THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) is about to kick off a major drill program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned East Laverton project in Western Australia.

St George informed the market that the drill rig is on its way to conduct a reverse circulation (RC) drill program with its primary focus on a pipeline of gold targets the company has established across the three underexplored greenstone belts at East Laverton.

Targets on all three major greenstone belts will be drilled with over 5,000 metres of drilling planned, which will also include drill testing of a highly conductive DHEM plate at the Windsor nickel sulphide prospect.

At 210,000 Siemens, St George claims this to be the most conductive nickel sulphide target identified at the East Laverton project to date.

“Our technical team, in conjunction with our external experts – Dr Walter Witt and Dr Jon Hronsky, have dedicated considerable time in developing the pipeline of gold targets across the East Laverton project,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are pleased to commence drilling of these targets which have the potential for a significant gold discovery.

“The drilling of the extremely powerful EM conductor at Windsor has been much anticipated, and I’m happy to say that this outstanding nickel sulphide target will be the first to be drilled in this program.”

Past drilling by St George at the Windsor nickel sulphide prospect has resulted in numerous disseminated nickel sulphide intersections within channel facies komatiites, indicating an attractive exploration area for a massive nickel sulphide deposit.

Drill hole WINDD004, drilled by St George to test a highly conductive DHEM plate at Windsor, produced no conductive material in the drill core capable of providing the extremely high EM response that was modelled.

However, a DHEM survey data from WINDD004 identified a strong off‐hole EM anomaly about 5 metres to the north of WINDD004, indicating that WINDD004 came close to testing the conductive source but did not intersect it.

Nickel sulphide enrichment was identified in WINDD004 between 85m to 138m downhole with nickel values up to 1.05 per cent nickel.

St George believes the presence of nickel sulphide mineralisation adjacent to the DHEM plate supports the potential for this conductive target to represent massive nickel sulphides.

A pipeline of prospective gold targets identified by St George has culminated in the planning and prioritising of these targets for drilling.

St George explained the gold drill program was scheduled to commence at East Laverton in March 2017, but this was delayed due to unseasonal heavy rains in the North Eastern Goldfields that caused numerous road closures by local shires, and prevented access to the East Laverton project.

One advantage to the delay was that it enables St George to add further drill targets to the program, expanding it to over 5,000m of planned drilling.

Website: www.stgm.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) released results of further sampling at the One Tree Hill prospect within the West Musgrave Project (WMP) in Western Australia, which is subject to an Earn-in/JV Agreement with OZ Minerals (ASX: OZL).

Cassini Resources said drill hole CZD0017 intersected a massive sulphide zone returning:

3.2 metres at 2.16 per cdent copper, 0.58 per cent nickel, 0.1 per cent cobalt and 1 gram per tonne PGE;

This was within a broader disseminated zone of:

34m at 1.05 per cent copper plus 0.5g/t PGE.

Cassini explained that due to time constraints only the strongest mineralisation was analysed initially.

The company has now had more thorough sampling completed through the upper or hanging-wall zone, which has returned an intercept of:

13.4m at 0.85 per cent copper from 129.6m, including 1.6m at 2.76 per cent copper from 134.9m.

The company claimed that almost the entire hole is copper anomalous (>250ppm) with numerous spikes of PGEs of approximately 0.1g/t.

Cassini considers the hangingwall mineralisation zone could possibly be substantial enough to contribute to the economic viability of the prospect, being considerably closer to surface and may also assist in vectoring towards the deeper primary magmatic sulphide body.

The company said it had been encouraged by the width of the hanging-wall anomalism, which is supportive of a large parental magmatic source.

Cassini has determined further drilling to follow-up the massive sulphide zone at the bottom of CZD0017 to be an exploration priority.

“These additional results reinforce the opportunity that we have uncovered at One Tree Hill,’ Cassini Resources managing director Richard Bevan said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“They support the company’s belief that this could be part of a much larger mineralised system and once again shows the significant exploration upside within the West Musgrave Project.

“We look forward to following this up later in 2017.”

Email: admin@cassiniresources.com.au

Website: www.cassiniresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) has updated to the Mineral Resource estimate for the Attila Open Pit, located on the Gruyere Joint Venture in Western Australia.

Gold Road is partners in a 50:50 Joint Venture in the Gruyere Joint Venture tenements with Gold Fields Limited.

The JV tenements are situated approximately 30 kilometres west of the company’s Gruyere gold project.

The new JORC C0de 2012-compliant Mineral Resource totals 6,570,900 tonnes at 1.55 grams per tonne gold for 327,300 ounces of gold.

This represents an addition of 103,200 ounces (+46%) compared to the 2015 Resource, with 91 per cent of the Mineral Resource being classified in the Measured or Indicated categories.

Gold Road explained the updated Mineral Resource includes new information derived from 2016 diamond and Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programs, which contributed to the refinement of the geological understanding at Attila.

“This update reflects the great work of the Gold Road exploration team in application of smart geology and efficient drilling to extend this historic resource,” Gold Road Resources executive director – Exploration & Growth Justin Osborne said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have more than 14 kilometres of known mineralisation along the Attila-Alaric Trend, of which we are developing a much more detailed understanding.

“Given the success at Attila, and further north at Alaric, we have a high level of confidence that other recognised zones along this Trend may offer similar upside exploration potential.

“It is an exciting time for the Joint Venture as these deposits have the potential to add significant value to the Gruyere project.

“Additionally, we have identified more than 150 kilometres along this same Trend extending into our own 100 per cent-owned North Yamarna project, and the South Yamarna project (a joint venture with Sumitomo).

“Our 2017 exploration programs will be aggressively testing this well-endowed Trend over the coming months.”

Email: perth@goldroad.com.au

Website: www.goldroad.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centrex Metals (ASX: CXM) has appointed Qube Bulk Pty Ltd to conduct a Feasibility Study for mine to ship logistics options at the company’s high-grade Ardmore phosphate rock project in Northwest Queensland.

Centrex Metals said the Feasibility Study will consider both bulk and containerised haulage options, and is expected for completion in mid-2017.

The company explained that phosphate rock from Ardmore is planned to be trucked 90 kilometres by existing roads to the Mount Isa-Townsville rail line where it will be hauled to the Port of Townsville for export.

Centrex claims Ardmore to be one of the few remaining undeveloped high-grade phosphate rate deposits in the world.

“As part of the validation of the historical drilling data to convert the Exploration Target to JORC Mineral Resources, Centrex commenced and is nearing completion of ground surveys of the drill collar locations,” Centrex Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“The survey work has revealed the historical drill holes were marked with steel pegs, with drill hole numbers etched into the steel.

“An initial ground survey has located more than half the historical drill collars, and a follow up survey will be completed in the coming weeks to locate the remainder.”

Website: www.centrexmetals.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Xanadu Mines (ASX: XAM) has commenced diamond drilling on several near-surface high-priority gold-rich porphyry copper and high-grade epithermal gold targets at the company’s 90 per cent-owned Oyut Ulaan copper-gold district located within the Dornogovi Province of southern Mongolia.

Xanadu Mines explained the new drilling program follows on from a successful exploration program carried out in 2016 that identified potential gold vein mineralisation, which the company believes broadens the range of targets at Oyut Ulaan and opens-up a whole new area for exploration.

During the recent winter months Xanadu’s geology team completed a systematic and detailed review of all existing exploration data across the entire Oyut Ulaan district.

This data was combined with new geophysical data, and modelled in three dimensions generating 47 priority ranked targets ready for drilling in 2017.

Initial drilling will focus on the first four most promising shallow targets followed by testing of some exceptional large scale porphyry targets.

“Our exploration team is keen to pick-up from where we finished off last year and believe further drilling will continue to unlock the true potential of this highly mineralised and underexplored porphyry copper-gold district,” Xanadu Mines managing director and CEO Dr Andrew Stewart said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Over the winter months we committed substantial time in the preparation and planning for our upcoming drill program at Oyut Ulaan.

“With multiple near surface drill targets, this well considered and prioritised drill program will go a long way to maximise the chance of making the significant discovery we believe exists within the large Oyut Ulaan district.”

Website: www.xanadumines.com