Inter-Citic Minerals renews exploration licenses at Dachang project

Toronto-based Inter-Citic Minerals (TSE:ICI) (OCTQX:ICMTF) said Tuesday that it has renewed three key exploration licenses at its Dachang gold project in China. It also combined two other licenses covering the Dachang Main Zone in order to facilitate permitting.

The Ministry of Land and Resources (MOLAR) in China granted a further two year extension of three exploration licenses at Dachang, covering approximately 173 square kilometres.

The renewal is effective immediately, and is valid until November 25, 2013, when it will be eligible for further renewal, the company said.

In addition, the company received from the Chinese government a re-drawing of the boundaries of the remaining two exploration licenses within the property area to facilitate the permitting of the Dachang Main Zone, which hosts most of the company's current NI 43-101 compliant inferred mineral resource estimate.

This main area is planned for open pit mine development. The overall area of these licenses remains unchanged at approximately 106 square kilometres.

The 279 square kilometre Dachang project is now comprised of four licenses, all of which have been renewed successfully by Inter-Citic as they have come due in the past.

Earlier this month, Inter-Citic unveiled the fifth and final set of drill results from 26 holes that formed part of the 2011 exploration program at Dachang.

The results were all from the 861 Zone at Dachang, which now appears to be related to the same structure hosting the previously-reported XP Zone, Inter-Citic said.

This mineralized fault structure has now been delineated by the company through both drilling and trenching over a strike length of 2.8 kilometres, with the eastern and western extensions remaining open.

Highlights of the latest results from the 861 Zone included hole CJV-1268, which intersected 6.0 metres with an average grade of 3.20 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, and hole CJV-1270, which returned 3.0 metres at an average of 3.21 g/t gold.
Moreover, hole CJV-1278 encountered an interval of 13.0 metres at an average grade of 3.61 g/t gold, while hole CJV-1280 reported 4.5 metres of 4.16 g/t gold.
The currently defined NI 43-101 compliant resource at Dachang, calculated in June 2011, consists of an estimated measured and indicated inventory of 1.88 million ounces of contained gold - 17.2 million tonnes gold grading 3.41 g/t - plus a further inferred mineral resource of 1.93 million ounces contained gold  - 21.3 million tonnes grading 2.83 g/t.
A new NI 43-101 compliant preliminary economic assessment for Dachang is due in 2012.