British company East Star Resources Plc has released interim results from its geological exploration at three sites in Kazakhstan—Verkh-Uba, Talovskoye, and Snezhnoye. Having operated in the country for over three years, the investor is searching for copper and gold, with Verkh-Uba being considered the most promising site.
In early February, the company completed drilling three exploratory wells at Verkh-Uba, discovering new copper deposits beyond previously explored areas. A total of 238 core samples have been sent to the ALS KazLab laboratory in Karaganda for analysis. According to a preliminary JORC estimate, the deposit contains 20.3 million tonnes of ore with an average copper content of 1.16%, zinc at 1.54%, and lead at 0.27%.
East Star Resources plans to continue exploration in 2025 to assess the site’s development potential. The company aims to start open-pit mining of non-ferrous metals in the coming years.
In addition to copper deposits, the Snezhnoye site has also shown potential, with initial studies identifying a significant gold anomaly in an area previously used for small-scale artisanal mining.