Alto Metals Improves Vanguard Gold Values

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Alto Metals (ASX: AME) released results from 50gm fire assays carried out on one-metre individual RC samples from a recent drilling program.

Alto Metals said the 15 hole and 1 re-entry drilling program had been undertaken in February at the Vanguard prospect within the company’s Sandstone gold project in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia.

Fire assays from one-metre samples from Vanguard primary zone include:

SRC075
25 metres at 3.8 grams per tonne gold from 85m, including 9m at 6.4g/t gold from 89m and 6m at 7g/t gold from 104m, including 4m at 10.7g/t gold from 106m; and

SRC060
10m at 3.7g/t gold from 81m.

On completion of the Vanguard drilling, Alto moved the RC rig to the Indomitable prospect to test a new model of mineralisation.

Fire assays from one-metre composite samples from the three holes completed before the weather moved in returned numerous 1m to 5m intervals of 0.5g/t gold to 1.95g/t gold.

The best result returned was:

SRC086
5m at 2.5g/t gold from 91m.

“As reported on 20 February 2018, the RC drilling completed in February has better defined the structures hosting gold mineralisation in fresh rock, and shown that the mineralisation remains open at depth,” Alto Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“As expected, 50gm fire assays of the one-metre samples produced higher-grade gold results over slightly shorter intervals than the assays from the four-metre composite samples.”

 

Email: admin@altometals.com.au

Website: www.altometals.com.au

Magmatic Resources Identifies 2km Mineralised Gold Trend

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG) informed the market of completion of RC drilling at the MacGregors and MacGregors South targets at the company’s Parkes Joint Venture project in New South Wales.

Magmatic Resources said the drilling identified a two-kilometre mineralised gold trend at higher grades than previous exploration.

Three deep RC holes were undertaken at MacGregors to test mineralisation intersected in previous Gold Fields drilling, returning best intersections of:

PERC021
10 metres at 1.25 grams per tonne gold from 146m within a broader zone of 19m at 0.8g/t gold;

PERC022
15m at 0.74g/t gold from 108m within a broader zone of 30m at 0.57g/t gold; and

PERC023
4m at 1.29g/t gold from 136m.

At MacGregors South 20 RC holes targeted an elongate NNE-trending arsenic and gold anomaly identified by previous auger drilling and a recent hand-portable pXRF program.

Magmatic explained the anomaly to be adjacent to a magnetic high zone within Forbes Group metasediments (slates and lithic sandstone) which it has interpreted to be a regional scale fault: the Parkes Fault Zone.

Best results included:

PERC013
5m at 0.71g/t gold from surface.

PERC014
2m at 1.47g/t gold from 30m.

“These results follow our successful drilling at the Lady Ilse 10 kilometre copper-gold trend and Boxdale-Carlisle Reefs 15 kilometre gold trend,” Magmatic Resources managing director David Richardson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These results give Magmatic three significant gold projects, with follow up work programs planned for the next quarter.”

The Parkes JV is a Joint Venture with the Japanese government resource agency Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).

JOGMEC has agreed to expand its first-year exploration expenditure from $1 million to $1.35 million.

This enabled completion of the MacGregors – MacGregors South drill program and a diamond drilling program at Alectown, the assays for which are on their way.

 

 

Website: www.magmaticresources.com

Saturn Metals Drilling at Apollo Hill

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) announced the commencement of a maiden Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Apollo Hill gold project in the Western Australian goldfields.

Saturn Metals carried out a re-interpretation of historical drill data from Apollo Hill, from which it has highlighted the potential for several stacked, higher grade plunging shoots within the greater gold system.

The recently-listed company indicated that drilling will specifically follow up on historic intersections including:

2 metres at 69.6 grams per tonne gold from 146m; and
5.3m at 10.3g/t gold from 70.7m.

Saturn Metals intends testing these targets from two new drill orientations optimal to the new geological interpretations.

The company declared an additional objective of the drill program, which will be to identify further mineralisation and gather information for use in the calculation of a new resource for the project.

An updated Resource is anticipated to be ready to announce in mid to late 2018.

Drilling will also step out along strike to the north and south where only shallow aircore drilling has tested the mineralised Apollo Hill fault zone beneath the cover sequence.

“We are excited to start drilling and test some of the new theories that have been developed in the process of preparing the company for listing on the ASX,” Saturn Metals managing director Ian Bamborough said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The drill program, whilst providing the required information for the next resource calculation, also has the potential to further unlock the geological understanding of the prospect and highlight a significant new style of higher-grade gold target.”

Saturn has approximately 3,000m of RC drilling planned in this initial phase of exploration, with the program estimated to take three to four weeks to complete.

A follow-up phase of diamond drilling has already been scheduled for May 2018.

 

Email: info@saturnmetals.com.au

Website: www.saturnmetals.com.au

Global Geoscience Progressing PFS at Rhyolite Ridge

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Global Geoscience (ASX: GSC) provided an update on progress of a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) underway at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project located in Nevada, USA.

The recent S&P/ASX 300 Index-invested company is working with Amec Foster Wheeler on the PFS.

Global Geoscience explained the current work is being carried out in two phases.

The first being a definition phase, including trade-off studies, to identify the major process and infrastructure components required.

The second is a pre-feasibility phase involving both design and estimating.

According to the company the PFS work is progressing well and in accordance to plan and it expects to provide further updates on its progress over the coming weeks regarding:

PFS trade-off studies;
Preliminary site layout and environmental permitting;
Further optimisation of the acid-leach process; and
Crystallisation and purification of the lithium and boron end products.

“We are delighted with the rapid progress of our unique Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, and this has now been reflected in our inclusion in the S&P/ASX 300 Index,” Global Geoscience managing director Bernard Rowe said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The Rhyolite Ridge PFS is progressing well under the direction of Amec Foster Wheeler.

“The unique mineralogy and chemistry of the Rhyolite Ridge mineralisation continues to provide many attractive options which consistently point to low-cost processing and high recoveries of lithium and boron.

“Phase one of the PFS includes trade-off studies to select the most favourable processing and infrastructure alternatives.

“Key aspects of this work have been to evaluate and compare the various leaching options – heap, vat and agitation (tank) leaching and on-site production of sulphuric acid.”

Global Geoscience declared the Rhyolite Ridge mineralisation is ideally suited to open pit mining methods as it is shallow, thick and gently dipping, resulting in a low strip ratio.

Simple, low-cost acid leach processes can be used to extract lithium and boron at high recovery rates into a Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS).

Lithium and boron can then be removed from the PLS through crystallisation and purification steps to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide and boric acid at the mine site.

The company considers the ability to produce lithium and boron end products on-site from a hard-rock source makes Rhyolite Ridge a unique development opportunity.

 

Website: www.globalgeo.com.au

Blackham Resources Extends Golden Age Underground Mine Plan

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) announced it has extended the Golden Age Underground mine plan at the company’s Matilda gold operation in Western Australia for a further 6 months to December 2018.

Blackham Resources became owner operator miner in the Golden Age Underground in October 2017, and by doing so reduced mining costs and risk.

At the same time, Blackham commenced evaluation of the economics of the remaining Golden Age Underground resource of 0.9 million tonnes at 4.5 grams per tonne gold for 129,000 ounces of gold.

The company explained these mining studies have now added another 24,600 tonnes at 6g/t gold for 4,700 ounces of production it now has targeted between July to December 2018.

This additional targeted production is incremental to Blackham’s previously disclosed underground mine plan which finished in June 2018.

Blackham’s revised figures show production is now expected to continue to produce approximately 2,500 ounces of gold per quarter through to at least December 2018.

Historically, the Golden Age Underground has produced 160,000 ounces at 9g/t gold.

Since recommissioning this mine, Blackham has produced 19,500 ounces of gold at 4.7g/t gold.

Since moving to predominately airleg mining in October last year, Blackham has increased the average mined grade to 8.1g/t gold.

IN the past eight months, Blackham’s geology team has identified several priority targets.

Underground drilling will commence this week aimed at further extending the mine plan and potentially allowing an increased mining rate.

“Blackham has successfully added another six months to the Golden Age Underground mine plan and is aiming to maintain a six to 12 month rolling mine plan going forward,” Blackham Resources managing director Bryan Dixon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities exchange.

“This week drilling with commence down dip and down plunge from where we are currently mining strong grades at Golden Age.”

 

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

 

St George Mining Kicks-off 2018 Mt Alexander Drilling Program

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has resumed drilling at the company’s Mt Alexander project, located near Leonora in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

St George Mining informed the market that the majority of the planned program is earmarked to drill at the Stricklands prospect.

Drilling carried out last year at the Stricklands prospect of drill hole MAD71 returned the best intersection the company has achieved to date at the Mt Alexander project.

The 2017 drilling at Stricklands continued to intersect the mineralised ultramafic, with a further seven drill holes intersecting nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation while providing an indication that the Stricklands mineralised channel may extend up to 400 metres along strike, with large areas of the interpreted east-northeast oriented ultramafic channel remaining untested.

St George indicated the upcoming drilling at Stricklands will continue to test for extensions to the mineralised ultramafic.

The company considers the thickness and grade of the nickel-copper sulphides intersected at Stricklands to date supports the potential for further mineralisation at this prospect.

Elsewhere, at the Investigators prospect, a SAMSON EM (electromagnetic) survey identified large conductive areas over a one-kilometre portion of the mineralised Cathedrals Belt.

Planned drilling at Investigators will test underexplored areas of the SAMSON anomaly with the first-ever deep drilling of EM targets.

“St George, like other mining and exploration companies in the Goldfields, has been affected by heavy rains during February,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“At Mt Alexander, ground conditions have improved and we are very pleased to announce that drilling has finally begun.

“We have a number of outstanding nickel-copper sulphide targets to drill in this program and we are excited to be drilling again.”

 

Email: info@stgm.com.au

Website: www.stgm.com.au

 

Musgrave Minerals Declares Break of Day Deposit ‘Still Open’

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) released further gold assay results from recent extensional diamond drilling undertaken at Break of Day gold deposit within the company’s Cue project in Western Australia.

Musgrave Minerals intends following up the results with an aircore drilling program on recently identified near surface targets.

The latest drilling consisted seven diamond drill holes (three infill and four extensional), assays have been received for all four extensional drill holes showing the high-grade mineralisation remains open at depth.

The Twilight Lode was intersected in all four drill holes with best intersections of:

18MODD004
16.3 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold from 258.7m downhole, including 0.7m at 9.9g/t gold from 258.7m; and

18MODD002
1.8m at 4.5g/t gold from 333.0m downhole.

18MODD002 also intersected the Velvet Lode returning:

2.1m at 2.6g/t gold from 362.8m downhole.

Musgrave Minerals said the drilling confirmed mineralisation continues at depth and down plunge at Break of Day adding that further drill testing is required to define the high-grade shoots and depth potential of the deposit.

The company is about to embark on another aircore drilling program to test 10 targets along a 20km long prospective corridor identified from a recently completed regional gravity survey.

“The upcoming aircore drilling program will add another exciting dimension to the project and provide the opportunity to test new, high quality gold targets under the salt lake and marginal dunes,” Musgrave Minerals managing director Rob Waugh said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

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

“The targets are relatively shallow and have the potential to be game changers for the company if drilling is successful.”

 

Email: info@musgraveminerals.com.au

Website: www.musgraveminerals.com.au

 

Venture Minerals Commences Drilling of Greenbushes Lithium Target

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) has commenced drilling at the Odin prospect, located within the Greenbushes Mineral District of Western Australia.

Venture Minerals describes the Odin prospect as a, “substantial lithium target” situated just south of the world’s largest hard rock lithium mine that produces approximately 40 per cent of the world’s lithium.

Venture indicated the maiden drill program is being carried out with co-funding from the Western Australian State Government.

The company identified the Odin prospect from geological mapping and geochemical sampling undertaken approximately 12 kilometres east of its Thor VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulphides) prospect.

Results from the geological mapping and surface geochemical sampling identified the Odin prospect as a potentially lithium bearing pegmatite extending over 1.9km of strike and up to 150m wide.

It is covered by laterite, but geochemistry is analogous to Greenbushes with elevated levels of tin, tantalum and niobium in laterite samples.

“The company is excited about this rare opportunity to explore for a potential Greenbushes ‘look-a-like’,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“To have the World’s largest hard rock lithium mine be the only lithium deposit to be discovered within the geological district is unusual and highly unlikely, and this fact alone makes Odin a priority exploration target for Venture.”

 

Email: info@ventureminerals.com.au

Website: www.ventureminerals.com.au

 

Galena Mining Releases World-Class Resource for Abra Lead-Silver Project

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Galena Mining (ASX: G1A) claimed a new world-class Resource at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Abra lead-silver project located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.

Galena Mining said the Resource grade and size confirms Abra to be one of the largest undeveloped lead-silver projects in the world.

The company indicated the high-grade resource would be integrated into a Pre-Feasibility study.

The company also noted that extensive copper and gold mineralisation at depth within the project was not included in this resource estimate.

The combined JORC 2012 resource estimate for the Abra project breaks down as follows:

Indicated Resource of 5.3 million tonnes at 10.6 per cent lead and 28 grams per tonne silver and an Inferred Resource of 5.9 million tonnes at 9.7 per cent lead and 29g/t silver (using a 7.5% lead cut-off)

For a combined:

11.2 million tonnes at 10.1 per cent lead and 28g/t silver.

Within an Indicated Resource of:

13.2 million tonnes at 7.9 per cent lead and 19g/t silver and an Inferred Resource of 23.5 million tonnes at 6.9 per cent lead and 17g/t silver (using a 5.0% Pb cut-off).

For a combined:

36.6 million tonnes at 7.3 per cent lead and 18g/t silver.

“These resource numbers have exceeded our expectations and confirm Abra as a truly world class asset with global significance in the lead market,” Galena Mining CEO Ed Turner said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“What is even more exciting for the company and its shareholders is that this looks like just the beginning of a much bigger project and that potential upside exists in and around where we have drilled to date.

“We have a clear strategy to bringing Abra on line as one of Australia’s next base metals producers and our focus now is progressing a robust Pre-Feasibility Study over the coming months.”

 

Email: admin@galenamining.com.au

Website: www.galenamining.com.au

 

Ardea Resources Updates KNP Cobalt Zone Resource to Over 100Mt

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) released an update to the cobalt Resources at the company’s Kalgoorlie nickel project (KNP) in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Ardea Resources has increased the Resource for the KNP Cobalt Zone to 108.3 million tonnes at 0.10 per cent cobalt and 0.79 per cent nickel.

In total the KNP Cobalt Zone contains over 108,000 tonnes of cobalt metal and over 856,000 tonnes of nickel metal.

The major contributor to the upgrade was the Cobalt Zone at the Goongarrie nickel cobalt project (GNCP), which has been defined at 83.1 million tonnes at 0.1 per cent cobalt and 0.81 per cent nickel.

The corresponding contained metal estimates are 81,700 tonnes cobalt metal and 672,300 tonnes nickel metal.

The Resource includes mineral resources at Goongarrie South, Big Four, and Scotia Dam which occur within a continuous mineralised zone extending over 16 kilometres in strike length north to south and over one kilometre wide.

Ardea declared the Goongarrie nickel cobalt project as the company’s prime development project and the subject of a forthcoming pre-feasibilty study (PFS).

The company is focused on the development of the deposits of the Goongarrie camp where mining schedules have highlighted the cobalt-rich and nickel-rich portions of the deposits which correspond to the Cobalt Zone at Goongarrie.

The company explained the Resource upgrade was not the result of additional drilling results or remodelling exercise.

The upgrade stemmed from a reappraisal of the focus of mining at Goongarrie during the development of the PFS and a substantial hike in metal prices.

The company reported previous resource estimates in 2017 using a 0.08 per cent cobalt cut-off only, ensuring capture of much high-grade nickel mineralisation.

However, the PFS has progressed and metals prices improved, positively impacting modelling of mining schedules, highlighting blocks containing high-grade nickel mineralisation with moderate cobalt grades (of less than 0.08 %) as volumetrically and fiscally important component of the deposits.

“The net effect is that 40 million tonnes of moderate to high-grade nickel / moderate cobalt mineralisation (reporting < 0.08% cobalt and > 0.5% nickel) have been added to the resource as continuity of mining blocks has improved,” Ardea Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Most of this mineralisation is within the Cobalt Zone at Goongarrie but was not previously reported in the June 2017 Ardea announcement.

“In these areas, higher nickel grades often correspond to moderate cobalt.

“The effect of this updated reporting is that overall cobalt grade is not significantly diminished, and nickel grade is maintained.

“This newly included mineralisation is integral to the resource and indeed to the modelling and planning of the of the mining project, hence the Mineral Resource reporting for Goongarrie has been updated to reflect this.”

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au

Website: www.ardearesources.com.au