Bema looks to Russia for high grades

Vancouver — Bema Gold (BGO-T) has inked a deal with the government of the Chukotka, an autonomous region in northeastern Russia, to acquire up to a 75% interest in the high-grade Kupol gold and silver project.

The project is 950 km northeast of Bema’s Julietta mine and 200 km east of the city of Bilibino. It is accessible via dirt road and all-terrain track in the summer and via a winter road during the rest of the year.

Bema stands to earn its interest by making cash payments and completing a feasibility study. Further details will be made available in late November.

The Kupol project hosts a large epithermal gold and silver vein system up to 30 metres wide. The vein system was defined by a Russian operator using geological mapping, diamond drilling, trenching, geochemistry and geophysics. The system has been outlined over 4 km of strike length and remains open along strike, as well as at depth.

Bema has received results from 20 diamond drill holes spanning 400 metres to a maximum depth of 140 metres. Highlights are as follows:

q Hole 14 intersected 6.3 metres averaging 32.2 gold and 206.7 grams silver starting at a down-hole depth of 30.8 metres.

q Hole 7 cut 17.2 metres averaging 13.2 grams gold and 125.8 grams silver starting at 47.2 metres down-hole.

q Hole 2 returned 6.6 metres of 85.3 grams gold and 704.4 grams silver, starting at 77.5 metres down-hole, which was followed by a 2.7-metre section of 31.3 grams gold and 143.6 grams silver starting at 95.1 metres down-hole.

q Hole 5 hit 41.3 metres of 51.6 grams gold and 530.9 grams silver starting at 153.7 metres down-hole.

q Hole 34 cut 29.2 metres of 16 grams gold and 340.1 grams silver starting at 147.8 metres down-hole.

The previous operator, a Russian company, estimated a reserve of 780,000 tonnes grading 33.3 grams gold and 372.8 grams silver. However, the estimate was based only on a 400-metre section of the vein strike length to a maximum depth of 100 metres and does not include several significant trench results.

Bema’s management believes the Kupol property has the potential to host a multi-million-ounce deposit of high-grade gold and silver mineralization that could be exploited by both open-pit and underground mining.

The company will be delivering equipment and supplies to the Kupol site over the winter months in preparation for extensive trenching, drilling and metallurgical, beginning in April 2003.

The Chukotka autonomous region is one of 89 regions in the Russian Federation. It lies about as far east and north of Moscow as one can go while still remaining in Russia (any farther, and you’d be crossing the Bering Strait into Alaska).

Highlights from Bema’s trenching program are shown in the accompanying table:

TrenchIntervalGoldSilver