Arras Minerals drills 0.94% CuEq over 108 metres at Berezski East, Kazakhstan
Arras Minerals Corp. [TSXV-ARK] reported results from the reanalysis of samples from three historic diamond drill holes from the Berezski East project, located within the company’s Elemes exploration licence in northeastern Kazakhstan. The Elemes licence is not included in the Teck-Arras Strategic Exploration Alliance announced on December 7, 2023.
Highlights from the Re-Assay include Bz6 with 108.0 metres of mineralization grading 0.94% CuEq or 1.33 g/t AuEq (1.30 g/t gold, 0.19 % copper and 1.5 g/t silver starting at surface, including 30.8 metres grading 2.21% CuEq or 2.66 g/t AuEq (3.14 g/t Au, 0.39 % Cu and 3.0 g/t Ag) starting at surface.
Bz16 returned 46.0 metres grading 0.71% CuEq or 0.86 g/t AuEq (0.95 g/t Au, 0.17% Cu and 0.8 g/t Ag) starting at 87.0 metres depth down-hole, including 18.0 metres grading 1.05% CuEq or 1.28 g/t AuEq (1.54 g/t Au, 0.17 % Cu and 0.7 g/t Ag) from 102.0 metres depth down-hole.
Bz20 returned 94.0 metres grading 0.59% CuEq or 0.71 g/t AuEq (0.81 g/t Au, 0.12 % Cu and 0.9 g/t Ag) starting at 199.0 metres depth down-hole, including 42.0 metres grading 0.99% CuEq or 1.20 g/t AuEq (1.43 g/t Au, 0.17% Cu and 1.0 g/t Ag) from 227.0 metres depth down-hole.
Tim Barry, CEO, commented, “The recent re-analysis program at Berezski East and Quartzite-Gorka has underscored the promising mineralizing system developing within our Elemes Licence. Our efforts over the past year have revealed a significant at-surface zone of mineralization, extending across a 5-km strike, with potential expansions in every direction. To date, key areas of interest include “porphyry style” mineralization found at the Berezski East, Berezski Central, and Quartzite Gorka prospects, and “epithermal style” mineralization found at the Karagandy-Ozek prospect. Re-logging and re-assay of historic drill holes has verified intercepts of high-grade of mineralization often exceeding 100 meters in thickness and often starting from surface. It is also important to note that many of historical drill holes end in mineralization as most of the drilling was quite shallow, averaging between 200-300 metres in depth.”
The Berezski East Project is located within the 425 km2 Elemes mineral exploration licence. The Elemes license is located within the Bozshakol-Chingiz metallogenic belt that also hosts the company’s flagship Beskauga porphyry copper-gold project approximately 80 km to the east, and KAZ Minerals’ Bozshakol porphyry copper-gold mine approximately 60 km to the northwest.
Elemes benefits from excellent modern infrastructure and ease of accessibility, being located only 20 km from Arras’ operational base in the city of Ekibastuz, northeastern Kazakhstan. A paved highway runs through the license, and within 1 km of the Berezski East project. 1100 KVA power lines and heavy rail all lie within a 15 kilometer radius of the project.
Berezski East was drilled between 2007 and 2010 by the previous operators. Nineteen drillholes for a total of 5,695 metres have been drilled at the project, to a maximum depth of 372.5 metres with an average depth of 299.7 metres per hole. Mineralization remains open in several directions and at depth. All available drill-core have been re-logged in detail by Arras employees for lithology, structure, alteration, and mineralization.
A high-resolution airborne magnetic survey over the Elemes property by Arras and 3D inversion of the resulting data demonstrates that the known mineralization at Berezski East sits on the edge of a distinct magnetic high that extends to the northwest, eventually linking with the Karagandy-Ozek low sulfidation epithermal gold prospect where high gold grades were reported in Soviet-era exploration trenches. The airborne survey has significantly improved the company’s understanding of the structural controls on the mineralization and provided several new drill targets within the immediate vicinity.
About Arras Minerals is a Canadian exploration and development company advancing a portfolio of copper and gold assets in northeastern Kazakhstan, including the Option Agreement on the Beskauga copper and gold project. The company has established the third-largest license package in the country prospective for copper and gold (behind Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group). Arras and Teck Resources Ltd. [TSX-TECK.A, TECK.B; NYSE-TECK] entered into a Strategic Exploration Alliance covering a portion of the company’s regional license package in December 2023 in which Teck will sole fund an initial US$5 million generative exploration phase.