The Naimanjal Licence currently represents four commercial discoveries covering 529km², including five active Frontier operations:
- Naimanjal Complex (Mining & Production)
- Koskuduk (Test Stage Gold Project)
- Beschoku (Copper/Gold Prospect)
- Yubileiny (Copper/Gold Prospect)
- Baitimir (Exploration Stage Copper Project).
The licence area is located in north east Kazakhstan, approximately 200km West of Semipalinsk.
Naimanjal Complex
The complex is a near surface oxide gold-silver mine with six satellite deposit extensions (Baritovy, Naiman, Ergozy, Toksanbay, Jal and Jantilak), currently producing at an initial annual rate of 25,000 oz.
Measured and indicated resources are 150,000 oz of gold and 3.4 million oz of silver to JORC standards, although management believes there is potential for 2+ million ounces of gold.
The ore is mined by standard open pit mining techniques, then processed through a three-stage crushing circuit.
Crushed ore is then conveyed to a stock pile for conventional cyanide heap leach.
The precious metals are recovered using Merrill Crowe technology to produce a dore product for export.
Koskuduk
A test production stage gold project, with open pit/heap leach mining, Koskuduk is a near surface oxide gold target with sulphide potential at depth.
Resources are estimated at 250,000 oz (C1+C2), although Management believe potential for at least 1,000,000 oz.
Construction of a plant complex at Koskuduk began in 2009, with production scheduled to commence in 2010. Management anticipate the plant to produce approximately 10,000 oz of gold from 500,000 tonnes of ore by 2011.
Beschoku & Yubileiny
Beschoku is an established gold-copper discovery located at the northern end of a 25 km copper-gold trend. First mined in the late 19th Century following the discovery of Oxide Copper, at the height of production the mine produced 1,000 tonnes per year.
Gold was intercepted by a single drill hole in the 1950’s. Recent bulk metallurgical sampling produced Copper Cathode (SXEW Leachable), followed by the discovery of hydrothermal breccia with high-grade gold and copper.
Management believes that geology and geochemistry indicate several more high grade breccias in the immediate area, results to date have identified two large mineralised systems; a copper/gold VMS deposit including oxide mineralisation and a copper/molybdenum porphyry deposit.
Estimates suggest a P1 resource of 620,000 tonnes of contained copper with 1 percent grade for the VMS type deposit, and 1.86 million tonnes of contained copper with 1 percent grade for the porphyry copper.
Yubilieny is positioned south east of Beschoku along the 25km trend of copper-gold projects & prospects.
Excellent correlation with historic mine workings and recent drilling suggest high-grade copper mineralisation.
Estimates suggest a C2 resource of 30,000 tonnes of contained copper with an assumed grade of 1% and a P1 resource of 80,000 tonnes of contained copper with an assumed grade of 1%. to the north of the C2 area.
Baitimir
An exploration stage copper prospect with associated gold and molybdenum. Geology indicates that mineralisation is within a 3km-wide contact zone, and preliminary resource estimates include 210 million tonnes of ore at 0.40% copper or 840,000 tonnes of contained copper.