REG - Bluebird Merchant - Land Secured for Temporary Mountain Use Permit

Bluebird Mining VenturesAnnouncement

31/10/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 6962E  Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited  31 October 2022

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector: Mining

31 October 2022

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd ('Bluebird' or 'the Company')

Land Secured for Temporary Mountain Use Permit at Kochang Gold & Silver
Mine

 

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a gold company primarily focused on bringing
historic mines back into production, is pleased to announce that it has
entered into a land lease agreement at the Kochang Gold & Silver Mine in
South Korea to enable the Company to store extraction and processing equipment
as well as stockpile ore in advance of targeted test gold production.  This
agreement is a major milestone towards securing the Temporary Mountain Use
Permit ('TMUP') which is currently being processed.

 

The renewable lease, with a local landowner, is a strong indication of
community support for the project and its intended production goals and
environmental standards of operation.  The Company hopes to hear further news
on the granting of the TMUP, the final legislative step in the path to test
production.  The Kochang project has a 24-year mining licence in place.

 

Bluebird Merchant Ventures CEO Colin Patterson said, "This is a positive step
forward in the process of gaining a Temporary Mountain Use Permit at Kochang
which will give us a clear development path to test production.  The plan
remains achieving proof-of-concept gold production at Kochang, followed by
full production commencement targeting c.10,000oz Au per annum.  Cash
proceeds will contribute to ramping up gold production at Kochang and
commencing production at Gubong with a medium-term target of 50,000oz Au
rising to a targeted 100,000oz per annum.  Both Charles Barclay (COO) and I
are looking forward to our upcoming visit to both Kochang and Gubong next
week, where we will be meeting with various key governmental and local people
and inspecting the sites."

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of
the market abuse regulation EU 596/2014 ("MAR").

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or contact:

Jonathan Morley-Kirk - Non-Executive Chairman

email: jmk@bluebirdmv.com

 

About Bluebird:

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd (BMV.L) is a London listed South Korea-focused
resources company centred on bringing historically producing gold mines back
into production. The Company, led by a team of proven mine rehabilitation
experts, currently has two 100% owned licensed high grade narrow vein mining
projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver Project ('Kochang') and the Gubong Gold
Project ('Gubong'), which each have a defined route to low cost/ low capex
production with a cumulative target of producing 100,000 oz + Au per annum.
Additionally, the Company has the highly prospective Batangas Gold Exploration
Project in the Philippines, which has a resource of 440,000oz Au of which
128,000oz Au is a reserve, and has had c.US$20m invested in it to date.  The
management team has invested cUS$2 million personally into the Company and
believe, following analysis of historic production and exploration data, as
well as extensive sampling, geological, geophysical, and engineering studies,
there is potential for in excess of 1.5 million oz of mineable gold in its
Korean projects alone.

 

Kochang is an epithermal vein deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies
covering 8.3 sq km that reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million
oz of silver between 1961 and 1975.  Consisting of a gold and silver mine,
there are currently four main veins and a number of parallel subsidiary veins
vein which have been identified, as well as a newly identified cross-cutting
vein. Historic drilling indicates the veins continue to depth below the
current 250m mine and mapping shows the veins on surface providing potential
above and below the old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a
strike length of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited.  There
is potential to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to depth, as
well as exploit the already mined areas. The total current non JORC estimate
is between 550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a range of grades between 5.2 g/t
to 6.6 g/t gold, and 27.3 g/t to 34.8 g/t silver.  Following the granting of
a Mountain Use permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to
trial mining.

 

Gubong, which was historically the second largest gold mine in South Korea has
9 granted tenements covering c.25 sq km.  Gubong is flat dipping with 9 veins
extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a further 250m.
However, the production opportunity for Bluebird prior to looking at deepening
the mine is the 25 levels already developed with all the remnants and unmined
areas left by the original miners.  The 25 levels extend over 120 km in total
length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea Resources
Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some 6 g/t Au garnered from 57
drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.  With additional sampling, mapping, pit
modelling and grade analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an orogenic
deposit, which typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current depth of
500m, the Board believe it has a potential resource of 1 million + oz Au
in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from satellite ore bodies.

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