Ursa adds to potential of Koktasjal copper-gold in deposit in Kazakstan

Hamilton, Ont.-based Ursa Major International (URSA-C) has identified additional mineralization on its 75%-owned Koktasjal copper-gold property in the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan.

In the recently identified Southeast zone, two stepout holes, 107 and 108, were collared about 100 and 200 metres, respectively, southeast of the Main zone.

Both holes intersected wide zones of low-grade mineralization hosting higher-grade material.

A third hole, 106, was drilled in the Main zone and intersected mineralization below 300 metres (the depth reached by former Soviet geologists and Ursa Major).

Hole 107 returned 190.3 metres (from 12.4 metres) averaging 0.33% copper and 0.19 gram gold. The first 38.7 metres of that hole returned 0.45% copper and 0.23 gram gold. Farther down the zone, a higher-grade intersection of 14.7 metres (from 141.7 to 156.1 metres) returned 0.73% copper and 0.47 gram gold.

Hole 108 intersected 160.8 metres (from 5.3 to 166.1 metres) averaging 0.26% copper and 0.13 gram gold, within which the final 15.5 metres graded 0.32% copper and 0.28 gram gold.

Although both stepout holes were drilled in the Southeast zone, it is unclear whether the mineralization represents the new zone or a southeastern strike extension of the Main zone.

“We’ve called it a strike extension because it is en echelon with the Main zone,” says Ursa Major’s president, Richard Sutcliffe. “But we don’t know for a fact that it connects up. Because we are basically on strike from the deposit where the holes are situated, we are viewing it as a southeastern strike extension and, quite probably, a new zone.”

Intersections from hole 106 include 138.8 metres (from 370.7 to 509.5 metres) averaging 0.57% copper and 0.61 gram gold, including 73.5 metres (from 398.5 to 471.7 metres) grading 0.78% copper and 0.87 gram gold.

The mineralization would seem to confirm that gold and copper grades in the delineated body continue to a depth of 500 metres, which indicates an overall downdip extension of the deposit.

In total, Ursa Major has now drilled eight holes. Previous drilling (in the 1960s) was conducted by Soviet geologists, who outlined a sulphide resource of 57 million tonnes averaging 0.62% copper, 0.71 gram gold and 2.76 grams silver to a depth of 305 metres, and an oxide resource of 8 million tonnes grading 0.54% copper and 0.64 gram gold.

In May, a minimum 4,000-metre drill program will delineate higher-grade areas of the Main zone, as well as test mineralization in the Southeast zone, where emphasis will be placed on an area of highly altered volcanic rocks outcropping 100 metres northeast of holes 107 and 108. The alteration zone has a strike length exceeding 500 metres and runs sub-parallel with the Main zone, which trends north-northeast. Grab samples from those outcrops have yielded up to 3.28% copper and 0.48 gram gold (T.N.M., Dec. 2/96).

Along with the Koktasjal property, in which a private Kazakstani company holds the remaining 25% interest, Ursa has interests in three other gold properties in the country, including the recently acquired Nirinsk licence area.