Anatolia secures Turkish licenses

Vancouver – Anatolia Minerals (ANO-T) has secured full ownership of a group of mineral licenses in Turkey after a failed joint venture with Rio Tinto (RTP-N, RIO-L).

The Tunceli licenses host five known porphyry targets and include the company’s Cevizlidere copper-gold project.

Edward Dowling, president and chief executive of Anatolia, said in a press release that he was glad to have the matter settled and was ready to advance Cevizlidere.

“Since assuming the role of the designated operator in 2006, Rio Tinto was unable to progress the exploration at Cevizlidere,” said Dowling. “Anatolia is better positioned to advance the project, since the company did so prior to 2006, and today, the company has a stronger in-country capability, profile and presence, as well as a superb business partner hailing from the broader region.”

Anatolia will pay $2 million to Rio Tinto in the form of 430,000 shares. In turn, Anatolia secures all legal rights to the licenses. Neither company will have any residual or continuing obligations or liabilities.

An initial resource estimate on Cevizlidere was released last September that outlined an inferred resource of 446 million tonnes grading 0.38% copper, 0.11 grams gold per tonne and some molybdenum. Anatolia plans further drilling on the property later this year to upgrade inferred resources to the indicated category and to explore untested parts of the property.

The Cevizlidere project, in east central Turkey, is 50 km southeast of Anatolia’s 95%-owned Copler project. The company is currently constructing an open-pit heap-leach operation at Copler, with production expected to start by the end of the year. Copler hosts 40.8 million tonnes of proven and probable oxide reserves grading 1.65 grams gold and 3.75 grams silver per tonne.

The company expects to produce about 175,000 oz. of gold per year from Copler once it is in full production at a cash cost of US$260 per oz.

In January the company completed a drill program on the underlying sulfide gold deposit at Copler to expand the resource. The latest results included 25.4 metres grading 4.15 grams gold, 21 metres grading 11.28 grams gold and 8.7 metres grading 4.08 grams gold.

Based on the results of the drill program the company has decided to advance the sulfide deposit towards a prefeasibility study, expected to be completed by the end of the year. The company is also working to update a resource estimate on the project that will be incorporated into the study.

The Colorado based-company has a number of other projects in Turkey at various stages of exploration. The company controls roughly 273,000 hectares in the country.

Anatolia’s stock price jumped 53¢ or 12.44% on the latest news to close at $4.79. The company has a 52-week share price range between $2.01 and $5.09 and 138 million shares outstanding.