Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC), the AIM listed mining group operating in Far East Russia has reported that nickel sulphide mineralisation has been exposed in a road cut located immediately to the south of the Ikenskoe deposit, which is the largest of the three drilled deposits within Amur’s Kun-Manie exploration licence. The findings support Amur’s beliefs that Ikenskoe could be a lot larger than currently known. Shares in the company rose by 7.5% to 5.3p on the news.

The latest nickel and copper mineralisation is expected to continue to the east and south of the drilled area of the deposit. During construction of the access road, the projected mineralised zone was exposed and visual inspection is understood to indicate the newly exposed outcrop contains abundant sulphides. Samples from the road cut were delivered to Khabarovsk for transhipping to the laboratory when the crew change occurred, on the weekend of June 12. Amur said results would be announced once the ore has been tested and the results have been verified by a western certified laboratory.

Robin Young, Amur’s chief executive, said: “This find confirms our belief that Ikenskoe could be substantially larger than presently reported, and our initial expectations are that the mineralisation extends both to the east and south of the known deposits.”

Amur operates three base metal projects on its licences in Russia. A JORC compliant resource estimate for its flagship Kun-Manie project currently stands at 341,000 tonnes of contained nickel and 95,500 tonnes of copper and this is expected to increase as further exploration is completed. In August 2009 shares in Amur shot up from 2.8p to 13p on news that it had submitted a reserve estimate for its Maly Krumkon (MK) deposit at Kun-Manie for review and approval. That reserve estimate put the total contained metal value at MK at US$1.8bn.

An independently compiled pre-feasibility study of Kun-Manie conservatively indicates a Post Tax NPV (10%) of $84m with an IRR of 15.7%. The study contemplates producing 16,000 tonnes of recoverable nickel per year in concentrate from three deposits drilled to date on the Kun-Manie license as well as noting considerable upside potential.

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