Forestry permits delay work at Dairi

Vancouver — International Annax Ventures (IAX-V) reports that delays in the issuance of Forestry operating permits have hampered work progress at the Dairi zinc-lead project in Indonesia.

The Forestry operating permits are expected to be granted pending an inquiry instituted by the Coordinating Minister for the Economy into mining and exploration activities on Forestry Reserves throughout Indonesia. Annax points out that in the event of a positive feasibility, the main Anjing Hitam zinc-lead deposit would be an underground mine and not subjected to the current restrictions on open pit mining in forest reserves.

Annax holds an 80% interest in the project, with the remainder held by PT Aneka Tambang, Indonesia’s state-owned mining company. Recently the junior inked a deal with its controlling shareholder, Australian-based Herald Resources, to become Herald’s wholly-owned subsidiary. According to the deal, Herald will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Annax in return for Herald shares. Each Annax share will be exchanged for one Herald share.

"We will not do any serious exploration or drilling on the property in the next month to month and a half," said Wayne Roberts, Vice President of Exploration at Annax. "The merger will take precedence." International Annax is currently working on obtaining shareholder and regulatory approval for the business combination.

The Dairi project is situated 120 km south of the town of Medan and comprises a seventh-generation contract of work (CoW) covering 220 sq. km and a Kuasa Pertambanggan (land permit) of 136 sq. km. For the past year, Annax has been exploring along the 3.5 km-long Sopokomil trend for more mineralization and advancing the Anjing Hitam deposit. The exploration phase of the CoW expires in February and the company has made an application for a one year extension.

In December, the Regent of Dairi and the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources reached an agreement to combine the CoW and the KP properties. "We decided to combine the Contract of Work with the KP to put it all into one larger concession and handle it all through one regulatory body," said Roberts.

The last round of drilling at Anjing Hitam outlined an indicated resource of 7.5 million tonnes grading 16.7% zinc, 10.3% lead and 14 grams silver per tonne. The inferred resource is 2.5 million tonnes grading 11.3% zinc, 6.8% lead and 13 grams silver, and the zone remains open along strike and down dip to the east. Mineralization is hosted in a 30-to-140-metre-thick sequence of carbonaceous shales and siltstones that strike northwest and dip 35-60 to the northeast. The mineralized beds appear to flatten out at depth.