THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venturex Resources (ASX: VXR) has upgraded the Mineral Resource for the Kangaroo Caves copper-zinc deposit, part of the company’s Pilbara base metal project, located east of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The new Resource has come in at 3.55 million tonnes grading 6 per cent zinc, 0.77 per cent copper and 15.2 grams per tonne silver.

This represents an 81 per cent increase in the zinc grade and a 55 per cent increase in copper grade.

The total Resource Inventory for the Pilbara base metal project now stands at 900,000 tonnes of contained zinc.

“The company is assessing whether this zinc dominant resource can be brought into the mining inventory for the Pilbara base metal project as part of the optimisation study currently being carried out,” Venturex Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The optimisation study is focused on reducing pre-production expenditure by simplifying the project delivery and incorporating current market costs and conditions into the project economics.”

The Kangaroo Caves deposit is located approximately six kilometres south of Venturex’s Sulphur Springs deposit.

The company considers this estimate to have provided it with a better understanding of the style of mineralisation since its previous estimate as a result of the work done carried out on the Sulphur Springs deposit.

Venturex explained the Kangaroo Caves Resource was not included in the mining inventory for the Feasibility Study on Pilbara base metals project that was released in December 2012, however it is currently assessing the opportunity to include it in the mining inventory for the current Optimisation Study on the project.

Email: admin@venturexresources.com.au

Website: www.venturexresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Explaurum Limited (ASX: EXU) announced positive results from a diamond drilling program at the company’s Tampia gold project, east of Perth near the wheat belt township of Narembeen.

Explaurum picked up the Tampia gold project as part of its recent acquisition of Auzex Exploration.

In April 2015, an updated 2012 JORC Inferrred Resource was announced for the Gault prospect at the Tampia project of 310,000 ounces of gold at 2 grams per tonne gold, using a 1g/t gold cut-off and 40g/t gold top-cut.

The drilling program entailed seven diamond drill holes, five of which were drilled into the Gault resource area (M70/816) to confirm previous (1987 – 2000) drilling results and a more recent structural interpretation of the mineralisation, as well as providing metallurgical samples for test work.

Results included:

THDDH006
26.6 metres at 1.82g/t gold, including 3.2m at 6.17g/t gold from 52.8m;

THDDH007
4.3m at 1.86g/t gold from 20.6m, 5.9m at 1.05g/t gold from 49.3m and 2m at 1.81g/t gold from 80m;

THDDH009
7.7m at 2.19g/t gold from 92.3m; and

THDDH011
6m at 2.17g/t gold from 23.9m, including 2.9m at 3.45g/t gold from 27m.

Intercepts from new zones of mineralisation at Gault included:

THDDH006
7.1m at 3.54g/t gold from 117.9m; and

THDDH009
0.3m at 16.05g/t gold from 160m.

“These latest results are highly encouraging and confirm the company’s assessment of the project’s potential,” Explaurum Limited managing director John Lawton said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Follow-up RC drilling, both within the resource area and potential extensions to the north, together with detailed metallurgical test work of the known mineralisation, as well as assessment of regional targets, are planned to commence in October.

“The bottle roll assay results as a precursor to the initial metallurgical test work program have returned very promising results and indicate that the bulk of the known mineralisation will prove to be mostly ‘free milling’ adding significantly to the project’s economic potential for a toll treatment or standalone operation.

“The analytical, structural and lithological information gained from the short core program at Tampia has proven valuable in understanding the controls on mineralisation and highlighting the potential of the Gault prospect and surrounding areas.”

Email: info@explaurum.com.au

Website: www.explaurum.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Atherton Resources (ASX: ATE) has hit some impressive zinc intersections – outside the existing Mineral Resource – while drilling at the company’s King Vol project in Queensland.

In its release to the ASX Atherton claimed the drilling had encountered hits of up to 50 per cent zinc, which it said will form part of the next resource estimate for the project.

This estimate will be included in a feasibility study due for completion in March 2016.

“The latest intersections from four holes will extend both the King Vol Zone and Eastern Mineralised Replacement Zone,” Atherton Resources said.

The latest assay results include:

Eastern Mineralised Replacement Zone (EMRZ)

KVD133
1.65 metres at 50.3 per cent zinc from 325.1m;

KVD133
1.75m at 16.9 per cent zinc from 339.35m.

King Vol Zone (KVZ)

KVD134
1.9m at 21.3 per cent zinc from 290m;

KVD132
2m at 9.6 per cent zinc and 5 per cent lead from 185m.

The drilling also returned high-grade intercepts from locations within the existing Inferred Resource boundary associated with the principal mineralised structure at King Vol, the Eastern Mineralised Contact Zone.

These assay results include:

Eastern Mineralised Contact Zone (EMCZ)

KVD133
3.05m at 19.4 per cent zinc from 486.5m;

KVD133
1.1m at 15.6 per cent zinc from 444m;

KVD132
0.3m at 17.9 per cent zinc from 310.8m.

King Vol is a high-grade zinc deposit with a combined Mineral Resource of 2.99 million tonnes at a grade of 11.9 per cent zinc, 0.8 per cent copper, 0.6 per cent lead and 29.9 grams per tonne silver.

The Mineral Resource comprises 1.05 million tonnes in the Indicated category and a further 1.94 million tonnes in the Inferred category.

Website: www.athertonresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Companies getting busy on the drill bit this week include Syndicated Metals, Pioneer Resources, and Enterprise Metals.

Borg Drilling to Commence 

Enterprise Metals (ASX: ENT) has completed a second heritage clearance survey with the Native Title Claimants for the Borg prospect, part of the company’s Doolgunna project  in the Fraser Range region of Western Australia.

As a result a planned RC drilling program can now commence, while a planned moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey at the previously cleared Vulcan – Goodins prospect has now commenced.

The company plans to test the core of the Borg target with eight to 10 RC holes of between 200 to 250 metres depth, although the drill rig now at site has 350m of rods available and holes may be deeper if base metal mineralisation is encountered.

Enterprise described Borg as a large 2.5 kilometre-long polymetallic base metal anomaly which is semi-coincident with a gravity and electromagnetic anomaly.

Enterprise believes the soil anomaly at Borg represents the oxidised expression at surface of a sediment hosted polymetallic massive sulphide body at depth.

Drilling Underway at the Acra gold project

Pioneer Resources (ASX: PIO) announced that drilling has commenced at the Kalpini South gold prospect, one of a number of gold targets at the company’s 100 per cent-held Acra gold project, located northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The program consists of two diamond drill core holes, and up to nine reverse circulation (RC) percussion holes designed to test for high-grade primary and supergene gold mineralisation.

The first of the core holes is underway.

The Acra gold project is one of Pioneer’s three key exploration assets.

The other two are the Fairwater nickel project in the Albany Fraser Orogen; and the Blair Dome nickel project between Kalgoorlie and Kambalda. All are within Western Australia.

When the two Kalpini South diamond drill core holes are complete, the drilling rig will mobilise to the Fairwater nickel project, with drilling planned to start during the last week of September 2015.

New Regional Drilling in North Queensland

Syndicated Metals (ASX: SMD) has commenced a new regional exploration drilling program across four high-priority exploration targets the company recently identified within its copper-gold portfolio in North Queensland.

A Reverse Circulation drill rig has been mobilised to the Neptune area within the Mount Remarkable project area and commenced drilling.

Syndicated has recently completed follow-up detailed soil sampling and geological mapping over VTEM anomalies to refine the drill targets after earlier completing a regional airborne VTEM survey across its 100 per cent-owned Northern Hub project.

The overall objective of this program is to delineate additional copper resources within a 10 to 25 kilometre radius of the Barbara copper-gold project, where a Feasibility Study is being progressed by the company’s joint venture partner, CopperChem Limited.

Exploration is targeting both high-grade Barbara-style deposits as well as larger, IOCG-style deposits associated with the Mt Remarkable Fault.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) has completed a JORC 2012-compliant update to the company’s 100 per cent-owned Yamarna Belt Mineral Resources.

The company explained that all open pit Mineral Resources are constrained within $1,600 per ounce gold optimised pit shells.

Gold Road made particular note that the update means it no longer reports any JORC 2004 Mineral Resources.

The updated Resource now totals 134.31 million tonnes at 1.41 grams per tonne gold for a total of 6.07 million ounces of gold.

This represents a three per cent decrease in tonnes, an 8 per cent increase in grade and a 7 per cent increase in metal compared to the previous Resource.

The updated Resource also includes 100.03 million tonnes at 1.4g/t gold for 4.5 million ounces in the Measured and Indicated resource categories, representing 74 per cent of the total resource metal.

The company said this mineral Resource is based on an update to the Gruyere deposit and an update of the Attila Trend (Attila and Alaric) Mineral Resources.

Central Bore remains unchanged from the previous estimate.

“I would like to congratulate the Gold Road team on completing the latest Gruyere Mineral Resource for use in our Pre‐feasibility Study, highlighted by a significant grade increase which adds further upside to this very exciting project,” Gold Road Resources executive director Justin Osborne said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are also pleased to have updated our entire Yamarna Mineral Resource to JORC 2012 standards, which adds additional rigour and quality to our resource base, and now provides additional resources in the Attila Trend deposits that can potentially contribute to extending the mine life of our Gruyere project.”

Email: perth@goldroad.com.au

Website: www.goldroad.com.au