Amur Minerals says it accomplished a great deal during a very important 2009

In its final results statement, Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) said it accomplished a great deal during a very important year, with significant progress made on the Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project in Far East Russia. "In the past year we have advanced the Kun-Manie project, raised additional funds and seen a significant improvement in both the share price and its liquidity,” Amur chairman Robert W. Schafer stated.

During 2009, at Kun-Manie the company completed a reserve estimate for the Maly Krumkon deposit, raised over US$2m and filed a mining licence application.

The Maly Krumkon deposit, the third deposit at Kun-Manie, has a reserve estimate of 12.9 million tonnes (Mt) of ore at an average nickel grade of 0.63% and an average copper grade of 0.18%. Consequently the total, Russian approved, reserve now stands at 31.7Mt of ore averaging 0.64% nickel and 0.18% copper and the reserve inventory, of by-product metals, now contains 3,960 tonnes of cobalt, 189,400oz of platinum and 213,800oz of palladium.
Importantly, during 2009, Amur received a Certificate of Discovery for Kun-Manie, allowing it to file for a mining licence.  Subsequently, the application was reviewed in December at the local administrative levels and the final application was filed with the state Ministry of Natural Resources in January 2010.
In respect of its shareholders Amur highlighted that the market in its equities have become more liquid, and it successfully carried out a number of fundraisings during 2009. “We completed four rounds of financing to finish the year with a stronger balance sheet than at the beginning of the year... The volumes of Amur Minerals stock traded on both AIM and PlusMarkets were the highest we have had since becoming a public company, providing additional liquidity for our shareholders.”

"With the granting of the Certificate of Discovery we have the right to apply for the mining licence on the project which is steadily growing in terms of resource and, as a result, the intrinsic value is increasing”, Schafer added.  "Overall, I am very happy with the progress made; we have a achieved great deal this year and now look to build upon this to ascertain the full potential of this very large deposit."

In terms of its outlook for the future, Amur noted that it is currently in discussions with a number of parties, with the aim of raising further funds to accelerate the exploration work programme. “Progress is being made on a number of potential transactions which would provide additional finance for the company ... Management is confident that additional finance will be secured so that we can continue to move the project forward.”

“The outlook for 2010 remains positive.  We intend to carry out a limited work programme at Kun-Manie whilst the mining licence application works its way through the Russian regulators to approval.”  The company also noted its encouragement, in relation to steps being taken by the Russian government to improve the foreign investment climate,“we expect to benefit from this liberalisation,” Amur stated.