THE DRILL SERGEANT: Vector Resources has received the first batch of assay results from a high priority drilling campaign being undertaken as part of the Phase 1 RC program at the company’s Mt Dimer project in Western Australia.

Priority holes of the Phase 1 drilling have targeted near mine locations of Lightning, Anomaly 2, Silver Wing and Golden Slipper South.

Mt Dimer tenements cover more than 2,029 hectares and the project currently hosts a JORC compliant measured, indicated and inferred resource of 377,200 tonnes at 5.8 grams per tonne gold for 70,230 ounces of contained gold.

The results of the drilling program received to date have identified substantial mineralisation at depth and along the strike of Lightning, while the drilling at Anomaly 2 has identified a significant intercept that will require further delineation for resource construction,” Vector Resources said in its announcement to the ASX.

“It is anticipated that these results will increase the current resource.”

Of the priority one targets already drilled, 16 holes totalling 1,418 metres of sample results are still pending for Silver Wing and Golden Slipper South.

Lightning was discovered during the sterilisation drilling for the Golden Slipper waste dump.

Vector said the drilling at Lightning has demonstrated mineralisation continues at depth and along strike.

Intercepts of note achieved during the drilling include:

–    6 metres at 24.81 grams per tonne gold inclusive of:-

–    1m at 136g/t gold, 4m at 20.98g/t gold, 7m at 13.07g/t gold, 10m at 14.39g/t gold, 9m at 10.18g/t gold, 7m at 5.28g/t gold, 18m at 2.86g/t gold, and 6m at 3.99g/t gold.

Anomaly 2 contains several zones of mineralisation and lies approximately one kilometre to the east of Lightning.

Vector said the current drilling had enhanced its understanding of the geology and mineralisation of the Anomaly 2 prospect;

Significant intercepts received from Anomaly 2 include:

–    4 metres at 21.71 grams per tonne gold from 50 metres inclusive of:-

–    1m at 11.85g/t from 50m, 1m at 28.90g/t from 51m, 1m at 19.40g/t from 52m, and 1m at 26.70g/t from 53m.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: White Rock Minerals is currently undertaking a drilling program on its 100 per cent owned Mt Carrington project in northern New South Wales.

The program has been designed to expand the current shallow Inferred Resource base of the project of 190,000 ounces of gold and 10 million ounces of silver.

Drilling has been spread across a number of targets within the Mt Carrington project area.

Positive assays received from the first hole of a five-hole program at the White Rock silver deposit so far include results that the company has said confirms the continuity of strong silver mineralisation with widths and grade similar to what it has intersected in previous drilling.

Result from the White Rock deposit include:

–    22.5 metres at 70 grams per tonne silver from 9 metres and 28.6 metres at 69 grams per tonne silver from 28.6 metres;

–    37m at 79g/t silver from 21m and 15m at 65g/t silver from 138m;

–    81m at 82g/t silver from 82m;

–    21m at 61 g/t silver from 127m; and

–    51m at 60 g/t silver from 98m.

White Rock Minerals said the results enhance the prospect that drilling at White Rock North will lead to the definition of a new near‐surface silver Inferred Resource in addition to the existing eight million ounce silver Inferred Resource already defined at White Rock.

Assay results for the remaining 4 holes are expected in late September.

At the Lady Hampden silver‐gold deposit the company continued with the second phase of step‐out drilling with the first two holes of the nine‐hole program confirming further silver mineralisation based on field XRF and visible analysis.

“These two holes are located 300 metres to the east and down plunge of the Resource,” the company said in its announcement to the ASX.

“Assay results are expected in October and this program is anticipated to result in further extensions to the Inferred Resource.”

Earlier this month White Rock Minerals had reported it was undertaking further drilling at the Strauss‐Kylo gold deposits.

Drilling of potential extensions to the Strauss and Kylo gold Resources will be undertaken in October, as follow up to the positive results returned from holes drilled below the Strauss pit.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Brisbane-based uranium play Alligator Energy has released results from an ongoing drilling program being carried out at its Tin Camp Creek project in the Northern Territory.

Alligator has received results from two holes recently drilled at the Caramal prospect and six drill holes undertaken in the South Horn area.

Drilling at Caramal was limited in July due to a drill rig breakdown.

A second rig was sourced and used to drill the initial 6 drill holes in the South Horn area.

Drilling recommenced at Caramal in August designed to test for down dip extensions of mineralisation.

Uranium intersections at Caramal include:

–    20 metres at 2027 parts per million uranium from 24 metres and 13m at 3095ppm uranium from 2m; and

–    5m at 1184ppm uranium from 30m and 3m at 1194ppm uranium from 21m.

Mineralisation at Caramal is considered by Alligator to occur within structural breccia zones which are parallel to stratigraphy and is un-related to adjacent dolerite dykes.

“The results from recent drilling continue to confirm this model,” Alligator said in its announcement to the ASX.

“High grade mineralisation in CAD11-05 was associated with chert and chlorite breccias having strong visual similarities to the mineralised chert breccias from the Ranger No1. Orebody.”

Initial diamond drilling has been undertaken in the South Horn area with assay results received from the first six drill holes.

Four of the holes were drilled along strike from historic South Horn drill holes which intersected uranium mineralisation.

Drilling results from the South Horn Prospect include:

–    4 metres at 1061 parts per million uranium from 70 metres and 11m at 563 parts per million uranium from 41 metres;

–    2m at 1432ppm uranium from 76m and 2m at 1158 ppm uranium from  48m; and

–    5m at 978ppm uranium from 46m and 1m at 990ppm uranium from 34m.

Alligator considers a re-assessment of the area is warranted to determine the effectiveness of historic drilling orientations and the potential to intersect fracture and stockwork zones in the area.

The recent drilling has re-focused the company’s attention on the Caramal area and additional drill rigs have been engaged to accelerate drilling in September and October.

Drilling has commenced to the east of Caramal targeting potential distal strike extensions to mineralisation.

Drilling is also continuing to test down dip extensions to mineralisation to the north.

A further 2000 metres to 3000 metres of drilling is also planned in these areas in September and October.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Northern Mongolia-focused coal play Aspire Mining has identified a new coal seam formation.

The seam is located around four kilometres from the resource area at the company’s Ovoot coking coal project in Northern Mongolia.

The company currently has four drilling rigs working to determine the resource potential of the area.

Aspire has completed 5,000 metres of exploration drilling as part of its 2011 program, in addition to infill, geotechnical and hydrological drilling.

A further 5,000 metres of exploration drilling is expected by the end of calendar year 2011.

“The exploration team has now intersected coal in three holes approximately four kilometres to the north east of the existing resource area,” Aspire Mining managing director David Paull said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The coal was logged as hard, bright or sugary coal and we now need to understand the extent of this coal seam.

“We have pre-collared a number of the holes to start core drilling to get coal quality data and determine the extent and orientation of the mineralisation.

“This will indicate whether the coal shallows and thickens as we head further south towards the resource area.”

Results from the three holes – which are 1.7 kilometres apart – included:

–    A total of 2.8 metres of coal from 261 metres;

–    A total of 3.1m of coal from 366m; and

–    A total of 3.1m of coal from 338m.

Aspire has a magnetics program planned in order to determine the structure and shape of the Ovoot Basin and to aid in the identification of possible shallower coal seams.

“With this view of the coal being closer to the base of the Jurassic sediments, it is now evident that potential coal is still open to the north east and east of the existing resource area,” Paull continued.

“We are currently exploring this area as part of the extensions to the Ovoot Resource area and to further determine the potential resource.

“Currently four drilling rigs from two drilling companies are on site at Ovoot with a fifth large-capacity rig expected later in October.

“It is expected that all rigs will be available to continue drilling through the winter.”

A larger Coretech 1800 rig has recently arrived on site, which means the company is now able to drill the holes that are required to be deepend.

This will enable it to test for the potential coal seam extensions.

Aspire is also set to commence a close spaced magnetics program as a supplement to existing seismic data and to help guide interpretations.

The company is now considering ground versus airborne options to address the whole Ovoot Basin, which Aspire considers will provide it with an effective exploration targeting tool going forward.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold exploration play Bulletin Resources recently completed a program of RC drilling on its 100 per cent owned Nicolson’s gold project located near Halls Creek in northern Western Australia.
 
Two deep RC holes carried out by Bulletin have extended the high-grade Nicolson’s Footwall lode to a vertical depth approaching 300 metres.
 
Results from the final assays from the drilling at Nicolson Find have been received. Two of these holes, which targeted the down-plunge extensions of the recently discovered Footwall lode, intersected gold mineralisation including:

–    5 metres at 9.3 grams per tonne gold from 263 metres; and

–    5m at 7.4 g/t gold from 314m.

Bulleting considers these results have provided it with further confidence in the down-plunge continuity of the Nicolson’s deposit.

The company expects to complete further drilling on the Footwall lode as soon as it is able to have the RC rig returned to site.

This is currently anticipated to occur in early October.

Two additional lines of RC drilling were also completed north of the Rowdies deposit.

Rowdies is located approximately 800 metres south of the Nicolson’s pit and is one of several open pit resource targets along the main Nicolson’s host structure that have been subjected to limited testing so far.

Highlights from this drilling include:

–    4 metres at 27.5 grams per tonne gold from 57 metres; and
 
–    1m at 92.5 g/t gold from 57m;

“These highly promising down-plunge results provide us with even more confidence on the resource growth potential of Nicolson’s at depth,” Bulletin Resources managing director Marty Phillips said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
 
“The recent drill results from Rowdies and the adjoining Wagtail prospect continue to increase the likelihood for further high grade mineralisation at shallow depths. This will contribute valuable tonnages to our opening stockpiles at commissioning.”

Now that Bulletin has received all results outstanding from the recently completed drilling, the company has commenced work on updating its current resource model.

Bulletin said it expects the new resource estimate for the Nicolson’s project to be released in the first half of October.

Two drill rigs have been booked for the December quarter.

An air core rig will be used to continue the assessment of the open pit targets at Rowdies, Wagtail North and Wagtail deposits in addition to commencing the sterilisation drilling of the planned mine infrastructure and waste storage sites.