THE DRILL SERGEANT: Birimian Gold (ASX: BGS) has reported final analytical results from Reverse Circulation (RC) and Aircore (AC) drilling programs recently undertaken at the company’s Massigui gold project in southern Mali.

Birimian said the latest results had confirmed presence of extensive shallow gold mineralisation at the Viper and Koting prospects while supporting potential to define shallow gold resources amenable to open pit mining within the project.

Gold intersections in follow up RC drilling at the Viper prospect include;

20 metres at 2.27 grams per tonne gold from 44m, including 11m at 3.4g/t gold;

18m at 1.45g/t gold from 30m; and

3m at 3.56g/t gold from 44m.

Birimian said the drilling at the Viper prospect confirmed the presence of a geologically continuous zone of gold mineralisation extending in excess of 1.2 kilometres of strike.

The prospect has also been shown to host a number of high-grade gold zones, which the company has taken to indicate potential for open pit mineable gold resources.

“The current phase of RC drilling focused on the northern portion of the Viper mineralised trend to increase drill density and confirm grade continuity on drill sections spaced at 50 metre intervals adjacent to the high-grade zones intersected in the company’s earlier 100 metre-spaced drilling,” Birimian Gold said in its ASX announcement.

“Analytical results from this drilling have identified significant down dip extensions to higher grade mineralisation and confirmed robust grades between previous drill sections.”

Further broad mineralised intersections were also encountered in RC drilling carried out at Koting, which Birimian has interpreted to indicate extensions to near surface higher grade zones.

RC drilling highlights include:

26m at 1.54g/t gold from 20m;

17m at 1.21g/t gold from 7m;

9m at 2.41g/t from 128m, within 23m at 1.44g/t gold; and

2m at 4.19g/t gold from 138m.

Birimian explained that limited previous drilling carried out at the Koting prospect had returned ore grade intersections over very broad widths, however, the scale and tenor of the mineralisation it has identified to date suggests scope exists to define new gold resources which may be amenable to open-pit mining at Koting.

“The combined program of RC and AC drilling recently completed was designed test the strike and depth extensions of mineralisation to further define mineralised orientations and ore controls in advance of an anticipated infill drilling program,” Birimian Gold said.

“Analytical results from the RC drilling component of the program have returned highly significant shallow intersections which provide substantial encouragement for delineating open pit mineable resources at this location.”

Email: info@birimiangold.com.au

Website: www.birimiangold.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mungana Goldmines (ASX: MUX) couldn’t wait to tell everybody that Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM) has commenced exploration work as part of an exploration agreement at the company’s Chillagoe project in North Queensland.

Under the agreement, Newcrest is required to spend up to $20 million on exploration over a period of up to eight years, focussing on exploring for large gold-copper porphyry deposits at Chillagoe.

Newcrest’s exploration program will proceed in parallel with Mungana’s strategy to develop its high-grade zinc and base metal assets at Chillagoe, including the King Vol deposit.

Mungana explained that Newcrest has put in place a detailed work program in order to meet the $3 million minimum expenditure required within the first 18 months under the exploration agreement.

Initial on-site activities planned to be completed by Newcrest include:

Up to 1,000 high-detection multi-element geochemical soil samples, commencing in June;

26,000 line kilometres of high-resolution airborne geophysical surveys, commencing in July;

10,000m of hyperspectral analysis of diamond core by onsite Corescan laboratory, commencing in July; and

8,000m of diamond core drilling and sample analysis, commencing in August.

The exploration program and associated work plan has been designed to define new gold targets and to conduct initial discovery drilling to define new gold resources on Mungana’s southern tenements.

“Newcrest’s exploration commitment highlights the significant gold-copper porphyry potential at Chillagoe,” Mungana Goldmines managing director Tony James said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Newcrest will use its substantial skills and resources to test the gold-copper porphyry potential at Chillagoe while Mungana pushes ahead with its plan to develop its high-grade King Vol zinc deposit.”

Website: www.munganagoldmines.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: The mining team of Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has re-entered the Golden Age area of the company’s Wiluna underground gold mine in Western Australia.

Golden Age is a high-grade free milling reef with historic production of 160,000 ounces of gold at 9 grams per tonne.

It has a remaining resource of 0.6 million tonnes at 6.7g/t for 125,000 ounces of gold and has been identified by Blackham as a priority source of high-grade free milling ore for recommissioning the Wiluna gold plant.

Blackham recently received Department of Mines and Petroleum approval to re-enter the Wiluna underground mine, which is the access to Golden Age.

Having re-established the power and ventilation for an inspection of the underground, Blackham’s staff and key technical consultants have verified the Golden Age mining area is in a condition ready for final preparations to commence diamond drilling.

Blackham has sourced an underground diamond drill rig and intends to start a maiden drill program at Golden Age as soon as possible.

The company explained the drilling is in line with its focus on free-milling gold targets and resources within open pit or shallow underground depths, in close proximity to the Wiluna plant and infrastructure and capable of being bought into the early years of the current mine plan.

“Re-establishing access to the Golden Age area of the Wiluna underground mine is another important step to implementing Blackham’s strategy of re-commissioning the Wiluna gold plant on free milling ores,” Blackham Resources managing director Bryan Dixon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

The high-grade Golden Age reef will be blended with the base load open pit Matilda mine ore to increase the average grade of the mill feed.

“The Golden Age is just one of numerous high-grade quartz reefs in the immediate vicinity of the Wiluna gold plant.

Golden Age is immediately accessible with established underground infrastructure that will enable mining to commence rapidly on project development approval.”

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.balckhamresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Western Australia Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion announced successful applicants for Round 11 of the Co-funded Drilling Program at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies convention during the week.

“This is about identifying potential new mines and the jobs and opportunities they can deliver for West Australians,” Marmion said in his address to the convention.

Marmion highlighted the fact that the latest round of government sponsored co-funding coincided with the development of the first mine to be developed as a result of an EIS discovery is under construction.

“More than 500 workers are building Sirius Resources’s Nova nickel project in the Fraser Range, a newly identified mineral region showing great promise that typifies the focus of the EIS,” he said.

 

Round eleven of the EIS comes in the seventh year of the scheme, which has contributed to the discovery of the Nova and Camelwood nickel deposits, the Yeneena copper deposits, and the Millennium zinc and Dusk til Dawn gold discoveries.

Winners this round include:

Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI)

Cassini has delineated a sizeable down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) anomaly at the Succoth prospect on the company’s 100 per cent-owned West Musgrave project.

Succoth is an advanced exploration prospect located 13 kilometres from the company’s main project, the Nebo-Babel deposits.

Work to date at Succoth has focussed on defining predominantly copper-rich, disseminated mineralisation over a strike of three kilometres.

Cassini said the EIS funding will be used to drill a diamond hole to test the conductor, which it has interpreted to potentially represent massive sulphides at the apparent down-plunge position of the existing mineralisation.

All necessary approvals are in place and site preparations for drilling are underway with operations expected to commence in mid-July.

Octagonal Resources (ASX: ORS)

Octagonal Resources scored funding for the second phase of diamond drilling at the Burns copper-gold prospect at the company’s Hogan’s project in Western Australia.

Octagonal has been offered the full $70,000 in government funding it applied for to pay for up to 50 per cent of direct drilling costs for a multi-hole project.

“We are pleased to accept the Western Australian Government’s assistance with funding our continued exploration of the Burns copper-gold prospect,” Octagonal Resources managing director Anthony Gray said.

“This grant will help fund the drilling of two diamond holes at the Burns prospect, where we continue systematic testing for a massive sulphide copper-gold deposit using down-hole electromagnetic techniques, while at the same time testing for other potential controls on the distribution of copper and gold.”

Octagonal said it anticipated drilling to commence in early 2016.

Minotaur Exploration (ASX: MEP)

Minotaur Exploration has been successful in its applications for two co-funded drilling grants.

The first – $104,500 – covers the Valdez prospect, located 35 kilometres south-east of Leinster where Minotaur recently completed a moving loop EM survey over interpreted ultramafic lithology considered to be the same stratigraphic sequence hosting the Waterloo nickel mine, located 8km to the south.

Two diamond drillholes have been designed to test the EM response and at around 350 metres depth intersect ultramafic rocks equivalent to host lithologies of the Waterloo deposit, a ‘blind’ orebody also discovered using moving loop ground EM.

The second grant – $75,000 – covers the Saints nickel sulphide deposit, 65km north-west of Kalgoorlie, located on the western limb of the Scotia-Kanowna Anticline.

Saints comprises two mineralised zones 400m apart – St Andrews and St Patricks – and the Western Contact, all positioned along strike from the historic Scotia underground nickel mine.

A single stratigraphic diamond drillhole will test the company’s theory that the Saints deposits and the western contact mineralisation are part of the same komatiite channel.

Apollo Minerals (ASX: AON)

Apollo Minerals has been awarded up to $150,000 in funding towards a proposed 2015 drilling program at the company’s Fraser Range project, located approximately 40km southwest and along strike from Sirius Resources’ Nova-Bollinger nickel mine.

During 2015, the company plans to drill test surface geochemical and electro-magnetic (EM) targets across a number of prospects including the Oceanus and Plato areas.

Access approvals for drilling have been granted across several targets allowing exploration activities to advance immediately.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) released assay results from the remaining Gruyere Updated Resource drilling program.

Gold Road said a majority of holes in the recent drilling had encountered mineralisation consistent with or better than drilling used to compose the Gruyere resource estimate.

The company believes these results have increased its confidence in the geological interpretation, mineralisation controls, and resource classification of the project.

The results have indicated discrete zones of higher‐grade mineralisation continue to more than 50 metres below the current Resource Pit Shell.

Deepest intersections encountered to date below the Resource Pit Shell returned:

15GY0107
188 metres at 1.5 grams per tonne gold from 611m for 282 gram.metres, including 123m at 1.79g/t gold from 659m for 220 gram.metres.

Strong mineralisation hit from within the resource has confirmed the model estimate, including:

15GY0095
202m at 1.48g/t gold from 383m for 297 gram.metres, including 69m at 1.96g/t gold from 659m for 134 gram.metres.

With these results in mind Gold Road has commenced a high‐level assessment of the potential for large‐scale underground mining at Gruyere below the open pit operation.

The company outlined the conceptual Underground Mining Study will focus on mining method, size dimensions and grade and/or gold price required for economic extraction.

“The quality of this deposit continues to be demonstrated by these positive drill results, and we look forward to completing the next Gruyere resource upgrade,” Gold Road Resources executive director Justin Osborne said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are currently busy with the 2,000 metre West Australian Government co-funded EIS drill hole at Gruyere, which is expected to be completed in late July, and which could be a further indicator of the depth potential of Gruyere.”

Email: perth@goldroad.com.au

Website: www.goldroad.com.au