Resource World Magazine

D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 www.resourceworld.com 69 Angkor Resources targets Cambodian oil & gas by Bruce Lantz W hen people gather to discuss major players in the oil and gas sector, Cambodia may not come to mind. But if Angkor Resources Corp. [ANK-TSXV; ANKOF-OTC] has any- thing to say about it, that soon will change. The Canadian company, headquar- tered in Sexsmith, Alberta with offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Phnom Penh, formed in 2008 with its primary focus being mineral exploration in Cambodia. Angkor's start in Cambodia came as a result of a group of early stage, Alberta-based investors investing in a private company with hard-rock assets in Cambodia. Mike Weeks, Angkor's Executive Chairman, was one of them and took the lead in establishing a core set of assets and building out operations there. Arriving with Exploration Vice-President, Dr. Adrian Mann, they found prospective geology that was otherwise under-explored and misunderstood. As they developed hard-rock programs, they also began to look at the region's oil and gas potential. They're the first North American firm to operate in the Southeast Asian coun- try, and since 2012 have done more than 10 deals valued at more than US $20 mil- lion. For 10 years they focused on hard rock assets (gold and copper) across five exploration licences, each with multiple targets, covering about 983 km 2 , and then in 2019 acquired their first onshore oil and gas exploration block (Block VIII) of 7,300 km 2 through subsidiary EnerCam Singapore and are moving forward with plans to explore it. As yet, though, there is no onshore oil production. "From the beginning, Angkor's focus has been solely on Cambodian resource potential," said CEO Stephen Burega. "We know the country, the people and the geology, and are fortunately operating in a new and developing jurisdiction." Block VIII is located in the Kampong- Som Basin, a recently recognized and unexplored onshore sedimentary basin in southeastern Cambodia. It was first identified as a foreland basin in 2016 by researchers from the Danish Geological Survey who were interpreting a marine seismic database off the south coast of Vietnam. The Kampong-Som Basin has some of the characteristics of other oil-bearing foreland basins. Although Cambodia has traditionally been viewed primarily as a country with mining and mineral resource opportunities, sizeable oil and gas reserves have been developed on three sides of the country including the Gulf of Thailand to the west, the Khorat Plateau of Thailand to the north, and in the Vietnamese Cuu Long Basin of the South China Sea to the south. With strong relationships in hand, Angkor has looked at projects in surround- ing countries but they recognize Cambodia has not seen much exploration and pres- ents many opportunities for discovery and development, Burega said, and they've developed strong relationships from the local level up to the highest levels of gov- ernment. Cambodia is surrounded by producing countries with both hard rock and oil and gas assets, but unfortunately in the past it was faced with a prolonged unsettled period which resulted in it being left behind while neighbouring countries were building out their infrastructure and resource programs, he said. "With this uncertainty long behind them, this presents a significant oppor- tunity," said Burega. "Angkor is at the leading edge of the exploration wave in Cambodia, and we believe that there are great opportunities for discoveries in-country." In the early days, operating in Cambodia presented challenges, Burega said, as local infrastructure was limited and the over- all understanding of geology was based on outdated maps. "Once we arrived and acquired our core land package, we quickly realized that we were looking at highly prospective geology in a region that was vastly under-explored." Since then, they've seen Cambodia grow into a powerful country eager to build success- ful industry and infrastructure supporting international companies and their business endeavours. "We have seen first-hand that the Cambodian government wants to build supportive systems and regulations that make working in-country straightforward and acceptable to international investors," he said, adding that it has been a pleasure to see how Cambodia has grown over the past decade, building the foundations of a strong and growing natural resource sector within its fast-growing economy even as the relatively young population addresses the challenges of climate change and pur- sues green initiatives. Next year, Angkor will be focused on building out both the hard rock and oil and gas side of the business. With the acquisition of Block VIII, a major focus of the 2019-20 dry season will be to complete the early stage exploration of the licence, including shooting seismic and gravity surveys, along with other geophysical programs. "Angkor will continue to meet with potential strategic partners to work along- side our team to assist in building our understanding of our Cambodian assets and, in so doing, build incremental value and move the company forward," Burega said. Angkor is continuing its gold explo- ration programs in Cambodia. A short diamond drilling program on the Okalla East and West areas of its Banlung licence returned 5.72 g/t gold over 1.0 metres, and 4.04 g/t gold over 1.0 metre. RC drilling with partner Emerald Resources under an earn-in agreement with Angkor on the Koan Nheak Project returned 3.61 g/t gold over 8.0 metres and 3.43 g/t over 1.0 metre. This first-pass drilling was designed to test the peaks of the gold-in-soil anomaly and the most pro- spective IP anomalies and confirmed the previously identified Peacock soil anomaly. More drilling is planned for early 2020. n OIL & GAS

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