Venture Minerals Approved for Thor Drilling

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) has been granted approval to drill at the company’s Thor VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulfides) prospect in Western Australia.

Venture Minerals said it had designated Thor as a ‘priority VMS drill target’ due to its scale, geochemical and geophysical signature and its proximity to a VMS style, massive sulfide body containing copper, lead and zinc that had previously been identified at the neighbouring Kingsley prospect by Teck.

Venture’s Thor-focussed maiden drill program is to initially consist of three drill holes and has received co-funding from the Western Australian State Government.

Besides Thor, Venture has identified a further five priority VMS targets extending over a combined strike of 10 kilometres.

Two of these targets are coincident geochemical and EM anomalies like Thor while the other three targets contain anomalous copper and zinc values and exhibit a very similar geochemical response to the main Thor anomaly.

The company has recently secured the northern extension of the Thor target with up to an additional 14 strike kilometres of prospective VMS host unit within the new tenement application.

“Knowing that VMS deposits often occur within a cluster, positions the company well to replicate the success by Teck but at a much greater scale and not just once but with the added option to make repeated discoveries,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

 

Email: info@ventureminerals.com.au

Website: www.ventureminerals.com.au

 

Draig Resources Hits Further High-Grade Gold Results at Tribune

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Draig Resources reported further exploration results from the company’s Tribune gold discovery in Western Australia.

Draig Resource’s recent drilling focused on preparing for a maiden resource estimate and the commencement of work to follow up DHEM target plates from the first pass exploration holes.

The recent work has identified new high-grade ore shoots, from which the company has upgraded the overall exploration potential of the strike extension.

Recently received results included:

DRDD057
4.4 metres at 13.5 grams per tonne gold from 306m downhole (NEW SHOOT POSITION identified from DHEM);

DRDD046
4.2m at 3.6g/t gold 313m downhole (NEW SHOOT POSITION identified from DHEM);

DRDD050
9.5m at 5g/t gold from 324.5m downhole, including 2.6m at 12.7g/t gold from 326.5m (NEW SHOOT POSITION identified from DHEM);

DRDD043
4.1m at 6g/t gold from 92.5m downhole;

DRDD038
2.3m at 8.2g/t gold from 53.7m and 0.3m at 31.8g/t gold from 64.9m and 2m at 9.3g/t gold from 92m downhole; and

DRDD047
2m at 6.7 g/t gold 198m downhole.

Draig also carried out scout drilling 160 metres to the north of the current drill grid with two holes completed, both of which encountered Tribune style shearing and veins.

Results for these holes are pending, and while the intersections don’t contain sulphide mineralisation of note, follow up DHEM has indicated a number of highly conductive plates as off hole conductors.

This has resulted in several shallow and high priority drill targets which the company anticipates testing in coming weeks.

“This recent drilling and DHEM has indicated the high-grade mineralisation at Tribune is still very much open in every direction and we continue to be impressed with the robustness of the drill intersections,” Draig Resources executive director Steve Parsons said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The Western Corridor is shaping up to be a very significant discovery for the company.

“We look forward to updating the market on the results of the next phase of step-out and EM drilling at Tribune, deeper drilling, preliminary metallurgical testwork and the maiden resource estimate over the coming months.”

Draig explained it is currently updating the geological model at Tribune with the latest drilling and is completing the next phase of the DHEM surveying with further drilling expected to resume with an RC rig and two DD rigs in the coming weeks targeting extensions of known high grade gold mineralisation and infilling the shallow portion of the discovery ready for future economic extraction study work.

“The company sees significant potential of the Western Corridor to host additional mineralised Lodes highlighted by historical DHEM data,” Parsons continued.

“The company will be commencing a co-funded deep EIS hole as part of a deeper drilling program to target repeat mineralisation behind the Western Shear and below the historic Bellevue underground mine workings.”

 

Email: admin@draigresources.com

Website: www.draigresources.com

 

Saturn Metals Defines Higher Grades at Apollo Hill

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) reported encouraging near-surface drill intersections from recent RC drilling undertaken at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Apollo Hill gold project, near Leonora in the Western Australian goldfields.

Saturn Metals explained the drilling focused along higher grade structural zones or shoots (Armstrong and Eagle Shoots) within the main Apollo Hill deposit, which has a 0.5 million-ounce JORC 2012-compliant inferred gold resource of 17.2 million tonnes at 0.9 grams per tonne gold.

The company said the results improved the geological continuity of those higher-grade zones within the resource, highlighting the potential to increase the overall grade of the known mineralised system.

Better results returned in the latest batch of assays included:

AHRC0024
12 metres at 2.8 grams per tonne gold from 4m, including 3m at 8.8g/t gold from 13m within 31m at 1.12g/t gold from 1m;

AHRC0026
11m at 2.5g/t gold from 1m, including 8m at 3.3g/t gold from 16m;

AHRC0019
20m at 2.5g/t gold from 52m, and 11m at 2.28g/t gold from 84m within 100m at 1.01g/t gold from 7m; and

AHRC0027
16m at 2.75g/t gold from 8m;

The drilling also extended the Armstrong and Eagle Shoots practically to surface and demonstrated the down-plunge continuity of the Armstrong Shoot, which remains open at depth with current drilling hitting only to 180m vertical depth.

By drilling in alternate directions, Saturn has found it is able to better visualise and target these shoots, which it has determined to be characterised by zones of increased vein density, alteration and deformation.

The company has identified and modelled several similar shoots that require further drill testing.

“We continue to be extremely pleased with the results at Apollo Hill,” Saturn Metals managing director Ian Bamborough said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The new data has provided further evidence of the higher-grade architecture within the large Apollo Hill gold system.

“We look forward to having a good look at the mineralised system in diamond core when drilling commences shortly.

“All results will be incorporated into our next resource estimation, which is planned for mid to late 2018.”

 

Email: info@saturnmetals.com.au

Website: www.saturnmetals.com.au

 

Azure Minerals Commences Oposura Resource Estimate

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) received the final assay results from a resource drill-out program undertaken on the East Zone at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Oposura zinc-lead-silver project in Mexico.

Azure Minerals said that having completed the drilling and subsequent results it has started the mineral resource estimate for the Oposura project.

Assays received from final East Zone resource drill holes, include:

OPDH-144
12.25 metres at 16.3 per cent zinc plus lead (Zn+Pb) (12.4 per cent zinc and 3.9 per cent lead)

OPDH-111
3.2m at 20.9 per cent Zn+Pb (13 per cent zinc and 8 per cent lead);

OPDH-125
2.95m at 17.9 per cent Zn+Pb (10.3 per cent zinc and 7.7 per cent lead); and

OPDH-127
2.50m at 27.2 per cent Zn+Pb (24.8 per cent zinc and 2.4 per cent lead).

Azure has previously noted, high-grade mineralisation located immediately adjacent to existing underground development of Tunnel D at the project, which is approximately 2m wide and 2.5m high.

The company believes this tunnel could easily be stripped to accommodate modern mechanised mining equipment and that pre-production mine capital costs under this scenario would also be very low.

The latest results have confirmed a large zone of thick, high-grade mineralisation, with an overall average grade approaching 20 per cent combined Zn+Pb adjacent to and extending north and south of the existing underground exploratory mine workings of Tunnel D.

“It is pleasing that the assay results from the final drilling into the East Zone at Oposura identified additional high-grade mineralisation close to the existing underground mine tunnels,” Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The extra drilling that the company undertook into the East Zone has also significantly improved our understanding of the geometry of the deposit, enabling more detailed mine planning to be undertaken.

“These results provide the company with scheduling optionality for early stage open pit and/or underground mining.”

 

Website: www.azureminerals.com.au

 

Lithium Australia Claims Medcalf Lithium Discovery

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) declared identification of lithium pegmatite swarms at Medcalf, part of the company’s Lake Johnson project in the lithium-prospective Yilgarn Block of Western Australia.

The region is host to other major lithium deposits such as Earl Grey (Kidman Resources and SQM) Mt Marion (NeoMetals, Gangfeng and Mineral Resources) and Mt Cattlin (Galaxy).

Lithium Australia noted all of these deposits, as well as Medcalf and Lithium Australia’s nearby Mt Day prospect, have similar geological features whereas the pegmatites emanate from nearby fertile granites and are injected into adjacent greenstones.

Lithium Australia made the Medcalf discovery via an initial geological reconnaissance program it conducted after interpretation of aerial photographs highlighted the potential for multiple pegmatites in 2017.

Outcropping pegmatites were identified at Medcalf during subsequent field inspections in April 2018 and subsequent geological mapping, and sampling confirmed some of these pegmatites as LCT (lithium, caesium, tantalum) types.

Pegmatite swarms containing spodumene mineralisation outcrop in a zone of some 100 metres by 50 metres in area, within a larger area of pegmatites of 250m wide by 500 metres long.

The company acknowledged that the initial rock-chip samples are prospective with grades ranging from 3.07 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) up to 4.78 per cent Li2O and one spodumene only specimen sample grading 7.15 per cent Li2O.

LIT completed a field inspection that identified a pegmatite swarm centred upon the highest hill in the area, where at least five pegmatites were located, and all containing spodumene.

The company described the prospect area to have moderate to low topographic relief and potential exists for additional pegmatites under cover with the main target area it visited containing pegmatites presenting as a dyke swarm comprised of numerous pegmatites in a zone about 250m wide and at least 500m long.

Outcrops of individual pegmatites range from about 2m to 10m in width and 50m to 150m in length. The pegmatites appear to dip at moderate to steep angles towards the southwest and appear to have true-thicknesses of about 5m and are relatively close together with only a few metres separating individual pegmatites.

“The occurrence of LCT pegmatites adjacent to granites at Medcalf has regional geological significance,” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The pegmatites occur in the same greenstone sequence that abuts the same granite complex at Lithium Australia’s Mt Day prospect, 45 kilometres to the north-east.

“Both locations have significant lithium mineralisation and there is good potential for locating further LCT pegmatites below cover, within the Lake Johnson project area.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Website: www.lithium-au.com

 

Musgrave Minerals Encouraged by Cue Project Regional Drilling

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) reported the first results from drilling underway at the company’s Cue gold project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

Musgrave Minerals has the results for the first 35 drill holes of the current 110 drill hole program that is testing 10 new high priority gold targets at the project.

The 10 high priority targets occur along a 20-kilometre-long prospective gold corridor that hosts the project’s Break of Day and Lena gold resources.

Break of Day:
868,000 tonnes at 7.15 grams per tonne gold for 199,000 ounces of gold.

Lena:
2.682 million tonnes at 1.77g/t gold for 153,000 ounces of gold.

Musgrave identified the new targets by way of a recently completed regional gravity survey with existing aeromagnetic data, historical broad spaced aircore drilling and surface geochemistry.

The first batch of assays from the aircore/RC drilling program at Cue returned strong results from two new targets: Break of Day North and Lake Austin North.

Musgrave said the results highlight possible northern extension to the Break of Day mineralisation.

At Break of Day North hole 18MORC010 intersected 1 metre at 8.3g/t gold from only 4m depth, 200m north of the current resource.

Musgrave explained the intersection brings focus to 300m of previously untested strike potential for the Break of Day high-grade gold system.

Follow-up drilling is planned in the current program.

Results from the first drill holes at the Lake Austin North have identified a large regolith hosted gold halo, including:

18MOAC030
21m at 0.78g/t gold from 118m to end of hole, including 6m at 2.2g/t gold from 118m;

18MOAC035
24m at 0.54g/t gold from 98m, including 6m at 1.9g/t gold from 98m;

18MOAC033
54m at 0.22g/t gold from 70m; and

18MOAC032
18m at 0.20g/t gold from 94m.

These wide zones of near-surface gold mineralisation extend over one kilometre in length.

Musgrave considers they may be indicative of a higher-grade gold source in fresh rock.

Mineralisation is still open, and drilling is continuing at Lake Austin North to target the source of the gold halos.

“These initial results are extremely encouraging and have identified a potential extension to the high-grade gold mineralisation at Break of Day and a large regolith gold halo at Lake Austin North,” Musgrave Minerals managing director Rob Waugh said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Both areas are potentially significant with the Break of Day north intersection only 200 metres from the northern edge of the current high-grade gold resource and the Lake Austin North target confirming significant thicknesses of regolith gold mineralisation over a large area in a structurally favourable position and on a favourable lithological contact.

“The project hosts a very prospective greenstone belt in a well-endowed region with good infrastructure and numerous operating gold plants.

“The focus of this drilling is to discover another high-grade Great Fingal-style gold deposit.

“We look forward to completing the remainder of the drill program and reporting further results that will follow.”

 

Email: info@musgraveminerals.com.au

Website: www.musgraveminerals.com.au

 

Corazon Mining Produces Battery-Grade Cobalt at Mt Gilmore

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Corazon Mining (ASX: CZN) has completed metallurgical testwork at the company’s Mount Gilmore cobalt-copper-gold project in New South Wales.

Corazon Mining said the Phase 3 metallurgical testwork at the Mount Gilmore project delivered a high-grade cobalt concentrate with the potential to supply the emerging global battery technology sector.

The company explained the Phase 3 metallurgical testwork focused on defining down-stream concentrate processing options, the results from which demonstrated exceptional recovery rates of cobalt, copper and gold from drill samples from the Cobalt Ridge deposit, using conventional processing routes.

Conventional flotation testwork delivered a high-grade cobalt-copper-gold concentrate – of up to 7.38 per cent cobalt – from high-grade Cobalt Ridge samples, as well as excellent concentrate grades from lower low-grade samples.

Corazon said the combination of high-grade concentrates and very high recoveries delivered in the testwork provides it with the opportunity to potentially either produce a high-value bulk concentrate for direct sale, or to develop an in-house down-stream processing plant.

“The mineralisation at Cobalt Ridge has several beneficial characteristics,” Corazon Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“A key advantage for the processing is the sulphide mineralisation, which allows for a smaller sulphide/metal concentrate to be produced prior to down-stream processing.

“This would likely significantly reduce the capital and operating costs of a down-stream plant, compared to having to process a bulk feed.

“The company has continued to undertake systematic testwork programs on mineralisation from the Mt Gilmore project in parallel with its ongoing exploration activities.

“The testwork programs are designed to confirm the suitability of the project’s mineralisation to produce a high-quality product(s) for use in the battery technology sector.”

 

Email: info@corazon.com.au

Website: www.corazon.com.au

 

Peel Mining Confirms Southern Nights Mineralisation Continuation at Depth

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Peel Mining (ASX: PEX) reported drilling and geophysical results from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wagga Tank/Southern Nights project, south of Cobar in western New South Wales.

Peel Mining said that assay results from drillhole WTRCDD122 confirmed a strongly mineralised intercept at more than 350 metres below surface adding substantial down-dip continuity to mineralisation at Southern Nights.

WTRCDD122
22.1 metres at 6.62 per cent zinc, 2.19 per cent lead, 0.87 per cent copper, 60 grams per tonne silver, 0.42g/t gold from 459m, including 5.1m at 18.36 per cent zinc, 5.71 per cent lead, 0.12 per cent copper, 72g/t silver, 0.2g/t gold from 476m.

Peel Mining said that follow-up drillhole WTRCDD124 confirmed the critical stratigraphic contact hosting Southern Nights’ mineralisation remains present at more than 500m below surface.

Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) geophysical surveying of drillhole WTRCDD123 also identified an off-hole conductor the company considers to likely represent extensions to recently-reported mineralisation encountered in WTRCDD123 of:

14.45m at 2.43 per cent copper, 2.67g/t gold, 123g/t silver, 2.58 per cent zinc, 0.87 per cent lead from 435.55m.

Drillhole WTRCDD101, positioned south of Wagga Tank and north of Southern Nights, returned a mineralised interval that company determined as further evidence of a link between the deposits.

The intercept in WTRCDD101 is located some 250m south and around 250m up-dip of the intercept in WTRCDD123.

“WTRCDD123 is situated between Wagga Tank and Southern Nights and coupled with WTRCDD101 and other intervening drillholes has established a link between the two deposits,” Peel Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“Current drilling is focused on testing for deeper mineralisation at Southern Nights and in the Wagga Tank-Southern Nights corridor.

“Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical surveys along with downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys are continuing.

“A comprehensive review of geophysical data is also practically complete (final report awaited) whilst first-pass metallurgical testwork is continuing.”

 

Email: info@peelmining.com.au

Website: www.peelmining.com.au

 

Venture Minerals Gives Odin Target New Perspective

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) announced the first hole at the company’s Odin prospect in Western Australia.

Venture Minerals said the hole, co-funded by WA State Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme, intersected disseminated nickel-copper sulfides within a mafic-ultramafic host unit, had provided the company with a new nickel-copper target.

The company declared the Odin nickel-copper target to possess nickel-copper sulphides that were identified within a highly prospective mafic-ultramafic unit that extends over 10 strike kilometres.

Reconnaissance surface lag sampling has indicated the presence of a nickel and copper anomalism within the target maficultramafic units.

Venture said the Odin nickel-copper target also hosts a historic untested electromagnetic (EM) anomaly, adding that opportunity exists for the identification of more EM anomalies via modern high-power surveying.

Venture explained that the first hole at Odin (ODD01) initially targeted pegmatite units which have the potential to host lithium such as the nearby Greenbushes Mine.

A total of 20m of pegmatites spread over several intervals was intersected within the maficultramafic gneiss.

The assay results concluded that the pegmatites intersected in ODD01 did not contain significant lithium.

“The company is excited by the new opportunity identified at the Odin prospect,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Although the pegmatites intersected in the first hole were not lithium bearing, the discovery of a broad zone of nickel bearing sulphides within the lithium target zone has delivered Venture an excellent new opportunity.”

 

Email: info@ventureminerals.com.au

Website: www.ventureminerals.com.au

 

Lithium Australia Announces Sadisdorf Drilling Results

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) announced preliminary results of its first drilling campaign at the company’s Sadisdorf Joint Venture in Germany.

Lithium Australia is in a farm-in deal and JV with Tin International AG, a subsidiary of exchange listed Deutsche Rohstoff AG (FRA: DR0) as partner.

The company has declared its aspirations to use its wholly-owned and proprietary SiLeach hydrometallurgical lithium processing technology to unlock the lithium potential and value of historical tin-polymetallic deposits such as Sadisdorf – which is ideally located to supply the European battery and electric vehicle market – by recovering lithium from the residues of conventional tin concentration processes.

Lithium Australia said the latest results represent the first drilling at Sadisdorf since 1990 and follows a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource estimate of 25 million tonnes at 0.45 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) (0.32 per cent Li2O cut-off).

The program of three diamond holes was designed to confirm historic data and test the outer boundaries of the mineral resource model.

The drilling encountered intercepts including 32.19 metres of continuous lithium mineralisation at 0.52 per cent Li2O.

Other intercepts of tin mineralisation were also encountered of up to 11.65 metres at 0.35 per cent tin.

“Firstly, this is a welcome start to our first on-the-ground work at Sadisdorf – placing the company at the forefront of the bourgeoning battery chemical sector – much of which is European led,” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The mineralisation encountered in the first drill hole strongly supports our vision of unlocking the value of the historic tin-tungsten Sadisdorf mine by adding lithium as an additional value driver, at a location in close geographical proximity to emerging European new era battery markets.

“Our SiLeach processing technology is ideally suited for processing Sadisdorf’s greisen-style polymetallic mineralisation which contains abundant lithium micas.

“With tin increasingly regarded as a strategic technology metal, the tin assays encountered also confirm our view of the potential of Sadisdorf as a significant polymetallic deposit.

“Testwork on fresh samples will commence shortly and we look forward to the full assay results from the remaining two drill holes.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Website: www.lithium-au.com