Erdene Resource Development Corp has entered into an agreement to acquire a 51% interest in the Ulaan exploration license, adjacent to the company’s high-grade Bayan Khundii gold project, with the option to acquire up to 100%. Peter Akerley, Erdene’s President and CEO: “Over the long-term we believe this area will become a significant gold mining district, and will continue to provide new precious and base metal opportunities. As such, we will continue seeking opportunities to further expand our land position in this very prospective area. The Ulaan license not only provides immediate discovery potential for both high-grade gold and porphyry copper, but it also provides important strategic advantages as the district emerges into a producing gold camp. Exploration programs for the Ulaan license are now being formulated, with work to commence on this new property in Q4-2017.”

The Ulaan exploration license covers an area of approximately 1,780 ha. It is located immediately west of the company’s Khundii license, which hosts its 100%-owned Bayan Khundii and Altan Arrow gold projects. The most prominent feature of Ulaan is a very large and intense alteration zone measuring approximately 3 km in diameter. This alteration zone has had only minimal mapping and sampling and a recently completed geophysical survey, but no history of sub-surface exploration, trenching or drilling. The license area is underlain by a variety of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks of variable composition, including andesite, andesite porphyry, dacite, diorite and syenite. There are common intrusive dykes and plugs cross-cutting the volcanic units, and quartz veins have been observed locally within the Ulaan license.

The alteration zone is defined by QSP (quartz, sericite, pyrite) alteration where the sulphide component has been extensively oxidized by supergene processes with pyrite in surface outcrop/sub-crop now largely replaced by hematite. These features potentially support a model of a porphyry system eroded to just below the base of a lithocap into the top of the QSP alteration, below which would be the quartz stockwork zone in a typical porphyry system. Anomalous concentrations of copper and molybdenum were encountered in rock chip and stream sediment samples collected in the vicinity of the licence. A magnetic geophysical survey has outlined a broad magnetic low in the central area of the Property, which corresponds to the main body of alteration, presumably due to magnetite destruction to appreciable depths. An induced polarization survey outlined a broad chargeability anomaly across the central area of the property, extending to some 200 to 300 m depth. Narrow zones of vuggy, residual quartz that follow north-northeast trending structures, similar to the orientation of the Company’s high-grade epithermal gold zone at Bayan Khundii, are also present in the centre of the alteration zone.

The company’s adjacent Bayan Khundii low-sulphidation gold system was overprinted on an earlier high-temperature alteration zone with alteration mineralogy and texture consistent with high-temperature, porphyry-style alteration. It is possible the silicic and advanced argillic alteration on the company’s Khundii license may be related to the Ulaan hydrothermal system. In addition to the large alteration zone, the Property is also host to areas of Devonian tuffaceous volcanic rocks with geophysical signatures similar to those observed within the Bayan Khundii gold project. Exploration programs are being formulated with work to commence in Q4-2017.

Erdene is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. It has four exploration licenses and a mining license in southwest Mongolia. Exploration success has led to the discovery and definition of several 100%-owned prospects and deposits including the flagship and newly discovered, high-grade, near-surface Bayan Khundii gold project; the 5.6 km long Altan Nar gold-polymetallic mineralized trend that is host to 18 targets; the Altan Arrow gold-silver prospect; the Khuvyn Khar copper-silver prospect; and the Zuun Mod molybdenum-copper deposit.