposit. The anomaly partially coincides with an altered volcanic breccia, which hosts all the significant mineralization in the region.

Steppe is drilling the upper 120 metres of both Kosmuran and Akbastau, as well as channel sampling the massive sulphides in the Kosmurun open pit.

This will be followed by a geophysical survey and further drilling.

In other news, Steppe has announced results from drilling carried out on the sulphide zone beneath the nearby Mizek and Suzlik oxide gold deposits.

Intercepts hit 77 metres of 1.1% copper and 2.1 grams gold, as well as 82.7 metres of 0.7% copper and 2.7 grams gold.

Previous Soviet drilling of the zone outlined a preliminary reserve estimate of 8.9 million tonnes grading 1.02% copper and 5.4 grams gold.

Steppe is developing a 1.1-million-tonne-per-year heap-leach gold mine on the oxide portions of these deposits. A bankable feasibility study indicates that, over five years, production would total 324,000 oz. gold and 260,000 oz. silver. Life-of-mine cash costs are projected at US$137 per oz, while proven and probable reserves stand at 5.5 million tonnes grading 2.14 grams gold.

The Mizek and Suzlik gold-copper mineralization is found along the contact of andesite and volcanogenic sediments. Disseminated to semi-massive mineralization is hosted in chlorite, sericite, kaolin and silica-altered breccias. Steppe geologists interpret this to be the stockwork feeder zone of a volcanogenic massive sulphide system.

The company is performing follow-up work on a gold geochemical anomaly which was detected along strike of the Mizek deposit.