Atherton Resources encounters big zinc at King Vol

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Atherton Resources (ASX: ATE) announced a 60.7 per cent zinc intersection over 0.55 metres outside the current resource from drilling being carried out at the company’s King Vol zinc project in north Queensland.

The company said it had also encountered other results located within the current resource.

Atherton considers the 60.7 per cent result to be of some importance being outside the current resource boundary, as it expects it will further strengthen the project’s feasibility study now underway while highlighting the high-grade nature of the King Vol mineralisation.

The assay results returned include:

Eastern Mineralised Contact Zone (EMCZ)

KVD130
13.2 metres at 11.1 per cent zinc and 0.9 per cent copper from 310.9m, including 1.5m at 20.4 per cent zinc and 0.8 per cent copper from 310.9m and 5.4m at 20.2 per cent zinc and 2.0 per cent copper from 317.8m;

KVD130
5.5m at 13.3 per cent zinc and 0.8 per cent copper from 331.4m;

KVD128
0.35m at 28.6 per cent zinc and 2.2 per cent copper from 348.4m.

King Vol Zone (KVZ)

KVD130

2.7m at 15.2 per cent zinc and 1.4 per cent copper from 206.7m, including 0.55m at 60.7 per cent zinc and 3.5 per cent copper from 208.55m.

Atherton described King Vol as 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 29.9g/t silver.

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

Atherton explained it had commenced diamond drilling at King Vol in June to increase the Indicated
Mineral Resources as part of the project’s Feasibility Study, which is due to be completed by March 2016, with first production scheduled for early 2017.

Ten of a planned 18 diamond drill holes have been completed so far.

“King Vol is going from strength to strength as we move towards first production in early 2017,” Atherton Resources managing director Tony James said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is clearly an outstanding project, technically and financially.

“The scoping study showed the project will enjoy very low capital and operating costs and will be highly leveraged to the forecast rise in zinc prices over the next couple of years.

“These latest results further enhance the project by expanding the mineralisation outside the existing resource estimate.

“The intersections will contribute to a planned new resource estimate, which will underpin the feasibility study.”

Website: www.athertonresources.com

St George intersects wide nickel zone at Desert Dragon

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) released results from initial assays received for drill holes completed at Desert Dragon Central, one of the highest priority nickel sulphide prospects at the company’s 100 per cent-owned East Laverton Property in Western Australia.

The current drilling campaign has returned intersections of nickel sulphide mineralisation at Desert Dragon Central, including several nickel sulphide stringers, which has increased St George’s confidence for a discovery of massive nickel sulphides at this prospect.

Four new drill holes were completed at Desert Dragon Central, returning nickel sulphide intersections including:

DDRDD0004
7 metres at 0.39 per cent nickel from 43m with 90ppb platinum and palladium (Pt+Pd), and 1m at 0.51 per cent nickel from 56m with 50ppb Pt+Pd;

DDRDD0005
2m at 0.44 per cent nickel from 215m with 267ppb Pt+Pd, 4m at 0.34 per cent nickel from 220m with 172ppb Pt+Pd, and 5.6m at 0.44 per cent nickel from 231m with 308ppb Pt+Pd.

“The drilling at Desert Dragon Central has successfully extended the nickel sulphide mineralisation that was discovered by DRAC35,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The mineralised zone is open to the north and south along strike, and has provided us with several massive nickel sulphide targets that we will schedule for priority follow‐up.

“This kind of geologically driven and systematic exploration is the foundation for most major discoveries, so the important progress we have achieved at Desert Dragon Central is very pleasing.”

Website: www.stgm.com.au

West African hits encouraging gold drilling new Tanlouka zone

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: West African Resources (ASX: WAF) has received encouraging results from auger drilling carried out on a new zone at the comapny’s Tanlouka gold project in Burkina Faso.

West African said the recent auger drilling at the Tanlouka project produced high-grade results just two kilometres northwest of the M5 Mineral Resource and proposed oxide starter pit, returning assays with a peak result of 12.77 grams per tonne gold from a new zone 500m west of and parallel to the M1 prospect.

The results occur over a 1.3km mineralised trend and the company indicated a program of follow-up RC drilling is imminent.

Infill auger drilling was also completed over the M2 prospect, which is located 800m west of the southern end of the proposed starter pit.

This returned a peak result of 5.28g/t gold and follow-up RC drilling is in progress.

The company also extended auger drilling on the M1 trend to cover potential north-northwest structures intersecting the north-northeast M5 trend in the southern pit area.

This returned a peak result of 1.68g/t gold adjacent to the proposed pit, along with a number of +50ppb samples.

“Auger drilling has discovered a new zone less than two kilometres northwest from the proposed oxide starter pit,” West African Resources managing director Richard Hyde said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“High-grade auger results up to 13 grams per tonne gold were returned, within an anomalous trend over 1.3 kilometres.

“The new zone, named M3, trends parallel to the M1 prospect.

“Follow-up RC drilling is planned to commence shortly.

“Infill auger drilling at the M2 prospect has also returned high-grade auger results up to five grams per tonne gold within a one kilometre east-west trend.

“Follow-up RC drilling is underway.

“Both of these areas are located close to the proposed starter pit, therefore any significant results from follow-up drilling has the potential to upgrade the economics of the oxide heap leach starter project.”

Email: info@westafricanresources.com

Website: www.westafricanresources.com

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Companies getting busy on the drill bit this week include Encounter Resources, Apollo Minerals, Ventnor Resources, and Core Exploration.

Drilling Commences under Antofagasta Earn-in Agreement

Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) announced the commencement of aircore/RC drilling at the Lookout Rocks copper project in Western Australia.

Lookout Rocks includes four tenements (approx. 450sqkm) of prospective, untested exploration ground located in the north-west of Encounter’s Yeneena project.

Exploration at Lookout Rocks is being conducted as part of the new US$6 million earn-in agreement with Antofagasta Minerals Perth.

Encounter completed a detailed helicopter based VTEM survey over a large portion of Lookout Rocks in 2014.

Interpretation of the data from this survey, in conjunction with detailed aerial photography, has outlined a tightly folded, NNW trending belt of Broadhurst Formation sediments offset by interpreted NNE trending structures.

Encounter said these are considered to be similar to the host units of the Nifty copper deposit located 25km to the north.

Drilling under the new Lookout Rocks earn-in agreement will provide initial subsurface geochemistry at key structural locations identified at Lookout Rocks.

First assays from the drilling are expected to be received in September 2015.

Fraser Range Exploration

Apollo Minerals (ASX: AON) has commenced drilling following a detailed review of its Fraser Range data-set and a work program including high-powered EM surveys.

The review of the data covering several identified targets across active tenements at the company’s Fraser Range project in Western Australia identified over ten priority targets, and ranked the Plato and Oceanus prospects as highly prospective and warranting immediate exploration, including ground based high powered EM, RAB and RC/diamond core drilling.

Other target areas are to be systematically explored in subsequent exploration programs.

Drilling at Black Dragon

Ventnor Resources (ASX: VRX) has commenced drilling at the company’s Black Dragon gold project in Western Australia.
 
The drill program is to follow up preliminary exploration carried out on an initial field trip which produced high-grade rock chip assays for gold, silver and tellurium.

“The program has been designed to test the potential for a new style of mineralisation in this exciting gold region and to investigate the strike, dip and plunge components of the prospect,” Ventnor said.

Approximately 2,000 metres of RC drilling to a nominal depth of 60 metres will be conducted as part of the program.

Results are expected in early September 2015.

Drilling Big-J at Jervois Domain

Core Exploration (ASX: CXO) has received full approvals to commence a maiden RC drilling program at the company’s Jervois Domain project in the Northern Territory.

The company has identified 14 potential drill targets on its 100 per cent‐owned Jervois Domain tenements by geophysical modelling and surveys.

Core, along with project research partner CSIRO, have analysed geophysical surveys to confirm multiple magnetic, conductive and chargeable features at large prospect scale within the Big‐J target zone.

The first drilling program on Core’s tenure is planned to comprise traverses of shallow RC vertical holes over prospective target zones and specific high priority geophysical targets Specific targets (A1 to G1) have been modelled on a series of sections along the strike length of the Big‐J curve target zone.

Lithium Australia test produces 99.57% lithium carbonate

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Perth-based lithium play Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) announced the production of more than seven kilograms of high-purity lithium carbonate from a 10 day continuous mini-plant processing trial the company recently completed at a Perth laboratory.

The trial was conducted using processing technology that has been licensed to Lithium Australia and resulted in the production of a total of 7.7kg of high-purity lithium carbonate derived from lepidolite (lithium mica) sourced from the Coolgardie Rare Metals Venture (Lithium Australia 80%, and Focus Minerals [ASX:FML]), located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Earlier this year, lithium Australia claimed its first two mini-plant tests to be the world’s first successful, continuous lithium extraction tests using hydrometallurgy on hard rock.

This process being implemented by the company was developed by Strategic Metallurgy, with which Lithium Australia has struck a strategic alliance.

“Lithium carbonate produced from the continuous mini-plant test achieved a high-purity of 99.57 per cent with 94 per cent recovery from leach liquor,” Lithium Australia said in its ASX announcement.

“Further mini-plant runs are anticipated in the near future and will include material sourced from Lithium Australia’s other projects.”

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Website: www.lithium-au.com

Beadell Resources continues encouraging drill results at Tucano

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Beadell Resources (ASX: BDR) announced new drill results from the recent Neo Lode discovery, located east of the Tap AB1 open pit, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Tucano gold mine in Brazil.

Neo Lode Discovery at Tap AB1

GCRC16565
7 metres at 17.49 grams per tonne gold, including 1m at 109.1g/t gold;

F01591
12m at 4.67g/t gold; and

GCRC16438
20m at 2.08g/t gold.

“The significance of the new results from Neo Lode is yet to be fully understood however this represents a new target horizon in the footwall that has previously been considered to be of low prospectivity,” Beadell Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The new zone remains completely open at depth and along strike.”

Beadell also announced further drill results from an additional four diamond holes drilled at Urucum Underground at Tucano.

Urucum Underground Results

FD1404
Lode 1 3.5m at 3.92g/t gold.
Lode 2 4.4m at 12.42g/t gold.

FD1414
Lode 1 6m at 8.26g/t gold, including 3m at 16.15g/t gold.
Lode 2 1.9m at 2.78g/t gold

FD1416
Lode 1 11.5m at 4.4g/t gold, including 3m at 15.63g/t gold.
Lode 2 16.5m at 4.44 g/t, gold including 12.2m at 5.5 g/t gold.

“The results continue to show good continuity of the Central Lode 1 shoot which plunges gently to the north over a strike length in excess of 500 metres,” the company said.

“Drilling at Urucum Underground will be completed at the end of August when open pit mining at Urucum North commences in earnest.

“Results from the Urucum underground drilling program will be used to complete an underground resource model that will lead into completion of prefeasibility studies by an external consulting company by the end of 2015.”

Email: info@beadellresources.com.au

Website: www.beadellresources.com.au

Krucible Metals releases Torrington tungsten update

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Krucible Metals (ASX: KRB) announced a JORC 2012-compliant updated Mineral Resource estimate for the company’s Torrington tungsten project in New South Wales.

Krucible acquired the Torrington tungsten project earlier this year from Resolve Geo Pty Ltd, which had previously estimated a combined Indicated and Inferred Resource estimate for the project of 1.164 million tonnes at 0.19 per cent tungsten for 2,247 tonnes tungsten.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Resolve was contracted to complete an update of the mineral resource, which has come in at 2.146 million tonnes at 0.23 per cent tungsten for 4,965 tonnes tungsten.

Resolve has also completed an Exploration Target estimate for Torrington based on historic workings aand previous drilling and mining records, which has been calculated to comprise 5 to 39 million tonnes at 0.063 to 0.5 per cent tungsten.

Krucible Metals said it intends undertaking an extensive RC percussion and diamond drilling program at Torrington to further delineate the existing JORC resources and to test the validity of exploration targets.

“This work will commence once all approvals are in place, which the company is led to believe by the authorities will take about six months,” Krucible Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“The company’s initial production profile as announced to ASX on 15 April, 2015 of 650,000 tonnes per annum (inclusive of dilution) at an ore grade of 0.22 per cent tungsten remains unchanged.

“The doubling of the Indicated and Inferred Resource together with the potential of the Exploration Targets provides the confidence to proceed with the planned drill program at Torrington targeting resources in excess of 10,000 tonnes of contained tungsten at a cut-off grade of 0.063 per cent tungsten.”

Email: info@kruciblemetals.com.au

Website: www.kruciblemetals.com.au

Horseshoe Metals hits high-grade copper at Horseshoe Lights

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Horseshoe Metals (ASX: HOR) attracted some market interest with the release of high-grade, shallow copper assay results from ongoing resource and exploration drilling being carried out at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Horseshoe Lights copper/gold project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.

The company’s latest assay results come from resource drill holes located in the North West Stringer Zone, where ten Reverse Circulation (RC) holes (RC1103-RC1106 and RC1132-RC1137) have been completed.

Horseshoe has received assay results from five holes (RC1132-RC1136), with each hole intersecting zones of copper mineralisation, including:

RC1135
27 metres (8–35m) at 3.4 per cent copper, including 3m (23-26m) at 17.7 per cent copper and 1m (29-30m) at 7.7 per cent copper, and 17m (54-71m) at 1.1 per cent copper, including 2m (58-60m) at 2.3 per cent copper and 1m (65-66m) at 3.2 per cent copper;

RC1134
30m (36-66m) at 1.0 per cent copper, including 3m (42-45m) at 2.2 per cent copper, 26m (73-99m) at 0.8 per cent copper and 10m (145-155m) at 0.9 per cent copper;

RC1136
14m (101-115m) at 1.1 per cent copper, including 1m (103-104m) at 2.4 per cent copper and 1m (110-111m) at 3.7 per cent copper, and 9m (133-142m) at 1.1 per cent copper;

RC1133
5m (45-50m) at 1.2 per cent copper and 11m (58-69m) at 1.3 per cent copper; and

RC1132
8m (103-111m) at 1.3 per cent copper.

Horseshoe Metals said the latest results provide greater certainty to the robustness of the existing mineral resource.

The company highlighted that the drilling had again intersected copper mineralisation outside the existing resource model at the North West Stringer Zone, which it considers to demonstrate further resource expansion potential for when it re-estimates the mineral resource later this year to include the results from this drilling program.

“The results from these drill holes in the North West Stringer Zone are considered very positive as they appear to confirm and expand the extent of copper mineralisation when compared with earlier drilling results,” Horseshoe Metals explained in its ASX announcement.

“RC1135 was drilled to test the upper portion of an unsurveyed historical drill hole (RC557B) and was collared approximately 10 metres from RC557B’s recorded location.

“A comparison of the significant mineralised intervals…shows that RC1135 has wider zones of copper mineralisation with higher grades than recorded in RC557B, which will clearly upgrade the existing copper mineral resource blocks in this part of the deposit.”

Website: www.horseshoemetals.com.au

Altona Mining adds two years to Little Eva through Turkey Creek

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Altona Mining (ASX: AON) has received results for a pit optimisation study carried out on the newly discovered Turkey Creek deposit at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Cloncurry copper project near Mt Isa in Queensland.

The study has calculated the oxide and sulphide Mineral Resource at Turkey Creek that falls within the optimum pit to be:

17.3 million tonnes at 0.51 per cent copper for 87,000 tonnes of contained copper.

When only the sulphide ore is taken into consideration the Mineral Resource within the pit stands at:

10.6 million tonnes at 0.47 per cent copper for 50,000 tonnes of contained copper.

The company identified these to be potentially mineable resources, although it also indicated they are yet to be classified as Ore Reserves.

Altona has completed metallurgical testwork on the sulphide mineralisation only.

The company added that further metallurgical drilling, definitive testwork, geotechnical and mine designs are required to bring the Mineral Resource to Ore Reserve status.

Altona intends undertaking these studies in coming months.

The company considers the integration of the Turkey Creek deposit into the Little Eva project, which is projected to involve a seven million tonnes per annum processing facility, has the potential to add up to 2.5 years mine life to the current 11 year mine life.

“The study demonstrates that mine life at Little Eva will easily exceed 11 years and that the mining and treatment of the copper oxide mineralisation through the proposed Little Eva plant, even at low recoveries, could add significant value to the project,” Altona Mining managing director Dr Alistair Cowden said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Numerous deposits in the wider Cloncurry project have oxide caps and Altona will report on all oxide resources in coming months.

“We expect that the proposed $345 million Joint Venture envisaged in the recently announced Framework Agreement with Sichuan Railway Investment Group will consider developing a significant inventory of oxide across the project further enhancing the attractiveness of this major copper development project.”

According to Altona, the Turkey Creek main copper sulphide mineralisation is capped by copper oxide mineralisation from surface to depths of 25 to 45 metres.

The company believes this material may be amenable to treatment through the proposed Little Eva flotation circuit via sulphidisation or via the addition of a leach circuit.

Altona is of the opinion the Turkey Creek study highlights opportunity for an improvement in the project value as additional near-surface copper oxide mineralisation occurs at all the deposits in the project mine plan.

However, this material has not been included in the project’s Definitive Feasibility Study.

In the current plan the material is mined early as pre-strip to access the copper sulphide zones and stockpiled for future treatment.

Turkey Creek is located 1.5 kilometres east of the planned Little Eva open pit mine and processing plant and lies within granted Mining Leases.

Email: altona@altonamining.com

Website: www.altonamining.com

Blackham Resources hits high-grade gold at Golden Age

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) is happy with the first assay results from drilling being carried out at the Golden Age Reef, part of the company’s Matilda gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia.

As part of the maiden drilling program, hole GAUD0003 intersected visual gold in the early drilling of the Golden Age Reef with assays returning:

5.1 metres at 198 grams per tonne gold from 173.1m, including 0.8m at 1,148g/t gold from 176.6m.

This intersection is 55m east of the previous Golden Age underground mine workings.

Blackham is undertaking Stage 1 of a 3,500m diamond drilling program into Golden Age with the stated aim to increase the size and confidence in the existing high-grade resource.

Golden Age is a free-milling deposit that has produced 160,000 ounces at 9g/t gold.

The remaining resource of 125,000 ounces of gold has been earmarked by Blackham as a priority source of high-grade mill feed for recommissioning the Wiluna gold plant.

“Our initial results from our maiden drilling at Golden Age have confirmed our understanding that this deposit has significantly further high-grade potential,” Blackham Resources managing director Bryan Dixon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The next drill results will confirm the potential for expanding the size of the Golden Age resource.

“The high-grade Golden Age ore will be blended with Matilda open-pit ore to increase the average head-grade of the mill feed.

“Golden Age is just one of numerous high-grade quartz deposits in close vicinity of the Wiluna gold plant.

“Golden Age has established underground infrastructure that will allow mining to commence rapidly following the development decision.”

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au