Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited Gubong Gold Mine Update (0949O)
August 16 2017 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMBMV
RNS Number : 0949O
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited
16 August 2017
16 August 2017
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd
(the "Company" or "Bluebird")
Work ongoing at three entry points to the Gubong mine
Bluebird Merchant Ventures (EPIC: BMV), the Asian focused
resource development group, is delighted to announce that work is
ongoing at three entrances to the historic Gubong mine. All three
entry points have been located and surface work to open them up is
underway. The positions were found using Ground Penetrating Radar,
local community consultation, historical information and old mine
plans.
The main adit was exposed earlier this week. This adit had been
buried after the closure of the mine in the early 1970's.
Subsequent to that, road construction took place which elevated the
general topography even more. To ensure that mine water could not
become an environmental issue, the adit was exposed by entering it
from above. When exposed, it was found to be flooded however the
water is not under pressure and therefore does not represent any
significant challenge with regards to dewatering. The fact that the
water is not under pressure indicates that the mine above the adit
is dry. The focus of work over the next few weeks will be to
rehabilitate the adit and dewater it.
More advanced is one of the original decline shafts used in the
early days of the mine. A road has been cleared to the adit and
opening up has now commenced. This shaft is likely to be our first
entry point.
The position of a third adit was also located in the past few
days. Land access to the area is currently being assessed and work
on exposing and reopening it will then commence.
These three entry points will create access to five of the veins
which were historically mined in the early years of the mine. They
produced 50% of the gold. Accessing these veins will enable the
Company to determine what areas remain to be mined and what the
likely grade would be. The Gubong mine closed in 1971 when the gold
price was US$38.90/oz. In those days substantial blocks of ore
would have been ignored as their grade would have made mining them
uneconomic. Many of the areas declared 'unpayable' in those days
are expected to be economic because of the higher gold price, more
efficient mining techniques and better recovery technology. In
addition, our information suggests that the mine closed without a
systemic program to salvage any of the predeveloped stopes,
pillars, remnants, broken ore and vamping. This is highly
significant to Bluebird as it means there can be good potential for
early, low-cost mining.
COO, Charles Barclay, said "'Uncovering the main adit was a good
milestone in our project. The process of locating the entry points
has allowed us to gather a lot of useful information. Knowledge of
what happened in the past makes planning the future easier. The
fact that we now have potentially three ways into the Gubong mine
is very pleasing. As we have previously said, our experience is
that mines almost never closed due to resources being exhausted. At
every mine that we have re-opened we have been able to extend the
life of the mine significantly and some of these mines are still
producing today. The Gubong mine is a large mine which gives us
plenty of scope to re-open and mine multiple areas at one
time."
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES
OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION EU 596/2014 ("MAR")
Enquiries:
Bluebird Merchant Ventures
Ltd +44 (0)7797 859986
Jonathan Morley-Kirk,
Non-Executive Chairman
SP Angel Corporate Finance
LLP
Ewan Leggat
Small Company Capital
Ltd
Rupert Williams/Jeremy + 44 (0)203 470 0470
Woodgate +44 (0)203 651 2910
Walbrook PR Limited +44 (0)207 933 8783
Gary Middleton / Nick
Rome
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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