THE DRILL SERGEANT: Each week any number of junior exploration plays set out to drill their ground. Here’s a small selection of what’s been happening this week.

Drilling to commence at Seimana gold project

Drake Resources (ASX: DRK) has commissioned an initial 1500m (minimum) RC drilling program on its Seimana gold prospects in Guinea.

The program will commence in July and investigate near surface high-priority targets identified from recent field programs.
 
“Drake’s field programs have revealed the potential for an emerging and significant gold discovery,” Drake Resources CEO Jason Stirbinskis said.

“We’ve mapped thousands of individual artisanal miners’ pits occurring in some 60 clusters over almost the entire length of our tenement parcel.

“Our program of mapping and sampling, commenced only in February this year, has helped us define multiple high-priority targets and a portion of these will be drilled in the approaching program.

“To our knowledge this will be the first drill program ever conducted in this area which is quite amazing given its geological setting and numerous multimillion ounce gold projects in the region.

“A challenge for us at Seimana is that our work to date has generated so many targets with good gold grades and extensive veining.”
 

Drilling commences at Candonga

Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has commenced a diamond drilling program and lodged key development and environmental approvals at the company’s 100 per cent‐owned Candonga DSO project in south‐east Brazil.

Centaurus has lodged an application with the Department of Mines for a Trial Mining Licence at Candonga, located 33km south of its Jambreiro iron ore project.

The application for a Trial Mining Licence allows for mining of 300,000tpa of ore per licence.

Centaurus said the licensing process is a simple one that is dealt with by the State DNPM office and does not require approval from the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The company believes the licence can be obtained within six months.

Concurrently, Centaurus has advanced the Environmental Licensing process for Candonga with the State Environment Authority (SUPRAM) by lodging the main Environmental Licence Application, known as the RCA/PCA.

Centaurus suggested the Environmental Licence process is relatively straightforward for the Candonga project due to the planned operating parameters and because the project is located on pastoral land requiring no native vegetation clearing.

Drilling Commences at Leonora project

Anglo Australian Resources (ASX: AAR) has started drilling on the company’s Leonora project in Western Australia.

Two diamond core drill holes are targeting off-hole conductors detected by downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys in two holes drilled in October 2012.

The previous drilling tested a strong 800-metre long bedrock electromagnetic conductor detected in surface electromagnetic surveying.

Trace to minor amounts of copper and zinc were intersected, which has been interpreted as a possible indication of the nearby presence of massive sulphide lenses or stringer sulphide zones.

Both holes are located in the vicinity of the previous holes, but will target the south plunging, west dipping DHEM conductors offset from those holes.

The company said the new holes will also provide a better stratigraphic context for previously intersected sulphide mineralisation.

The drill program is co-funded under the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to a maximum of $90,000.

High impact drilling campaign

St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has commenced drilling its 2014 nickel sulphide drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned East Laverton Property.

“Reconnaissance drilling at our East Laverton Property in 2012 discovered nickel sulphides and confirmed the prospectivity of this large, regional project as an emerging nickel field,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said.

“Our EM survey has now delivered high quality targets to test for massive nickel sulphide deposits.

“Phase 1 of the 2014 drilling program will test this first group of EM conductors identified by Newexco on the Stella Range belt.

“We believe this drill program offers an excellent opportunity for a major discovery.”

Drilling commenced at Lake Wells

Goldphyre Resources (ASX: GPH) has commenced a regional reconnaissance RAB/AC drill program at the company’s Lake Wells project, located 180 kilometres north of Laverton and approximately 60 kilometres north from Gold Road Resources’ (ASX: GOR) Gruyere prospect.

The drilling will test a range of priority targets for both gold and base metal potential including the Axford gold prospect and grass roots geophysical, structural and geochemistry/historic drill targets throughout the Lake Wells project area.
 
“Although recent heavy rains throughout the Eastern Goldfields have delayed the commencement of drilling, we are very pleased to have the drill rig on site testing a range of excellent gold and base metal targets,” Goldphyre Resources technical director Brenton Siggs said.

“We look forward to completing this regional reconnaissance program and generating some excellent targets for a follow-up RC drilling campaign.”

Drilling is anticipated to be completed within four weeks with first assay results expected to be received in late June, 2014.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) has received positive results from metallurgical test work from the 873,000 ounce gold and 81,000 tonne copper Inferred Mineral Resource region of the Calibre deposit.

The Calibre deposit is situated within the company’s Citadel project, located in Western Australia approximately 75 kilometres north of Newcrest’s Telfer gold-copper-silver mine.

Antipa achieved total copper, gold and silver extraction of 85.7 per cent, 80.5 per cent and 81.3 per cent using a combination of conventional sulphide flotation and cyanide leaching of the flotation tails.

 

Calibre metallurgical test work copper sulphide float. Source: Company announcement

 

The test work produced a copper sulphide concentrate using conventional sulphide flotation which graded approximately 24 per cent copper along with substantial gold and silver credits.
 
Cyanidation of the copper flotation tails recovered a healthy portion of the gold not reporting to the copper concentrate.

Antipa said preliminary mineralogy of the ore used in this test work program revealed both copper and tungsten minerals to be comparatively coarse grained and well liberated.
 
The test work also involved the use of Heavy Liquid Separation to assess the amenability of the ore to physical upgrade processes such as gravity.

The company claimed the HLS results highlighted good density beneficiation qualities of the Calibre mineralisation.

The company outlined future test work, which will focus on:

Improving the copper concentrate grade at the same or better recoveries;

Developing a better understanding of the gold and silver mineralisation to assist in maximising their recovery; and

Assessing methods of recovering the tungsten values in a marketable form.

“Overall, the initial metallurgical program on the Calibre ores has produced extremely positive results,” Antipa Minerals said in its ASX announcement.

“The ore has demonstrated that it is amenable to very conventional processing techniques.

“A process plant using well established and proven equipment is envisaged.”

Email: contact@antipaminerals.com.au

Website: www.antipaminerals.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Peel Mining (ASX: PEX) and its 50 per cent Joint Venture partner CBH Resources have released the maiden Mineral Resource estimate for the Mallee Bull copper-silver-gold deposit.

The estimate has returned a high-grade result with approximately 90,000 tonnes of contained copper, 4 million ounces contained silver and 43,000 ounces contained gold (at a one per cent copper equivalent cutoff).

The 2012 JORC Code-compliant Mineral Resource estimate comprises:

3.9 million tonnes at 2.3 per cent copper, 32 grams per tonne silver and 0.3 g/t gold.

 

Mallee Bull Mineral Resource estimate based on one per cent copper equivalent (CuEq) cutoff grade. Source: Company announcement

 

Peel said approximately 16 per cent of the Mallee Bull resource is in the Indicated Mineral Resource category.

The Mineral Resource estimate will form the basis of an in-house scoping study which will commence shortly.

“Mallee Bull is one of the highest grade copper discoveries in Australia in recent times and putting a Resource to it is an important milestone,” Peel Mining managing director Rob Tyson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“In that regard, I’d like to thank our project team on a job well done.

“It would be highly unusual if Mallee Bull were to occur in isolation, and so the search for ‘another’ Mallee Bull, along with a scoping study, will continue as part of the next stage of investigation.”

Peel explained the Mineral Resource estimates include copper equivalent grades incorporating copper, silver and gold values.

The copper equivalent grades are based on copper, silver and gold prices of $7000 per tonne, $20 per ounce and $1300 per ounce with overall recoveries of 95 per cent 90 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

These estimates are based on Peel’s interpretation of potential commodity prices and the company’s interpretation of first pass metallurgical test work performed on Mallee Bull diamond core using the following formula: copper equivalent (%) = copper (%) + 0.009 x silver (g/t) + 0.415 x gold (g/t).

Peel said it is of the opinion all elements included in the metal equivalent calculation have a reasonable potential to be recovered and sold.

Additional test work is required to demonstrate the deposit’s potential metallurgical recoveries for cobalt, lead and zinc.

Email: info@peelmining.com.au

Website: www.peelmining.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Altona Mining (ASX: AOH) has completed a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource estimate for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Little Eva copper-gold deposit in north-western Queensland.

The company calculated the estimate based upon a new geological model it has derived from a recent program of re-logging and data validation.

 

The updated Little Eva resource at a 0.2% copper cut-off grade. Source: Company announcement

 

Altona explained there has been no new drilling and hence there is no real material change from the previous estimate, which it reported in December 2011.

The prior estimate was 100.3 million tonnes at 0.53 per cent copper and 0.09 grams per tonne gold for 534,000 tonnes of copper and 284,000 ounces of gold.

Compared to the previous estimate, tonnage at Little Eva has increased by six per cent, contained copper metal by two per cent and gold metal by four per cent.

Altona’s said its confidence in the estimate has improved with 78 per cent of the Resource now sitting in the Measured and Indicated categories, which is up from 69 per cent in the 2011 estimate.

The company indicated that both estimates exclude oxide mineralisation.

The re-logging and data validation programs that led to the new estimate covered 84 per cent of all resource drilling, focussing on the following:

Further validation and corrections to drill collar locations, down hole surveys and assay data;

Unifying descriptions and coding of lithology, alteration, mineralisation and weathering;

Identifying controls for mineralisation;

Creating a 3D geological model from interpreted sections; and

Creating a resource model based upon the new geological interpretation and utilising the same (MIK) estimation methodology as the 2011 estimate.

Email: altona@altonamining.com

Website: www.altonamining.com