Amur Minerals applies for 2-year exploration rights extension at Kun-Manie

Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) has applied for a two-year extension to its exploration rights on the Kun-Manie licence in far east Russia. Concurrently, the company reiterated that it is awaiting a decision from the Russian authorities, on its mining application for Kun-Manie, which was submitted in January 2010.

"The grant of the (exploration rights) extension is anticipated to be completed before the end of this year and our shareholders will be updated as additional information becomes available”, Amur Minerals chief executive Robin Young commented. “The company has been exploring Kun Manie for a period of seven years and has already received a two year extension to the original five year exploration licence."

The application, for the extension to the exploration license was submitted to the Amurnedra Ministry of Natural Resources in Blagoveshchensk and it has now been forwarded to Moscow for review and approval at national level.
The earlier mining application relates to the discoveries and surrounding area contained within the nickel sulphide Kun Maine exploration licence.  The company noted that the approval process for a mining license, can take up to 12 months from submission.

Kun-Manie hosts an estimated JORC compliant resource of 341,000 tonnes of nickel and 95,500 tonnes of copper. The GKZ (The Russian State Committee on Reserves) estimate is for 3,960 tonnes of cobalt, 189,400 ounces of platinum and 213,800 ounces of palladium for the three deposits at Kun-Manie.

Last month, Amur told investors that the Ikenskoe deposit at Kun Manie could potentially expand after nickel sulphide mineralisation was exposed in a road cut south of the deposit. Ikenskoe is the largest of the three drilled deposits on the Kun Manie exploration licence.

The nickel and copper mineralisation is expected to continue to the east and south of the drilled area of the deposit. The zone was exposed during construction of the access road and visual inspection indicated that the newly exposed outcrop contained abundant sulphides.

The company has been making rapid progress at Kun-Manie over the past year and this was the second time a potential expansion to the deposit had been announced in less than two months. Back in April, Amur announced a new drill target dubbed Gorney after results from two wild cat drill holes defined the potential to expand upon mineral resources at Kun-Manie.