Ivanhoe, Altynalmas boost resource at Bakyrchik

A 50% increase of indicated resources at the Bakyrchik gold deposit “bodes well” for the definitive feasibility study that is due by June, Altynalmas Gold and Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T, IVN-N, IVN-Q) say.

Bakyrchik now contains indicated resources of 22.16 million tonnes grading 8.72 grams gold per tonne for 6.2 million contained oz. gold, and an additional 9.67 million tonnes of inferred resources at 7.43 grams gold for 2.3 million contained oz. gold.

The resource includes reserves previously disclosed in June 2010 and was estimated using an average long-term gold price of US$1,000 per oz. and an assumed recovery rate of 87%.

The Bakyrchik deposit, along with the Bolshevik deposit and several other satellite deposits, make up Altynalmas Gold’s 100%-owned Kyzyl gold project in northeastern Kazakhstan. Ivanhoe Mines owns 50% of Altynalmas.

The Kyzyl project is in the village of Auezov, about 1,100 km northeast of Almaty, the country’s largest city, and 100 km from Ust-Kamenogorsk, the industrial centre of eastern Kazakhstan. 

Mineralization at the Bakyrchik deposit, where the Bakyrchik gold mine started production in 1956 to provide gold-bearing flux to copper smelters in Ust-Kamenogorsk and later to smelting facilities in Russia, is hosted in seven lenses along the Kyzyl shear zone. Collectively the lenses measure 2.4 km along strike by 1.7 km downdip, extending from surface to a depth of 1,000 metres.

The former underground mine consists of several shafts and associated facilities, a process plant, workshops, warehouses, administration buildings and accommodations. A total of five shafts were sunk on the Bakyrchik deposit, which was explored underground and developed for mining from several development drifts driven at 40-metre vertical intervals.

Recently assayed drill results at Bakyrchik include 11 metres of 15.43 grams gold per tonne and 11 metres of 12.06 grams gold in lens 12, and 18 metres at 6.15 grams gold and 11 metres of 8.17 grams gold in lens 9.

Altynalmas Gold started a deep-level drilling program at the Kyzyl project in October 2009. A prefeasibility study on Kyzyl was completed in August 2010 and work is currently underway on a definitive feasibility study.

At presstime in Toronto, Ivanhoe was trading at $26.20 per share. Over the last year it has traded within a band of $13.15 per share (May 25, 2010) and $30.23 (Dec. 7).