Blackthorn Resources progressing Kitumba study update

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackthorn Resources (ASX: BTR) has released an update on the progress of a Pre-feasibility Study Optimisation program being carried out at the company’s Kitumba copper project in Zambia.

Blackthorn Resources commenced the Study Optimisation program following the completion of a preliminary Prefeasibility Study (PFS) in September 2013 of the Kitumba project.

 

Kitumba project – Regional location plan. Source: Company announcement

 

The aim of the Kitumba PFS Optimisation program is to; improve feed grade, improve recovery rates, and to lower operating costs and substantially improve project economics.

Work completed to date includes the incorporation of the project’s Mineral Resource estimate results, a mine plan design, and updating of production sequencing.

Metallurgical testing has been carried out as well as the completion of a process flowsheet design completed.

The Study has also identified a simple power supply solution for the project.

“Considerable progress has been made on the Kitumba copper project PFS Optimisation and we are greatly encouraged by the outcomes to date,” Blackthorn Resources CEO Mark Mitchell said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Whilst the preliminary PFS results released in September 2013 indicated that the Kitumba copper project was economically and technically feasible, the optimisation work is providing further indication of enhanced economics in line with our expectations outlined when the optimisation programme commenced.”

Blackthorn Resources considers the Kitumba project to potentially be of great value to the company with the completion of the PFS Optimisation being a key step in the project’s development.

The preliminary PFS demonstrated an economic project at Kitumba, and enabled Blackthorn to apply for a mining licence for Kitumba.

It also demonstrated the project design needed further work if the company was to maximise its development potential.

As a result, optimisation studies have been undertaken on the PFS to develop key areas with the greatest potential to improve the project economics.

Email: info@blackthornresources.com.au

Website: www.blackthornresources.com.au

Arunta Resources produces tungsten concentrate

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Arunta Resources (ASX: AJR) has received results from metallurgical test work recently carried out at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Hatches Creek tungsten project, located north-east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

According to Arunta the results have shown the project possesses the ability to produce saleable tungsten concentrates from existing waste dumps from historical mining operations.

The company said the results highlight potential to process volumes of previously mined material available at surface at hatches Creek, providing an immediate pathway to progress commercial development of the project.

Arunta has received results from ten, 10 kilogram composite samples submitted for simple wet gravity test work, which were crushed and wet tabled with further concentration by magnetic separation and panning.

The results hail from six historical prospect areas – Pioneer, Black Diamond, Green Diamond, Treasure Group, Copper Show and Hit or Miss.

Four of these areas have returned encouraging grade and recovery results, with concentrate grades ranging from 20 per cent to 47 per cent tungsten from Green Diamond, Treasure Group, and Hit or Miss with recoveries ranging from 70 to 75 per cent.

“This ticks another very important box in our ongoing evaluation of the Hatches Creek project, with our preliminary metallurgical test work returning extremely positive results and providing a clear green light to move to the next stage,” Arunta Resources executive chairman Neil Biddle said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The work completed so far confirms the potential to extract saleable tungsten concentrates from the extensive material remaining on site, with excellent recoveries achieved using low-cost gravity recovery methods.

“The next steps are to confirm the volume of material remaining at some of the better prospect areas and to commence detailed economic assessment of the project with a view to moving it towards commercial development as quickly as possible.”

Email: info@aruntaresources.com

Website: www.aruntaresources.com

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go

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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.

Commencement of Mining

Mineral Deposits (ASX: MDL) has commenced mining at Grande Côte in Senegal, with sand now being processed through the Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP), producing heavy mineral concentrate (HMC).

As mining and processing rates through the WCP are ramped up, and after a few weeks to allow a stockpile of HMC to be built, processing through the Mineral Separation Plant will commence, giving rise to first product.

“The commencement of mining is clearly a very significant day in the life cycle of Grande Côte,” Mineral Deposits managing director Rick Sharp said.

“After more than two years of actual construction, and many more years of evaluation and planning before that, we now have a world-class project of which we are very proud.”
 

Drilling underway at Bryah Basin

Alchemy Resources (ASX: ALY) has commenced an initial RC drilling program at the Seaborg gold prospect on the company’s Bryah Basin project, north of Meekatharra in Western Australia.

Targeted RC drilling is being undertaken to determine the orientation and plunge of the interpreted high-grade gold mineralisation shoot as well as the potential strike and depth extent of mineralisation at Seaborg.

This drilling will incrementally step-out both along-strike and down-plunge from existing defined high-grade gold mineralisation.

The drilling follows-up high-grade gold assay results (51 metres at 3.71 grams per tonne from surface in CBRB001 and 23m at 3.16g/t from 16m in CBRB002) returned from initial RAB drilling at Seaborg that confirmed and extended a high-grade gold intersection (27m at 5.43g/t from 15m) in a historic drill hole.

The results indicate a continuity in gold grade down-hole and that drilling stopped within the gold mineralised zone.

The results also indicate intervals with higher gold grade within the mineralised zone, including 5m at 6.03g/t from 1m and 14m at 6.59g/t from 23m in CBRB001.

7,000 metre drilling program kicked off

Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) has commenced a 7,000 metre drill program at the company’s three advanced gold projects in Western Australia.
 
The initial program involves shallow RC drilling at the high-grade Golden Wings deposit at the 80 per cent-owned Dalgaranga gold project in the Murchison region.

This drilling has been designed to test the shallow up-plunge extensions of the known gold mineralisation and to confirm the geological interpretation of a high-grade shoot.

Gascoyne will then investigate development options and seek to monetise the Golden Wings discovery.

Once the initial RC program has been completed, drilling will focus on a number of regional exploration targets at Dalgaranga followed by exploration at the 100 per cent-owned Mt Egerton and Glenburgh projects which are in the Gascoyne region of WA.

“The drilling will be funded from existing cash reserves and a significant reduction in ongoing fixed costs, including voluntary reductions in remuneration, redundancies and new co-tenancy arrangements at Perth office which will result in total savings of over $300,000 per year, deferring any need for a short term capital raising, and providing a path for steady news flow and forward progress on key projects,” Gascoyne Resources chairman Mike Joyce said.

Maiden drilling program commences

Cardinal Resources (ASX: CDV) has commenced an initial 4,000 metres combined RC and diamond drill program at the Ndongo prospect‐central zone within the company’s Bolgatanga project in Ghana.

Analysis of the soil geochemical and aeromagnetic surveys over the Bolgatanga project area were combined with dipole‐dipole IP (DDIP) and ground magnetics surveys over the gold‐in‐soil nomalous central zone within the Ndongo prospect area to delineate and finalise initial drill targets.

“The combination RC/diamond drill rig has now been commissioned by the drill manufacturer’s engineer with commissioning and testing of the rig completed to manufacturer’s satisfaction,” Cardinal Resources managing director Archie Koimtsidis said.

“We expect the planned initial 4,000 metre maiden drill program to be completed by the end of quarter two 2014, with samples to be delivered on a weekly basis to the  SGS Laboratory in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

“The assay turn‐around time is expected to be approximately two weeks, which will assist with quick analysis and reporting.

“Ground DDIP and magnetics surveys over the Ndongo Central area have delineated a prominent high chargeability zone which coincides with anomalous soil values (>100 ppb gold) and comprises the initial drill target areas.”

Carpentaria releases Hawsons maiden Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Carpentaria Exploration (ASX: CAP) has released a maiden Indicated Resource and a 20 per cent increase in contained premium quality magnetite concentrate for the company’s Hawsons iron project located near Broken Hill, New South Wales.

The Hawsons project is a Joint Venture between Carpentaria Exploration (60 per cent) and private resources investor Pure Metals (40 per cent).

The maiden Indicated Resource comprises 215 million tonnes at 16.2 per cent mass recovery, containing 35 million tonnes of premium quality magnetite concentrate.

The total Inferred plus Indicated Resource estimate has been expanded to 1.77 billion tonnes at a magnetite mass recovery grade of 14.9 per cent, representing a 26 per cent tonnage increase on the company’s December 2010 estimate.

 

Hawsons magnetite iron ore project – Comparison of December 2010
and Upgraded March 2014 Resource estimates. Source: Company
announcement

 

Total contained iron concentrate has risen by 20 per cent to 263 million tonnes compared to the previous estimate of 220 million tonnes while maintaining a premium grade of 69.7 per cent iron and low silicon levels of 2.9 per cent.

“This upgrade has relied upon a significant geological interpretation and additional data gathering effort that has provided higher confidence in the continuity of the resource than was known at the time of the earlier estimate in December 2010,” Carpentaria Exploration managing director Quentin Hill said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Not only have we achieved a 20 per cent increase in total contained magnetite concentrate, but the conversion from Inferred Resource to a maiden Indicated Resource in the area of greatest drilling was essentially 100 per cent, providing great confidence in subsequent conversion of other Inferred Resources.”

This resource upgrade follows the announcement by Carpentaria earlier this year of a positive outcome from a detailed start-up study for Hawsons, which showed that matching the project’s size to the existing 10 million tonnes per annum capacity of the existing rail, power and port infrastructure has the potential for robust returns on investment.

The company considers the total resource upgrade – and inclusion of an indicated category, when combined with the results of the recent study – provides the joint venture confidence to continue development.

“The outstanding conversion from inferred to indicated is very positive and demonstrates, as we have consistently stated, that the Hawsons mineralisation has exceptional homogeneity and spatial continuity with very simple geometry,” Hill said.

“The increase in the total resource and contained magnetite concentrate will greatly assist with current feasibility study design and optimisation.

“The newly recognised stratigraphic correlation has led to a higher degree of confidence in the technical understanding of the Inferred to Indicated Resource conversion process which should result in a significant reduction in future drilling requirements for the project.”

Email: info@capex.net.au

Website: www.capex.net.au

Paringa Scoping Study confirms Buck Creek fundamentals

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THE DRILL SERGEANT:  Paringa Resources (ASX: PNL) has announced the results of a JORC Code 2012 and NI43-101 compliant Scoping Study conducted on the north eastern quadrant of the company’s Buck Creek thermal coal project in Kentucky, USA.

The study used the projects current coal Resource Estimate of 154 million tons of coal, and determined the Buck Creek project can support production of 4.7million tons per annum (Mtpa) for the Run-of-Mine coal yielding approximately 3.4Mtpa of saleable clean coal at steady state production

The company said the project’s fundamentals from this initial development are very encouraging with average annual operating cash costs during steady state production (exclusive of royalties and severance taxes) of US$28 per ton Free On Board Barge with potential to achieve average annual operating cashflows during steady state of production of US$88 million per annum.

 

Key results of the Study. Source: Company announcement

 

“Results from the Study show the potential to develop a highly attractive new mine aiming to replicate the success of our peers in adjacent mines in the region,” Paringa Resources chief executive officer David Gay said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With the Scoping Study complete the Company will look to begin a Pre-Feasibility Study on the Buck Creek project in the coming weeks.

“We are in an enviable position in that we have a highly advanced project with very strong fundamentals.

“The Buck Creek project has the potential to rapidly become a significant new production source in the highly sought after Illinois Coal Basin.”

Email: info@paringaresources.com

Website: www.paringaresources.com

Navarre encounters more shallow copper-gold at Eclipse

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THE DRILL SERGEANT:  Navarre Minerals (ASX: NML) has announced further gold and copper results from the final batch of samples it has received from a recent 11 hole Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program carried out at the company’s 100 per cent‐owned Eclipse copper‐gold prospect, located northwest of Melbourne in the Miga Arc copper belt.

Navarre said the drill results have outlined a broad northeast‐trending gold zone, which averages around 0.4 grams per tonne gold and contains irregular higher gold grades of up to 3.6g/t gold, with silver, zinc and lead.

Best results include:

RCBR0003
45 metres at 0.4g/t gold, including 1m at 3.3g/t gold from surface;

RCBR0006
66m at 0.4g/t gold, including 1m at 1.2g/t gold from surface to end of hole; and

RCBR0011
43m at 0.3g/t gold, including 1m at 3.6g/t gold from 3m.

Navarre said it the drilling has confirmed gold mineralisation over a strike length of about 200m, which is only limited in extent by drill testing completed so far.

The company said a ‘horse‐shoe’ shape gold‐in‐soils anomaly highlights the potential for further gold to be found.

The latest drilling has also intersected copper mineralisation, which Navarre said has extended a previously announced shallow supergene copper blanket.

Notable zones of shallow copper returned from the recent drilling program include:

RCBR0001
5m at 1.8 per cent copper within 23m at 0.7 per cent copper from 30m;

RCBR0002
1m at 1.4 per cent copper and 1m at 1.3 per cent copper within 29m at 0.5 per cent copper from 29m;

RCBR0003
1m at 1.6 per cent copper within 9m at 0.4 per cent copper and 0.8g/t gold from 28m;

RCBR0004
2m at 1.2 per cent copper within 15m at 0.3 per cent copper from 37m;

RCBR0006
2m at 2.7 per cent copper within 32m at 0.5 per cent copper and 0.5g/t gold from 28m;

RCBR0007
1m at 1.3 per cent copper within 11m at 0.3 per cent copper from 32m;

RCBR0009 (new result)
22m at 0.2 per cent copper from 27m; and

RCBR0011 (new result)
10m at 0.3 per cent copper and 0.7g/t gold from 30m.

Navarre believes lateral grade continuity from all RC drill results support a larger exploration target of supergene copper.

The company considers further infill and step‐out RC drilling could readily scope the copper potential and provide data for an initial JORC Mineral Resource estimate with economics potentially enhanced by overlapping gold and silver mineralisation.

“We may have ‘cracked the code’ on what is controlling the shallow mineralisation found to date at Eclipse,” Navarre Minerals managing director Geoff McDermott said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The IP surveys have provided us with a potential pathway and source for the copper and gold mineralisation intersected in our recent drilling.

“The target looks big.”

Email: info@navarre.com.au

Website: www.navarre.com.au

Kin Mining encounters impressive gold hits

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Kin Mining has achieved a further impressive gold intersection from the latest RC drilling campaign being carried out at the Eastern Gabbro prospect within the company’s Murrin Murrin project area in the Leonora district of Western Australia.

The peak assay returned from this hole was:

2 metres at 34.23 grams per tonne gold from 87 to 89 metres down hole depth within a total combined intersection of 31 metres at 4.29g/t gold from 64 to 95m in re-entered drill hole MM13RC013.

 

Eastern Gabbro prospect, drill section MM14RC018 to MM13RC013 to
MM14RC019 immediately after drilling. Source: Company announcement

 

“Ounces per tonne over a couple of metres are regarded as a very significant result in any exploration drill program,” Kin Mining managing director Trevor Dixon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Although it’s early days the prospect has potential and further drilling is planned.”

Kin Mining completed a total of 1,420m of RC drilling during its February-March campaign.

New prospects including Blue Spec and Reeds United at Iron King were shallowly drill tested as well as previously drilled prospects including Pelican, Crystal Ridge and Murrin Murrin.
 
At Murrin Murrin, drill hole MM13RC013 was re-entered and deepened from 88m to 130m following up a result of 1 metre at 36g/t gold from 87 to 88m at the end of the original hole drilled in late 2013.

The extended drill hole returned a high grade first metre assay of
32.45g/t gold between 88 and 89m.

Kin explained that both results were intersected within a broader zone of high-grade mineralisation assaying 5m at 17.20g/t gold from 87 to 92m.
 
Further 4 metre composite drill results from Murrin Murrin include:

MM14RC018:
8m at 1.44g/t gold from 32 to 40m;

MM14RC021:
36m at 1.33g/t gold from 8 to 44m, including 4m at 6.93g/t gold from 16 to 20m; and

MM14RC022;
24m at 0.85g/t gold from 12 to 36m.

At the Pelican prospect at Desdemona, two other four metre composite results of note were obtained in hole PL14RC003 of:

8m at 0.58g/t gold from 104 to 112m; and

10m at 0.25g/t gold from 144 to 154m.

Kin Mining said all noteworthy composite results will be re-assayed as one metre splits.

Email: info@kinmining.com.au

Website: www.kinmining.com.au

Potash West upgrades Dinner Hill Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Potash West (ASX: PWN) has completed a re-estimation of the Dinner Hill phosphate Resource having recently improved the project’s metallurgical flowsheet.

The Dinner Hill project is located 175 kilometres north of Perth in Western Australia, within the company’s Dandaragan Trough project area.

The phosphate Indicated Mineral Resource at the Dinner Hill phosphate deposit has increased to:

120 million tonnes at 2.8 per cent phosphate, 3.1 per cent potassium, and 8.2 per cent calcium.

 

Dinner Hill deposit. Source: Company announcement

 

Last year Potash West completed its initial Scoping Study to produce single superphosphate from the Dandaragan Trough project, however, initial testing and modelling revealed without selectively mining and removing the chalk from the process stream, commodity grade single superphosphate could not be produced due to the high calcite content in the phosphate concentrate.

Based on this data, the calcite rich chalk layer was excluded from the geological model, resulting in a calculation of the Dinner Hill deposit Indicated Mineral Resource of 90 million tonnes at 2.65 per cent phosphate above a 1.85 per cent lower cut-off grade of 1.85 per cent phosphate.
 
In February this year Potash West made a breakthrough in the metallurgical testwork program, which demonstrated the potential to recover phosphate from the chalk by implementing a selective flotation regime.

Based on these results work progressed to revise the Resource to its current level.

“The metallurgical breakthrough we have made with regard to removing the chalk through the processing stream is very significant in that it not only increases the size of the resource and grade of the phosphate at Dinner Hill, it potentially can lead to major mining cost savings through the creation of a simpler mining process, a lower strip ratio and an increased mine life,” Potash West managing director Patrick McManus said in ithe company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We look forward to further defining this breakthrough and ascertaining its potential benefits across our very large Dandaragan project area.”

Email: info@potashwest.com.au

Website: www.potashwest.com.au

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go

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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 kicked off at Alumbre

Promesa Ltd (ASX: PRA) has commenced drilling a at the company’s Alumbre project in Peru.

The Alumbre project is a gold-copper-molybdenum porphyry system located 70 kilometres southeast of Trujillo in northern Peru.

The company has prepared several drill sites based on the results of geophysics, geochemistry and the surface geology with approximately 2,200 metres of diamond core drilling planned to test several areas of a large geophysical anomaly at down hole depths to approximately 500m.

Promesa said it has conducted substantial work on the Alumbre project including detailed geological mapping, rock geochemistry, ground magnetics, induced polarisation (IP) geophysics and alteration mineral mapping. Indications are that a substantial sulphide-bearing porphyry system exists at Alumbre.

Drilling recommences at Trenggalek

Arc Exploration (ASX: ARX) has recommenced drilling on the Trenggalek project in East Java with its joint venture partner, Anglo American, which is fully funding the program.

The drilling program has recommenced on a possible porphyry target identified at the Singgahan prospect, located about five kilometres east of Jerambah prospect, where results obtained from a diamond hole completed late last year were interpreted to indicate the weaker mineralised margins of a possible porphyry system.

This first hole at Singgahan will test part of a large coincident copper-gold-molybdenum anomaly highlighted in grid-soil and benching results obtained over an altered and quartz-magnetite-sulphide/limonite stockworked diorite intrusion.

Arc said the large surface geochemical anomaly highlighted at Singgahan provides further encouragement for the possible existence of a porphyry system in the project area, which will be tested in the current phase of drilling.

Drilling at Symons Hill commenced

Boadicea Resources (ASX: BOA) has kicked off the company’s first drill program at
Symons Hill located five kilometres north of the Sirius Resources (ASX: SIR) Nova discovery.

The company’s licence (E28/1932) located in the Fraser Range is east of Norseman and approximately 200 kilometres south-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and covers an area of 123 square kilometres.

Based on the regional magnetics, Boadicea claims the Symons Hill licence contains the same sequence of rocks which host the Sirius Resources Nova/Bollinger nickel sulphide deposit.

Three lines of drilling are planned and are targeted on a combination of anomalous nickel geochemistry, airborne and ground based EM anomalies and zones of interest based on interpretation of the airborne magnetic datasets.

Approximately 120 aircore holes are planned and will be drilled to allow an understanding of the fresh bedrock and underlying geochemical trends to be established.

The program is expected to take approximately three weeks to complete, with analytical results expected within six weeks.

Rumble fast tracks Zanthus exploration

Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) has fast tracked its exploration program at its newly acquired Zanthus project in the Fraser Range.

The Zanthus project is located 18 kilometres east of the Nova nickel copper massive sulphide discovery of Sirius Resources (ASX: SIR).

Rumble’s technical team has developed a program to systematically explore the Zanthus project looking to generate high-priority nickel and copper sulphide targets using proven exploration techniques.

Rumble will use the same methodology that recently identified the 2km bedrock EM conductor on its big Red project in the northern Fraser Range.

This first stage of exploration has commenced, which is an orientation ground EM survey consisting of several ground Moving-Loop Electro-Magnetic (MLEM) traverse lines across the project area at station spacings of up to 1km.

The survey is designed to test the conductivity and map the depth of the younger sedimentary rock sequences that overly the Proterozoic basement rocks being targeted for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation in the area.

Traverse lines will be completed across the project area along existing tracks with the survey expected to be completed within a two week period.

The results of the survey will identify if an Airborne EM survey or ground based EM survey is the next step.

Castle Minerals encounters new gold zone

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Castle Minerals (ASX: CDT) has intersected a new area of near-surface gold mineralisation.

The encounter occurred during a recent round of RAB drilling conducted 500 metres east of the company’s recently discovered Kpali deposit in northwest Ghana.

 

Drill hole location plan for area around Kpali showing new area
of near-surface gold mineralisation intersected by RAB drilling. Source:
Company announcement

 

The company considers this zone to have potential to host primary gold mineralisation as the RAB intercepts overlie the east side of the Kpali granite and are aligned with a demagnetised corridor.

Notable intercepts include:

13SWRB920:
8 metres at 0.16 grams per tonne gold from 0 metres and 5 metres at 0.59g/t gold from 18 metres;

13SWRB921:
23m at 0.14g/t gold from 0m;

13SWRB922:
24m at 0.2g/t gold from 9m;

13SWRB926:
3m at 1.44g/t gold from 0m;

13SWRB972:
8m at 0.26g/t gold from 0m;

13SWRB974:
32m at 0.10g/t gold from 0m;

13SWRB976:
18m at 0.13g/t gold from 13m;

13SWRB985:
5m at 0.29g/t gold from 13m; and

14SWRB1903:
20m at 0.24g/t gold from 28m;

“These results are very encouraging and following receipt of all outstanding assays we propose to RC drill test this target with the aim of quickly defining the extent of primary gold mineralisation beneath the oxide intersections,” Castle Minerals managing director Mike Ivey said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The orientation and setting of the RAB intercepts is consistent with our regional structural interpretation and provides strong evidence that the plus-ten kilometre long ‘demagnetised’ corridor we have identified could host significant gold mineralisation.”

Castle said it is continuing with drilling around its Kpali and Bundi prospects as part of a 20,000m program in this area.

The company is currently waiting on assays for around 6,000 metres of additional drilling completed around Kpali representing approximately 200 RAB holes.

Email: info@castleminerals.com

Website: www.castleminerals.com