The study, according to London, U.K.- based Frontier, will provide a preliminary evaluation of the various trade-off options for development of the project, and will form the basis for a pre-feasibility study that will begin in the second quarter of 2008.

Aker Kvaerner will act as study author to synthesize underlying study components, and evaluate the economics of various mining, processing, and infrastructure options for the Project; NCL Ingenería y Construcción S.A., an international mineral consultancy firm based in Chile, with substantial experience in large copper porphyry projects, will be responsible for mine planning and optimization studies, and; metals economics and price forecasting firm Brook Hunt will provide insight on copper marketing options, including analysis and outlook for the local copper concentrates market.

The Benkala project is focused on a significant porphyry copper deposit discovered in the late 1960s in the Urals gold/copper ore belt, northeast of Aktobe Oblast and 100 km southeast of the Zhetikara Mountains, an area close to the Russian border with a long regional mining history. The district already hosts a developed infrastructure, including a main line railway, an all-weather highway and power supply to the site, according to Frontier.