お知らせ • Feb 20
Arras Minerals Corp. Announces Commencement of Diamond Drilling At Elemes Project in Kazakhstan
Arras Minerals Corp. announced the recommencement of diamond drilling at the Elemes Project in northeastern Kazakhstan.Two diamond drill rigs have arrived on site, with the first two holes commencing at the Berezski East target, focusing on defining and expanding the wide zones of gold-copper mineralization intersected by holes EL24004 (138.8m grading 0.77 g/t Au and 0.09% Cu starting from a depth of 1.2m) and EL25019 (457.5m grading 0.61 g/t Au and 0.10% Cu from surface), and explore the prominent gravity anomaly located to the east-northeast of drill-hole EL25019.Upon completion of these two holes, both drill-rigs will move up to drill at Berezski North, 4.5 kilometres northwest of Berezski East to follow-up on our previously announced holes EL25023 (246.2m grading 0.75 g/t Au, 0.24% Cu starting from a depth of 0.8m) and EL25014A (154.0m grading 0.72 g/t Au, 0.28% Cu starting at a depth of 130m), and to explore for the continuation of porphyry style bornite-chalcopyrite mineralization intersected by hole EL25027 (results pending).Two more drill rigs will arrive at site March, and will commence drilling at Berezski Central, where the Company has completed nine holes and defined a zone of copper-gold mineralization measuring approximately 600m x 500m by up to 550m depth. The target remains open to the north and south and top-of-bedrock (KGK) drilling reported in December 2025 identified the continuation of gold and copper mineralization extending under cover to the east and west of the currently defined Berezski Central Target area.Since June of last year, Arras Minerals has been advancing its 20,000m Phase II diamond drill program at the Elemes Project. Drilling was paused in late December for a scheduled winter break and recommenced in February. Nearly 10,000m were completed in 2025, and the strength of the results has prompted Arras to plan an expansion of the program to 30,000m, with completion targeted by the end of 2026. The Elemes Project comprises two exploration licenses covering 531 square kilometres in northeast Kazakhstan, located approximately 13 km southwest of Ekibastuz and just 20 km from Arras's operational base. The project benefits from exceptional infrastructure, with a paved highway crossing the licence, and access to 1100 KVA power lines, heavy rail, and other utilities within a 15 km radius.Situated within the prolific Bozshakol-Chingiz metallogenic belt, Elemes lies near significant regional deposits, including the Beskauga porphyry copper-gold-silver deposit (~80 km east) and KAZ Minerals' Bozshakol copper-gold mine (~60 km northwest), which reported mined grades in First Quarter 2025 of 0.37% Copper and 0.20 g/t gold. Geologically, the property is underlain by interbedded intermediate volcanic and sedimentary rocks intruded by multiple phases of diorite and monzodiorite porphyry. Copper-gold mineralization occurs in sheeted and stockwork quartz-chalcopyrite veins associated with these intrusions. In addition, high-grade low-sulphidation epithermal veins have been mapped on the property, representing a secondary exploration target.Property-wide soil sampling programs defined two extensive Cu-Mo-As geochemical anomalies: the Berezski and Aimandai Trends, both considered priority targets for follow-up exploration drilling. A Phase 1 drill program on the Berezski Trend in late 2024 returned high-grade porphyry/epithermal copper and gold mineralization in results announced in First Quarter 2025. A 20,000m Phase 2 drill program commenced in May 2025 which was expanded to 30,000 metres in January 2026 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The Company adheres to CIM Best Practices Guidelines for exploration related activities conducted on its property. Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures are overseen by the Qualified Person.Arras Minerals QA/QC protocols are maintained through the insertion of certified reference material (standards), blanks and field duplicates within the sample stream. Drill core is cut at Arras Minerals operations base in Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan by Company personnel. Diamond drill core was sawed in-half with a diamond saw, and then sampled in maximum 2-meter intervals, stopping at geological boundaries, with one-half placed in sealed bags and shipped to the laboratory and the other half retained on site.Each bagged core sample was shipped to ALS Laboratory in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Samples were dried, crushed and pulverized to >80% passing -200 mesh. The prepared sample splits were sent to the ALS Chemex's geochemical analysis laboratories laboratory in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland and Lima, Peru for multi-element analysis. Multielement analyses were analyzed with ICP-MS following a four-acid digestion (method ME-MS61) and samples containing >1.0% copper are analyzed via method Cu-OG62.Gold analysis was conducted by ALS Chemex at the analytical laboratory in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Gold was analyzed by fire assay (30 g) with an AA (atomic absorption) finish (method Au-AA23) with detection limits of 0.005 g/t gold. Samples containing greater than 10.0 g/t gold are analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (method Au-GRA21). The Company has updated metal recoveries: 90% for copper, 85% for gold, 75% for silver, and 80% for molybdenum. These figures are based on a review of published data from advanced-stage porphyry projects (including Vizcachitas, Los Andes Copper; Copper Creek, Faraday Copper; Valeriano, ATEX Copper; Los Helados, NGEx Resources Inc.; Opemiska, XXIX Metal Corp; Costa Fuego, Hot Chili Limited; Moonlight-Superior, US Copper Corp; Warintza, Solaris Resources Inc.; Chita Valley, Minsud Resources Corp.; Hat, Doubleview Gold Corp.).Copper Equivalent ("CuEq") grades reported for the drill holes at Elemes were calculated using the following formula: CuEq % = ((Copper (%))0.9) + ((Gold (g/t) x 0.8571)0.85) + ((Silver (g/t) x 0.0117)0.75) + ((Molybdenum (ppm) x 6.8568)0.80).Gold Equivalent ("AuEq") grades reported for the drill holes at Elemes were calculated using the following formula: AuEq g/t = ((Gold (g/t)0.85) + ((Copper (%) x 1.1667)0.9) + ((Silver (g/t) x 0.0136)0.75) + ((Molybdenum (ppm) x 8.0)0.80).