THE DRILL SERGEANT: Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has encountered a zone of strong and consistent gold and silver mineralisation in the first hole drilled on the Loma Bonita ridge, located 300m east of the company’s Mesa de Plata silver discovery in Mexico.

Drill hole MDPD-007 intersected:

20 metres at 1.52 grams per tonne gold and 62g/t silver (193g/t silver equivalent) from surface;

This included:

10.7m at 2.76g/t gold and 66g/t silver (287g/t silver equivalent) from surface.

Azure indicated this hole to be located mid-way along the Loma Bonita ridge in an area characterised by outcropping vuggy silica, silicified volcanic rocks and siliceous breccias, which returned numerous gold and silver assays from surface sampling in October last year.

Geological mapping carried out by the company has shown the rock units at surface are sub-horizontal, possibly with a shallow north-easterly dip.

Azure explained this meant it stood to reason that MDPD-007 should be drilled vertically.

The upper 15 to 20m of the hole is within an oxide zone, characterised by strongly weathered rocks with consistent gold and silver mineralisation throughout this zone.

Beneath this gold and silver mineralised zone, the rocks are predominantly silicified and quartzveined dacite and hydrothermal breccias.

Of note was the intersection of a 26.9m wide zone containing disseminated and veinlets of a copper sulphide (possibly chalcocite) mineralisation grading 0.29 per cent copper hosted in breccia between 75.1m to 102.0m, including a 3m wide zone which returned an intercept of 1.55 per cent copper.

It was not much of a surprise that Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira described the gold intersection as being, “very positive for the mineral potential of the project”.

“This result strongly complements the nearby Mesa de Plata silver deposit and confirms the prospectivity of the Mesa de Plata – Loma Bonita area for hosting a large precious metal mineralised system,” Rovira said in Azures Minerals announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Significantly, the mineralisation is situated at surface within oxidised rocks, as is the nearby Mesa de Plata silver mineralisation.

“I am confident that our ongoing exploration will continue to reveal more significant occurrences of silver and gold mineralisation in this locale and within the greater Alacrán project area.

“Further to the description of the geology provided in the announcement to the ASX on 7 March, the four holes completed to date all intersected near-surface silicification underlain by large widths of breccia.

“Preliminary interpretation is that this breccia represents part of a feeder system that may be the conduit for the introduction of the silver and gold mineralisation at Mesa de Plata and Loma Bonita.

“The intensity of brecciation, the degree of silicification, and the sulphide content appears to increase from south to north, into the area where we are currently drilling.

“The discovery of gold has significantly enhanced the Mesa de Plata – Loma Bonita area, and is testament to the enormous mineral potential within the overall property.”

Email: admin@azureminerals.com.au

Website: www.azureminerals.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) updated the market in relation to RC and aircore drill results from the Bombora prospect, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Lake Roe project, located east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The drilling has been targeting high-grade gold mineralisation hosted by a thick fractionated dolerite situated in a domal geometry between the Claypan and Keith-Kilkenny shear zones.

The Bombora prospect is situated in the southern part of a six kilometre-long greenfields gold system that Breaker identified below thin transported cover by aircore drilling in late 2015.

Further high-grade gold was encountered by the company in a December 2015 aircore drill program, including:

BAC1032
7 metres at 2.58 grams per tonne gold from 29m, including 2m at 8.38g/t gold and 1m at 16.12g/t gold;

BAC0989
4m at 3.66g/t gold from 24m, including 2m at 7.01g/t gold and 1m at 13.52g/t gold;

BAC0988
1m at 6.12g/t gold from 27m;

BAC1014
3m at 2.37g/t gold from 27m, including 2m at 2.71g/t gold;

BAC1061
12m at 1.46g/t gold from 39m, including 4m at 3.19g/t gold and 2m at 5.55g/t gold; and

BAC1072
4m at 1.35g/t gold from 71m, including 1m at 3.37g/t gold.

Breaker explained the RC drilling program is systematically assessing the full strike-length of dolerite-hosted mineralisation at Bombora.

The company indicated the general strategy of the RC drilling to be the assessment of the grade, geometry and continuity of gold mineralisation in the primary (fresh) zone and relate it to oxide (aircore) drill intersections, many of which terminate in mineralisation.

Interim assay results from the initial 12 drill holes of a 36-hole RC drill program include:

BBRC0009
10m at 2.78g/t gold from 38m, including 2m at 10.74g/t gold and 1m at 19.33g/t gold;

BBRC0002
7m at 2.95g/t gold from 74m, including 4m at 5.08g/t gold and 2m at 7.58g/t gold;

BBRC0012
12m at 1.88g/t gold from 192m, including 7m at 2.86g/t gold and 2m at 3.78g/t gold; and

BBRC0001
5m at 3.69g/t gold from 29m, including 3m at 5.23g/t gold.

According to Breaker Resources executive chairman Tom Sanders, the RC drilling achieved its key objective, which was to establish the presence of high-grade primary mineralisation on a wide reconnaissance drill hole spacing.

“As our understanding of the gold system develops, my expectation is that we will see more high-grade gold results as we begin to identify and track the mineralisation,” Sanders said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The distances we are covering with our drilling are large and the scale is deceptive.

“For this reason, any high grade gold results encountered are of significance.

“Given the size of the oxide footprint and the high grades we are achieving at depth, it is clear that Lake Roe is emerging as a significant greenfields discovery.

“We now know high-grade primary mineralisation is the source of the extensive mineralisation we have outlined over a 6km strike length.”

Email: breaker@breakerresources.com.au

Website: www.breakerresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Peel Mining has kicked off drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Apollo Hill gold project near Leonora in Western Australia.

Peel plans to conduct an exploration program to test for extensions to existing gold mineralisation.

Drilling is being completed to assess the potential to expand Apollo Hill’s JORC inferred resource estimate of 17.2 million tonnes at 0.9 grams per tonne gold for 505,000 ounces of gold (using a 0.5g/t gold cut-off).

Peel indicated drilling has just finished at its recent Wirlong copper discovery, as part of JOGMEC’s Year 2 farm-in activities.

“Planning for Year 3 investigations is advanced and Peel anticipates activities at Wirlong resuming in April/May 2016,” Peel Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“Follow-up of high grade copper mineralisation in WLDD001 and WLRCDD015 will be the priority.

“As previously reported, recent drilling at Wirlong, funded via JOGMEC, intersected multiple significant mineralised intervals, confirming a new and potentially important high-grade copper discovery.

“Mineralisation intersected to date has the typical geochemical, geological and mineral/alteration assemblages of ‘Cobar-style’ deposits.”

Email: info@peelmining.com.au

Website: www.peelmining.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) has reported early results from geological modelling and mine planning studies currently underway at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wiluna uranium project in Western Australia.

According to Toro the early signs are that Wiluna could deliver an improved mining grade at lower unit mining costs.

This would translate to an improved set of project economics Toro considers could potentially accelerate mine development.

“Optimisation work currently underway would ultimately lower the overall cost base at Wiluna, making the project more competitive on the global cost curve,” Toro Energy managing director Dr Vanessa Guthrie said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We know that Wiluna is one of the best and most advanced uranium developments in Australia, and this current phase of optimisation has shown us that there are significant opportunities to reduce the Wiluna cost base, bringing development closer as the current market recovery emerges.”

Toro explained that the pit design and inventory improvements had come about from a 20 per cent increase in mineral resources the company reported in October 2015 for Centipede and Millipede, the first two deposits to be mined at Wiluna.

The company has been encouraged by results from the first phase of detailed optimisation studies at Centipede/Millipede, which include:

A 12 per cent increase in the grade of mining inventory material to above 1000ppm;

A 31 per cent decrease in the waste-to-ore strip ratio; and

A 43 per cent reduction in waste tonnes mined.

Toro said the increases to average mining grades, together with reductions in strip ratio and waste mined may have a material positive impact on the economics of Wiluna.

“These results show that Wiluna can produce uranium concentrate at lower overall costs,” Dr Guthrie said.

“Based on these highly encouraging results we anticipate improvements in the head grade for the processing circuit leading to improved project economics.

“Having these results at Centipede/Millipede is particularly beneficial as these deposits are the basis of mining in the early years, which could make Wiluna even more attractive for development.”

Website: www.toroenergy.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX: SAR) has received results from drilling at the company’s Carosue Dam project in Western Australia.

Saracen said the results point to increases in the project’s current five-year mine life.

“These results will form part of the Resource-Reserve upgrade planned for the June Quarter,” the company explained it its ASX announcement.

“In the meantime, drilling will continue at Carosue Dam and assays will be announced as they come to hand.”

Recent drilling results include:

Karari deposit (Resurrection Lode) extended a further 100 metres down dip of the current Resource with an intersection of:

13 metres at 4.3 grams per tonne gold from 522m.

In-fill drilling carried out at Karari has confirmed earlier broader spaced drilling, new results include:

12m at 14.5g/t gold from 252m;

12m at 8.1g/t gold from 299m;

14m at 7.5g/t gold from 200m;

14m at 3.8g/t gold from 356m; and

19m at 2.8g/t gold from 275m.

Other drilling included in-fill drilling at Carosue Dam’s Deep South deposit, which returned high grade results of:

1.8m at 19.1g/t gold from 109m;

3.3m at 11.2g/t gold from 139m;

8.3m at 9.8g/t gold from 113m;

2.5m at 8.9g/t gold from 112m;

3m at 7.1g/t gold from 120m; and

5.8m at 4.5g/t gold from 107m.

Email: info@saracen.com.au

Website: www.saracen.com.au