Great Western Exploration has entered JV agreement with the Kazakhstan Government’s national mining company, Tau ken Samruk to develop the Spasskaya Copper Project in one of the most underexplored countries for minerals in the world.

The project comprises a 12,500 square kilometer area covering the majority of the historical Spasskaya Copper Field. Several nearby copper occurrences within the Spasskaya Copper Field have already been placed into production.

Kazakhmys, one of the world’s largest copper producers listed in both London and Hong Kong, operates one of its largest copper mines adjacent to the project and also operates the nearby copper refinery. A boost to the project’s potential is that it is well supported by infrastructure including two railway lines, scheme power, sealed roads, scheme water and a copper refinery.

Soviet era exploration reports describe a number of significant copper, silver, zinc, molybdenum, tin and bismuth occurrences within the Spasskaya Project with these occurrences generally not assayed for gold. The project is believed to host several types of mineralization including porphyry, epithermal, massive sulphide, breccia and skarn.

Significantly, this has the potential to move Great Western into production in a shorter time frame and sustain a long life operation. There are at least eight prospects of varying sizes and grades within the Spasskaya Project that were drill tested prior to 1991.

Great Western is using historical copper inventories as guidance for the exploration potential of the project. Under the agreement with Tau-ken Samruk, Great Western has agreed to act as operating manager of the project and fund it through to a Bankable Feasibility Study to earn its 50% joint venture interest.

(Sourced from www.proactiveinvestors.com.au)