Vancouver — With $3.9 million in its coffers,
Eurasian now holds one of the largest exploration land positions in Kyrgyzstan, a small, mountainous country between Kazakhstan and China in Central Asia.
Historically, the northern part of the country has been explored in some detail and now contains several major gold deposits, such as
Eurasian’s projects are in the prolific Tien Shan metallogenic belt and close to Permian-aged granitic and monzonitic intrusive bodies. The prospects are aligned along regional-scale structures and feature documented gold occurrences and geochemical anomalies. This previous work was performed through government mapping and sampling.
The 500-sq.-km Kemin exploration licence is in north-central Kyrgyzstan, along a fault zone that controls mineralization in the Northern Tien Shan belt. The 2.7-million-oz. Taldybulak gold deposit is only 60 km west of the Kemin licence.
Kemin hosts volcanic and volcano-sedimentary rocks intruded by Permian-aged porphyritic granites and monzonites. Gold mineralization occurs in alteration zones along thrust faults and shear zones. Soviet-era regional-scale mapping was performed in the 1960s, and this was followed in 1990s by mapping and sampling by Kyrgyzstan’s State Agency for Geology and Mineral Resources (SAGMR). The latter program outlined numerous gold occurrences, stream-sediment gold anomalies, and pan-concentrate gold anomalies.
The Tiup licence covers 1,365 sq. km in northeastern Kyrgyzstan and hosts two distinct geologic provinces separated by a regional-scale structural zone known as the Nikolaev Line. This structural zone is believed to be an important ore control for gold mineralization in the central Tien Shan belt. The Kumtor deposit is about 100 km west of the Tiup property.
Kumtor’s northern structural block consists of sandstone, siltstone and rhyolite units intruded by Permian-aged granitic stocks. Gold mineralization is associated with quartz-tourmaline-epidote alteration and silicification of the sandstone units. Mapping and sampling from 1985 to 1989 indicated lead-zinc-gold occurrences and stream-sediment gold anomalies.
The southern structural block consists of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks intruded by Permian-aged monzonite stocks. Surveys performed from 1980 to 1989 identified gold occurrences, stream-sediment gold anomalies, pan-concentrate gold anomalies, and placer gold deposits.
The 3,260-sq.-km Oital exploration licence in southern Kyrgyzstan occurs in the southern Tien Shan metallogenic belt, in a structural setting similar to the Muruntau gold deposit, which is to the west in Uzbekistan. The property hosts folded and faulted lower Paleozoic-aged sedimentary rocks and Permian granites. The region was mapped and prospected from 1972 to 1994. Most of these surveys focused on antimony and mercury exploration, and some of the former have associated gold mineralization.
Soviet and Kyrgyz exploration results have yet to be confirmed by independent sampling.
Eurasian Minerals is outlining exploration programs for the upcoming field season. The work will consist of mapping and geochemical surveys aimed at delineating the documented gold occurrences and anomalies on its properties.
Meanwhile, the junior recently added the Sisorta high sulphidation gold property to its growing portfolio in Turkey. The 26.70-sq.-km property is in the northeastern province of Sivas. From 1995 to 1999, the mineral unit of the Turkish government tested a small portion of a 2,500-by-800-metre gold-bearing zone with 10 holes. Six of the holes cut wide intervals of near-surface enargite, chalcopyrite and chalcocite mineralization carrying gold values. The best results occurred in hole 3, which intersected 24.9 metres grading 2.54 grams gold per tonne. Hole 9 cut 21.4 metres of 2.2 grams gold.
Only about 10% of the prospect, known as the Central Breccia zone, has been drill-tested. Eurasian will explore the zone for its bulk-tonnage gold potential, and for copper porphyry mineralization under the gold-bearing silica cap.
Delidemirci
In western Anatolia, 70 km northwest of
Eurasian has identified several other promising targets on the project, including intense acid-sulphate, vuggy silica alteration, which yielded up to 1 gram gold per tonne.
The junior also holds the 72-sq.-km Golcuk property, in northeastern Turkey. The area produced copper during Roman times, and in the 1970s, the Turkish state mining company drill-tested several historic pits and showings. The best hole assayed 34 metres grading 1.36% copper starting at a down-hole depth of 85 metres. Two other drill holes returned more than 1% copper over 10 metres.
The newly formed explorer, which began trading in December 2003, also has projects in Serbia, and recently established a field office in Kyrgyzstan.
The company boasts a market capitalization of around $12 million and has 11.6 million shares outstanding, or 15.1 million fully diluted. It recently raised $3.9 million by issuing 3.5 million units priced at $1.10 each. A unit holds one share and one warrant which is exercisable at $2 for two years.
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