Gascoyne Resources drilling resampling confirms Hendricks discovery

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) has been able to confirm the recent gold discovery at the Hendricks prospect, part of the company’s 80 per cent-owned Dalgaranga gold project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

Gascoyne has received 1m resampling assay results from the discovery Aircore hole from the Hendricks prospect.

Three aircore lines of drilling were completed over the target, with the Aircore intersection causing all the fuss coming from drillhole DGAC303.

The 1m resampling of the original composite intersection returned a slightly longer (1m) zone of:

12 metres at 2.2 grams per tonne gold from 35m to the EOH, including 2m at 11.3g/t gold for the interval from 35 to 37m.

Individual 1m assays splits returned grades from repeats of 21.1g/t, 10.3g/t and 14g/t gold.

Within the same hole an upper gold mineralised zone returned from 1m resampling an interval of:

12m at 0.8g/t from 6m.

The Dalgaranga gold project contains a Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 23 million tonnes at 1.4g/t gold for 1.02 million ounces of contained gold.

The Hendricks discovery drilling was part of a program designed to test multiple high-priority targets in the vicinity of the one million ounce Resource base at Dalgaranga.

Earlier this year, Gascoyne announced the intersection of gold zones at a number of prospects including Hendricks, Beefeater, Vickers, Golden Wings, Gilbeys North and Tanqueray.

The company considers all these to have potential, with further exploration, to lead to additional discoveries and future Mineral Resource growth at Dalgaranga.

Prior to this recent exploration drilling by Gascoyne, there had virtually been no drilling conducted outside the known deposits at Dalgaranga since the mid-1990s.

“Planning is well advanced to follow up the Hendricks gold discovery,” Gascoyne Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The follow-up drilling will be a combination of aircore and RC to test the mineralisation at depth and along strike.”

The Dalgaranga Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) is on schedule for completion in the current quarter.

An update to the Golden Wings Resource is imminent, and when completed it will be incorporated into the PFS.

The company explained the PFS is investgating the establishment of a 2.5 million tonnes per annum processing plant on site, which recent pit optimisation studies suggest will result in production of approximately 100,000 ounces per annum for six to seven years.

Email: admin@gascoyneresources.com.au

Website: www.gascoyneresources.com.au

On The Drill Bit

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Companies getting busy to get drilling this week include, Alloy Minerals, Azure Minerals, Lodestar Minerals, and Metminco.

2016 Exploration Program kicks off at Horse Well

Alloy Resources (ASX: AYR) advised the market that managing Joint Venture partner Doray Minerals (ASX: DRM) has commenced the 2016 drilling campaign at the Horse Well gold project.

Doray recently earned a 60 per cent interest in the project and Alloy is funding its 40 per cent interest.

The Joint Venture has commenced an exploration program costing at least $2 million in 2016 at the Project, including initially;

• Infill air-core drilling of the Django anomalies (approximately 5,300 metres), and

• Air-core drilling of prospective areas of the Celia Shear zone south of Warmblood prospect (approximately 9,000 metres).

• RC drill testing of identified priority air-core anomalies in the June Quarter (up to 4,500 metres).

“The Horse Well project is one of the few well-funded emerging gold exploration projects in Australia,” Alloy Minerals executive chairman Andy Viner said.

“New discoveries have been made with each drill program completed so far and we are confident that this will continue with the planned programs.

“This current program has started with 200 metre by 50 metre infill air-core drilling at the exciting Django discovery, with the aim to define the best RC drill targets here for further testing in the early part of the June quarter.

“We are very pleased that these strong geochemical anomalies at Django will be tested in this phase of drilling”

Drilling approved for Loma Bonita

Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has been given the nod for the Phase 4 drilling program at the company’s Alacrán project, located in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

Targets to be tested in this program include Loma Bonita, Cerro Enmedio, and a newly identified prospect in the southern part of the project area called Cerro Colorado, which Azure considers to have potential for porphyry-related mineralisation.

The number of holes and meterage to be drilled is dependent upon results.

The first stage of this drilling campaign will be focused on testing the Loma Bonita prospect, where extensive, high gold and silver grades were identified by surface sampling last year.

This mineralisation is hosted in residual quartz (both vuggy and strongly silicified) similar to that which hosts the silver mineralisation at Mesa de Plata.

The drill rig has been mobilised to site and drilling of the first hole has commenced.

Cerro Enmedio is located just south of Loma Bonita, and presents as a strong IP chargeability anomaly situated at a depth of between 300m to 500m below surface.

Big Sky Drill Program

Lodestar Minerals (ASX: LSR) has received approval from the Department of Mines & Petroleum for the Program of Works (POW) submitted earlier this month for the upcoming RC drill program at the Big Sky gold prospect in Western Australia.

Big Sky is located within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Camel Hills project.

The POW approval will enable Lodestar to complete a 1,400 metre RC program of around 20 holes, with the deepest hole planned to extend to a depth of 170m.

Drilling will targeting extensions to the high‐ grade lode where previous RAB and RC drilling returned a number of ore grade intercepts, including:

6 metres at 20.3 grams per tonne gold from 21m; and

6m at 6.6g/t gold from 13m.

A drilling company has now been contracted to complete the RC program, which has indicated drilling could start at the end of February, subject to weather conditions at the Camel Hills project area.

Should this timeline be met, results from the program would be expected in the second half of March.

Diamond Drilling Commences at Los Calatos

Metminco Limited (ASX: MNC) has commenced diamond drilling at the TD2 Target at the company’s Los Calatos project in Southern Peru.

The TD2 Target is located to the southwest of the main Los Calatos deposit on a ‘structural bend’ of the southernmost bounding fault that constrains the extent of the Los Calatos Porphyry Complex.

In 2010 a Titan-24 geophysical survey was completed over parts of the Los Calatos project area.

Two of these lines (L10300W and L11100W) traverse the TD2 Target area which have identified sub-surface magnetotelluric anomalies that persist below the main Los Calatos deposit.

There is also a ground magnetic anomaly that is coincident with both the Los Calatos deposit and TD2 Target.

From this the company has concluded the TD2 Target shares many similarities with the key features that characterise the presence of mineralisation at the Los Calatos Porphyry Complex, which in turn supports its basis for the current drilling.

“The drilling of the hydrothermal breccia at TD2 is important, as it has the potential to increase the resource base at Los Calatos, and with it to enhance the economics of any future mine development.” Metminco managing director William Howe said.

“In parallel the process of securing a funding partner is progressing, with a number of interested parties undertaking due diligence, with further site visits planned.”

Lithium Australia confirms high-grade pegmatites at Ravensthorpe

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Lithium Australia (ASX-LIT) has taken receipt of assay results from maiden rock-chip sampling and mapping carried out at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Ravensthorpe project, west of Esperance in southern Western Australia.

LIT claims the results have confirmed the presence of high-grade lithium pegmatites.

The company focussed the recent fieldwork on detailed examination of known lithium pegmatites.

The project contains a mix of simple, barren quartz-feldspar muscovite pegmatites, zoned barren quartz-feldspar-muscovite-schorl pegmatites and zoned lithium pegmatites.

The lithium pegmatites contain the lithium mica minerals lepidolite and zinnwaldite, as massive pods and disseminations within quartz-lepidolite core-zones

A total of 21 rock-chip samples were collected (R001 to R021) from pegmatites, mostly from areas known as Quarry and Horseshoe, which were the main areas of interest in this initial fieldwork.

Most (19) of the samples were of lithium mineralisation but two samples were of mica that previous explorers had identified as zinnwaldite but that appeared more likely to be muscovite.

The assay results confirmed that the mica was not zinnwaldite.

According to Lithium Australia the assay results confirm the pink, purple, lilac or grey micas to be lithium enriched.

“It is surprising that such prospective pegmatites have had such little recent evaluation,” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The area has the potential to add significant quantities of lithium mica to our inventory and become an integral part of our plan to establish a processing facility for lithium micas in Western Australia using ground-breaking, low-energy processing technologies to recover lithium as carbonate or hydroxide for the battery industry.”

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Website: www.lithium-au.com

Pioneer Resources drilling moves towards gold Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pioneer Resources (ASX: PIO) released final assay results from three phases of drilling completed between October and December 2015 at the company’s 100 per cent-held Acra gold project, located northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

During the final quarter of 2015, Pioneer completed over 5,000 metres of drilling – including 3,936m of aircore (AC – generating new targets), 1,263m of reverse circulation (RC – for mineralisation definition) and 235m of diamond core drilling (for structural and ore-genesis information).

Aircore hole KPAC015 returned 3m at 0.8 grams per tonne gold from 42m.

Pioneer said this had confirmed the Kalpini South mineralised structure extends for at least a further 100m.

Thick intersections of gold mineralisation were also encountered in RC drill holes KSRC031: 9m at 6.17g/t gold from 60m, and KSRC032: 7m at 1.92g/t gold from 106m, which Pioneer claims to demonstrate the presence of premium supergene gold mineralisation from a depth of 35m below surface, with vertical continuity to at least 100m below surface.

The company explained holes KSRC031 and KSRC032 are the start of the program to infill the Kalpini South deposit, to enable a Mineral Resource Estimate to be completed.

Pioneer expects to drill the balance of holes required during the second quarter of 2016.

“The drilling results have provided firm steps forward for the Acra gold project, demonstrating it to be a significant value-adding asset that is in its growth phase, with extensions and discoveries continuing to be revealed, Pioneer Resources managing director David Crook said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We will commit to drilling programs to reach the next commercial decision point as soon as possible.”

Website: www.pioresources.com.au

Breaker Resources drilling to confirm Bombora gold discovery

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) informed the market it has commenced RC drilling on the Bombora prospect, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Lake Roe project, located east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The drilling will be focusing on an exploration target of high-grade gold mineralisation hosted primarily by an 800 metre-thick fractionated dolerite situated in a setting in the Claypan Shear Zone between the Carosue Dam and Karonie gold deposits.

Breaker completed aircore drilling in July/August 2015, which identified a 6km-long gold system under thin transported cover with grades up to 22.44 grams per tonne gold.

It then carried out two subsequent phases of infill aircore drilling in the southern part of the system – the Bombora prospect, which the company said had confirmed the scope for a major new discovery by upgrading the continuity, density and extent of mineralisation.

Breaker has kicked off a 35-hole program of RC drilling at the Bombora prospect with the stated objective of confirming a potentially major greenfields gold discovery.

The drill program is anticipated to be completed by early March 2016, although Breaker indicated this could vary in response to new information.

“Based on the results to date and the wide drill hole spacing used to get them, we believe there is more gold to be found both in the dolerite and in the vicinity of the Claypan Shear,” Breaker Resources executive chairman Tom Sanders said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The scale and continuity is unusual but arguably not surprising given the exceptional structural setting.

“We have only tested a third of the gold system, which appears to be six kilometres long.

“I believe that drilling through transported cover and using geochemistry to scope out gold deposits will become more common given the dearth of remaining outcropping deposits.

“Fortunately, the cover is thin at Bombora and the mineralisation is in a configuration that is conducive to mining should high gold grades persist in the primary (fresh) zone.

“The RC drilling will address this fundamental question.”

Email: breaker@breakerresources.com.au

Website: www.breakerresources.com.au

Blackham Resources piles up more base feed Resources at Williamson

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has upgraded Resources at the Williamson Mining Centre, which is part of the company’s Matilda gold project. In Western Australia.

The resource update includes a revision of the geological interpretation and additional drilling of five diamond and 41 Reverse Circulation (RC) holes Blackham carried out in late 2015.

The new Williamson Resource estimate (including the Williamson South deposit) is:

7.1 million tonnes at 1.6 grams per tonne gold for 360,000 ounces, of which 3.3 million tonnes at 1.62g/t gold for 171,000 ounces is now in the Indicated category.

“The Williamson/Lake Way area is expected to be an important source of base load free milling ore to extend the mine life of the project,” Blackham Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Williamson is a bulk-tonnage gold deposit with geological similarities to Thunderbox (Saracen Mineral Holdings ASX: SAR)) and Gruyere (Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR)) elsewhere in the Yilgarn region.”

The Matilda gold project now boasts 45 million tonnes at 3.2g/t gold for 4.7 million ounces of Resource all within a 20 kilometres radius of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wiluna gold plant.

The project includes four large geological systems within the Wiluna Goldfield including the Matilda, Quartz Reefs, Wiluna and Lake Way systems.

Measured and indicated resources now total 21 million tonnes at 3.4g/t gold for 2.3 million ounces.

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

Azure Minerals finds new silver zone

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) has claimed discovery of a new zone of high-grade silver mineralisation to the north of the Mesa de Plata silver mineralised zone at the company’s Alacrán project in Mexico.

Azure has identified an area of 350m x 150m north of Mesa de Plata that remains open along strike to the north.

Sample No. Sample Length Sample Type Silver (g/t)
ALR-2569 4.5m Rock chip channel sample 1,902
ALR-2570 3.2m Rock chip channel sample 1,511
ALR-2568 2.7m Rock chip channel sample 698
ALR-2578 2.3m Rock chip channel sample 449
ALR-2572 3.5m Rock chip channel sample 323
ALR-2587 2.7m Rock chip channel sample 180
ALR-2603 2.5m Rock chip channel sample 154
ALR-2584 2.4m Rock chip channel sample 152
ALR-2577 3.7m Rock chip channel sample 133

Azure has completed a two-stage sampling program across these outcrops, collecting 56 rock chip channel samples, the majority of which returned high-grade silver assays (37 of 56 samples returned silver grades greater than 30g/t silver with 12 samples returning greater than 100g/t silver).

The company said it had been encouraged by silver mineralisation being present throughout the MDP Norte plateau adding the tenor of silver grades are higher than those returned from surface sampling of the nearby Mesa de Plata ridge.

“Our ongoing exploration activities throughout the Alacrán property continue to generate positive results for additional silver and gold prospects,” Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“In this case, sampling to the north of Mesa de Plata has returned some of the highest silver grades so far encountered at Alacrán.

“We’ve submitted permit applications and we’re looking forward to drilling this exciting prospect as soon as possible.”

Email: admin@azureminerals.com.au

Website: www.azureminerals.com.au

S2 Resources resource definition drilling confirms Baloo gold

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: S2 Resources (ASX: S2R) announced the completion of resource definition drilling at Baloo gold deposit, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Polar Bear project in Western Australia.

S2R said the final RC assays confirm prior drill results with drilling at the southern end of the prospect confirming the presence of a high-grade lode which is open down plunge to the south.

Assay results for 117 holes have been received showing gold mineralisation occurs in at least two structures (the Main Zone and Footwall Zone) as well as within a number of flat lying ‘supergene’ layers in the hanging wall (to the east side) of the Main Zone.

The Main Zone has been defined over a strike length of 450 metres, which the company said includes a central ‘sweet spot’ within the oxide zone averaging approximately 40m thick, 80m along strike and 80m down dip.

Results from the oxide and transitional zone within the new RC drilling include:

SPBC0236
20 metres at 2.28 grams per tonne gold from 4m;

SPBC0243
17m at 2.13g/t gold from 4m and 8m at 2.38g/t gold from 26m;

“The company’s strategy for Baloo is to define a modest resource and scope its potential to provide cash flow with minimal capital expenditure requirement,” S2 Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“To this end, a mineral resource estimate for the near surface mineralisation delineated to date is anticipated to be completed by mid-March.

“The outcomes of this will form the basis of a scoping study to evaluate its viability for open pit mining and processing either by toll treatment or heap leaching.

“The shallow, wide, and soft characteristics of the central part of the mineralized zone are characteristics that lend themselves well to such scenarios.

“To this end, heritage and environmental surveys have already been completed.”

Email: admin@s2resources.com.au

Website: www.s2resources.com.au

Gascoyne Resources encounters multiple gold zones at Dalgaranga

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) is feeling rather pleased having received final assay results from a program of aircore exploration drilling from December last year at the company’s 80 per cent-owned Dalgaranga gold project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

The Dalgaranga gold project contains a Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 23 million tonnes at 1.4 grams per tonne gold for 1.02 million ounces of contained gold.

Following the Hendricks gold discovery in January, Gascoyne designed the follow up aircore program to test multiple high priority targets in the vicinity of the one million ounce Resource base at Dalgaranga, which it considers t have the potential, with further exploration, to lead to additional discoveries and future Mineral Resource growth at Dalgaranga.

The company said the discovery of the additional gold zones intersected at the Beefeater, Vickers and Gilbeys North prospects strengthens its belief the Dalgaranga project has potential to grow with further drilling.

Gilbeys North
Drilling targeted shallow mineralisation areas northeast of the Gilbeys deposit with the best intersection returned being:

8 metres at 3.6 grams per tonne gold from 24m in DGAC384 which lies more than 500m along strike from the northern limit of the current Gilbeys resource.

The area has only been partly tested and Gascoyne has further follow up work planned to evaluate this mineralisation.

Beefeater
The drilling was focussed on testing a poorly tested one kilometre-long east west trending RAB anomaly from historical drilling that lies 1.5km south of the Golden Wings deposit and 2.5km north-east of the Gilbeys deposit.

Six north-south orientated aircore lines were completed at 100m to 200m line spacings.

Best results here included the intersection of a shallow interval of 13m at 0.9g/t gold from 16m to the EOH in DGAC323, including 4m at 1.6g/t gold from 16m.

One hundred metres to the east aircore hole DGAC328 intersected 4m at 0.4g/t gold from 20m to the EOH confirming a bedrock anomaly trending east – west in very shallow drilling that remains untested to the east and west.

Vickers
Aircore drilling targeted untested areas west and north of the historic Vickers prospect.

Drilling was completed on 3 north-south orientated lines with a number of anomalous gold zones intersected.

Results included:
4m at 1.4g/t gold from 12m in DGAC357;

8m at 0.7g/t gold from 60m to EOH in DGAC358; and

12m at 0.5g/t gold from 48m in DGAC378.

Gascoyne said it was well-advanced with planning to follow up the Hendricks gold discovery and these latest results.

The follow-up drilling will be a combination of aircore and RC to test the mineralisation at depth and along strike.

Program of works (POW’s) have been submitted to and approved by the Department of Mines and Petroleum for the planned drilling which is expected to commence in March.

“The first regional exploration completed at the project for around 20 years has been a great success, confirming the potential of the region, with the discovery of the Hendricks mineralised shear, identification of a bedrock east west mineralised trend at Beafeater and significant mineralisation intersected at Gilbeys North and Vickers,” Gascoyne Resources managing director Michael Dunbar said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This exploration along with the recent RC drilling at Golden Wings and the ongoing Pre-Feasibility study support the company’s belief that Dalgaranga project is one of the best undeveloped gold projects in the Murchison.”

Email: admin@gascoyneresources.com.au

Website: www.gascoyneresources.com.au

Doray Minerals starts open pit mining at Deflector

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Doray Minerals (ASX:DRM) announced it has kicked off open pit mining at the company’s Deflector gold project.

Doray trumpeted the commencement of mining at Deflector as a milestone in the company’s plans to become a multi-mine high-grade gold producer.

Doray advisesd its open pit contractor, MACA Ltd (ASX: MLD) recently completed the first blast in the Deflector open pit and has commenced open pit mining operations during February, as forecast.

“The commencement of open pit mining represented another significant milestone in the rapid development of the Deflector project and came less than a year after completing the takeover of Mutiny Gold in March 2015,” Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are very excited to have officially commenced mining operations at Deflector, our second high-grade Western Australia gold operation, and look forward to bringing production online over the coming months.”

The Deflector gold project is a high-grade/low-cost gold-copper project with an initial mine life of six years and exploration upside.

Key remaining development milestones at Deflector are the commencement of ore commissioning of the new processing plant, in May, and the commencement of underground mining, scheduled for June.

Following construction and commissioning of Deflector in mid-2016, Doray is forecasting combined production from Andy Well and Deflector of 140,000 ounces per annum (plus copper and silver) and is targeting an average all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of less than $1,000 per ounce (after by-product credits) across the two projects.

Website: www.dorayminerals.com.au