OPENING OF BIDS FOR
ZARKASHAN (COPPER-GOLD DEPOSIT)
The Government of Afghanistan, through the Ministry of Mines of
Afghanistan (the “Ministry”), is pleased to announce that the submitted bids
were opened yesterday for the exploration and subsequent exploitation of two
licence areas at the Zarkashan copper-gold project. The deadline for submission
of bids for the Zarkashan mineral tender was 27 August
2012.
The opening of bids for the Zarkashan project is the third of four
openings relating to bids for the current mineral tenders, following the opening
of bids for Balkhab on 24 July 2012 and Shaida on 7 August
2012.
Summary of mineral tenders:
|
Project
|
Province
|
Mineral type
|
Deposit type
|
Exploration Licence Area(s)
|
|
Zarkashan
|
Ghazni
|
Copper-gold
|
Skarn
|
2 x 242km2
|
|
Badakhshan
|
Badakhshan
|
Gold
|
Quartz-vein
|
4 x 250km2
|
|
Balkhab
|
Sar-I-Pul and Balkh
|
Copper
|
VMS
|
210 km2 and 247km2
|
|
Shaida
|
Herat
|
Copper
|
Porphyry
|
250km2
|
Commenting on today’s announcement, His Excellency Wahidullah
Shahrani, Minister of Mines, said:
"The bids submitted for the exploration licence areas
at Zarkashan reflect the level of bidder interest evident throughout the tender
process, which was launched in December 2011, as well as the continued
international interest in the rich mineral resources of the
country."
"We look forward to selecting and announcing a
preferred bidder for Zarkashan in the near term."
The tender process for each Project is expected to culminate in the
granting of an exploration licence and, subject to
the satisfaction of certain conditions, will lead to the granting of the
requisite exploitation licence. Canaccord Genuity, SRK Consulting and
Mayer Brown are acting as transaction advisers to the Ministry in relation to
the tenders for the Projects. The tenders are designed as transparent,
standards-based, competitive bidding processes which will result in the
selection of the best qualified bidder for each Project.
Notes:
Badakhshan
Badakshan is situated in mountainous terrain in northern Afghanistan
in Badakhshan Province, the location benefits from three international borders:
Tajikistan to its north, China to its east, and Pakistan to the south.
Badakshan is located 360km north of Kabul and about 50km north of the provincial
capital city Fayzabad (population: c. 50,000 people).
Detailed work was conducted by the joint Soviet/Afghan reconnaissance
geological programme in the region in the 1960’s. The work was primarily
carried out on the Veka Dur and Rishab gold prospects, including trench and adit
sampling. Veka Dur is the largest and most studied of the known gold-bearing
quartz veins systems in the region. Many of the main drainages for the regions
were sampled for placer gold by means of panned concentrates performed in the
field. Several mapped areas show alluvial deposits that were trenched, and
samples for which panned concentrates were developed and the gold content
noted. Russian C1 + C2 Reserves for both Veka Dur and other quartz veins
occurrences, define 38.7Koz at 4.8g/t Au based on trench and adit
sampling.
It is understood that the national grid will be expanded to Fayzabad
in the future. There is an ample supply of water from the regional watersheds
on the project area.
Zarkashan
Zarkashan is located approximately 225km SSW of Kabul in the Ghazni
Province. Ghazni city (population: c. 141,000) is approximately 93km north of
the project area. The German Geological survey conducted a reconnaissance
survey in the mid-1960’s and the Soviets and the Afghanistan Geological Survey
(AGS) conducted exploration in the late 1960’s and early
1970’s.
Recently the USGS assessment of the mineral potential in Afghanistan
included ongoing compilation of historic German and Soviet mapping, geophysics
data, drilling and sampling data, and incorporation into a GIS database. There
are many ancient open pit and underground workings that show that this area has
been mined in the past. The grades obtained by the Soviet and AGS exploration
team show that the skarn mineralisation has a core of relatively high gold
grades with a halo of lower grades. Recent hyperspectral analysis has also
suggested the existence of porphyry mineralisation within the wider
intrusion.
Road access to the site from Kabul is on Highway A01, which is a
paved highway. Power can potentially be brought in from the nearby grid at
Ghazni, or from a dedicated self-supplied source.
Balkhab
Balkhab is located in the Sar-I-Pul and Balkh Provinces in north
central Afghanistan, approximately 130 km south-southwest of Mazar-i-Sharif
(population c. 300,000), the capital of Balkh province. There is evidence of
mineral extraction activities at Balkhab going back almost 3,000 years, likely
to have been through mining of copper via surface and underground workings.
Exploration was conducted during 1966-1972, consisting of mapping,
trench and surface grab sampling and analysis. Recent work on the Balkhab
copper prospect was initiated by the AGS, at the request of villagers in the
region. A reconnaissance sampling mission was carried out in 2008 by the
Ministry of Mines.
Road access to the site is from Mazar-i-Sharif, and the area has the
potential to benefit from the proposed rail link connecting Afghanistan to
Pakistan. The Chaman-Kandahar-Logar province line is proposed to pass just east
of the project area with a station planned at near-by town Ghazni. The closest
power source identified is at Mazar-i-Sharif which is connected to the North
East Power System main isolated grid. The main water source for the project is
the significant stream, Rode Balkhab, which bisects the licence
area.
Shaida
Shaida is situated in the western region of Afghanistan in the
Adraskan District of the Herat province, 65km SSW of the city of Herat
(population c. 398,000) and 50km SSW of Gozareh (population c. 125,000). It is
anticipated that Gozareh will act as the logistics city for Shaida.
Shaida’s mineralisation has been described as a possible porphyry
copper deposit. During the Soviet exploration in 1971 to 1972, several
continuous drilled intervals of mineralisation were identified, with copper
grades between 0.10 to 0.80% in drilled intervals ranging from 0.80 to 17.95m.
Cross sections of drilling at the Shaida prospect show layered quartz
plagioclase porphyry, quartz keratophyre and aleuropelites (siltstone or
mudstone) interbedded with volcanic layers.
Additional work was carried out by USGS in 2005 including airborne
surveys, hyperspectral surveys and analysis, and the compilation of prior data
into a GIS database. The USGS reports that in the larger USGS defined
Dusar-Shaida Area of Interest, there has been some mining. However, there is no
known historic production from the Shaida licence area.
Herat Airport (which will become an international airport in 2012) is
close to Gozareh and there is also a railroad terminus station planned at
Gozareh as part of the Afghanistan Railway Development
Scheme.
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