From us all at International Mining we wish you a very happy christmas and good fortune in 2012. In the early months of 2012 Paul will be in Poland and the USA (SME Meeting with Phil, Kevin and George). John will be in Cape Town for Indaba. There are other plans afoot, of which more in due course. As we hope you have noticed, IM’s Great Mines series has become very popular – with Lundin Mining currently the star. Do your mines have a great history of innovation and technical leadership? If so and you’d like us to consider your operations, please be in touch with Paul or John to discuss ideas. Our bumper January issue is now at the printer and be advised that we are looking for editorial contributions on exploration technologies, automated mineralogy and emission control for the February issue, which will have extra distribution at PDAC. There follows comment from Orsu Metals suggesting a hopeful 2012.
“From 2001 to 2010 China’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 8.3% to 14.2%. For the next decade China’s growth rate is expected to be between 4-7%. A hard landing? Hardly. It’s more like a Lamborghini ramping down from its maximum speed of 220 m.p.h. to a leisurely 145 m.p.h.
China is still the biggest, fastest car on the road, and it is going to need a lot of fuel, maintenance and repairs to keep it going. But although China dominates financial headlines, there are other players with significant demand potential.
India, for instance has about the same number of people as China. They currently consume 3% of global copper output compared with China’s 37%. Planned upgrades to India’s power grid will re-jig the copper supply/demand ratio. Brazil and Russia are also ravenously hungry for commodities – particularly copper.
While the world’s biggest copper producers are poised for growth – investors will find bigger opportunities in smaller companies – particularly those operating in metal rich countries with rapidly improving business climates.”
Orsu is working in Kazakhstan, which it says “has an estimated $5 trillion of natural resources in the ground, and it beginning to attract the attention of international miners.”
Orsu, a London-based gold-copper exploration company is currently drilling the Karchiga copper deposit in the worldclass Rudny Altai VMS belt. Orsu has a management team led by legendary Asian mine builder Dr. Sergey Kurzin. Kurzin played a lead role in establishing UrAsia Energy, a uranium producer with mining operations in Kazakhstan that sold to Uranium One in 2007 for $3.1 billion. He is currently the Executive Chairman of Orsu, and is driving the operations.
December, 2011 drill results have established an increased mineral resource estimate for its 94.75% owned Karchiga Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (“VMS”) copper project, northeast Kazakhstan (the Karchiga project).
The new estimate reflects a 28% increase in the sulphide hosted Indicated Mineral Resource tonnage, and a 23% increase in the copper metal contained. This has been achieved by the upgrading of Inferred to the Indicated category and through the addition of 0.8 Mt of newly discovered sulphide mineralisation.
Orsu also reported a 137% increase in tonnage and a 109% increase in contained copper metal in comparison with Mineral Resource Estimates for oxide mineralisation. The total Indicated Mineral Resource is now 10.8 Mt grading 1.73% Cu for 412 Mlb of contained copper. Mineralisation at Karchiga occurs in a Central and a North East lode. The VMS style mineralisation in both lodes is hosted along the contacts between shallow dipping alternating amphibolite and quartz mica schist units. The two lodes have a strike length in excess of 1km and have been intersected down to depths of 200m below surface.