East Star announces significant discovery at its Kazakhstan property

Highlights:

• The Verkhuba Ore District occurs over 10 km x 3 km and is comprised of the polymetallic Verkhuba Deposit and several occurrences identified in historic drilling results and the company's 2022 HEM survey, implying a long-lived system producing multiple high-grade ore bodies from several hydrothermal vents related to the same metal source.
• The Verkhuba Deposit, delineated in 1990 by >45,000 m of drilling, has up to seven parallel and several metre thick high-grade Cu-Pb-Zn layers of massive sulfides in Devonian sediments formed around large-scale, hydrothermal exhalative centres.
• Best intercepts include:
  • Hole 14: 11.0 m @ 2.8% Cu from 32.9 m; and 6.3 m @ 3.7% Cu from 60.3 m.
  • Hole 25: 42.0 m @ 0.5% Cu and 1.3% Zn from 84.5 m (including 16.0 m @ 0.35 % Cu and 2.52% Zn from 84.5 m).
  • Hole 27: 9.0 m @ 1.2% Cu from 299.4 m.
  • Hole 54: 5.0 m @ 0.2% Cu, 1.8% Pb and 3.4% Zn from 221.5 m; and 7.6 m @ 0.86% Cu and 2.44% Zn from 239.4 m.
  • Hole 63: 7.1 m @ 0.8% Cu and 2.6% Zn from 239.4 m; and 5.0 m @ 1.57% Cu and 5.48% Zn from 252.7 m.
  • Hole 245: 10.5 m @ 0.27% Cu, 1.7% Pb and 2.59% Zn from 687.5 m.
  • Hole 269: 15.0 m @ 0.9% Cu and 3.06% Zn from 155.0 m (including 4.0 m @ 2.48% Cu and 2.59% Zn from 155.0 m and 2.2 m @ 0.7% Cu and 10.5% Zn from 166 m).
• Historical flotation recovery rates of 94 – 96% Cu and 60 – 90% Zn into concentrate.
• Au and Ag reported to concentrate in some metallurgical samples allowing further upside potential from precious metals.
• Preparation of an independent mineral resource estimate has commenced and multiple drill-ready targets have been added to the 2023 exploration programme which will aim to establish a JORC compliant resource.
• The Rudny Altai region is one of the largest VMS provinces in the world with the Kazakhstan part of the belt hosting major producers including Glencore and KAZ Minerals.

Alex Walker, East Star CEO, commented:

"The Verkhuba Deposit is a game changer for East Star. It leapfrogs the company from being a greenfield explorer to a brownfield resource development company. Part drilled and part buried beneath thin cover, the Cu-Pb-Zn deposit has huge potential upside from ore zone extensions within the Verkhuba Ore District as well as high-priority EM targets.

The Verkhuba Ore District contains volcanogenic-hosted massive sulfide targets adjacent to sediment-hosted exhalative sulfide mineralisation, implying a long-lived hydrothermal system generating multiple high-grade deposits within the same area.

Rudny Altai is a significant copper producing region with excess processing capacity from both Glencore and KAZ Minerals. The identification of the Verkhuba Deposit is yet another validation our exploration thesis and we are excited to commence resource delineation drilling with additional updates to be delivered as digitisation of historic drilling continues and the 2023 exploration programme commences."

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/25012023/east-star-announces-significant-discovery-at-its-kazakhstan-property/