THE DRILL SERGEANT: Sovereign Gold (ASX: SOC) has claimed discovery of a high-grade gold mineralisation system at the company’s Mt Adrah Hobbs gold project, near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.

The company has received initial assay results from drill hole GHD009, which it has interpreted to have confirmed the discovery of the system at the Castor prospect.

The Castor prospect is the first to be drilled outside of the main Hobbs Pipe 1 deposit.

Results received so far include:

–    10 metres at 17.7 grams per tonne gold from 506 metres, including 2m at 28.4g/t gold from 506m and 2m at 59.4g/t gold from 514m.

Drill hole GHD009 was completed to a depth of 1312.6m and the company is now waiting to receive results for the remainder of the hole.

According to Dr Kris Butera, chief executive of Sovereign Gold’s 87 per cent-owned subsidiary company Gossan Hill Gold, the geology of hole GHD009, with the intensity of alteration and quartz veining in the metasediment, can be interpreted to show potential for nearby mineralised gold zones.

“These exceptional initial drilling results have demonstrated increased scope for the delineation of significant gold mineralisation outside of Hobbs Pipe 1 deposit and enhanced confidence that the project may host multiple gold systems,” Dr Butera said in Sovereign Gold’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Going forward, the ongoing drilling program will continue to investigate further gold systems close to the main pipe and we will continue to upgrade the Hobbs Pipe 1 JORC-compliant resource.

“These combined efforts will see the scale and value of the project grow rapidly over the next six months in line with plans to become a profitable mid-tier gold developer in the medium term.”

Sovereign Gold has commenced drilling hole GHD010 in order to test a near surface anomaly of the Hobbs Middle East prospect.

The company explained the Hobbs Middle East Prospect lies some 400m to south east of Hobbs Pipe 1, and bears similarities with the main pipe.

Hobbs Pipe 1 currently has a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 16.36 million tonnes at 1.23 grams per tonne gold for 650,000 ounces of contained gold (using a 0.75g/t gold cut-off).

www.sovereigngold.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackthorn Resources (ASX: BTR) has announced a maiden Underground Ore Reserve for the Kitumba deposit, located within the company’s Mumbwa iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) project area in Zambia.

Blackthorn holds a 100 per cent interest in the Mumbwa project.

Kitumba project – Regional Location Plan. Source: Company announcement

A maiden 2004 JORC Code-compliant Ore Reserve, including 33.5 million tonnes of ore at 1.7 per cent copper for a total of 541,000 tonnes of copper has been calculated for the Kitumba deposit.

“We are very pleased at being able to announce a maiden Ore Reserve at Kitumba of over 500,000 tonnes of copper in Probable Ore Reserves on the back of our positive PFS,” Blackthorn Resources managing director Scott Lowe said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We look forward to updating both the Mineral Resource estimate and Ore Reserves towards the end of the year to include our recent stellar results from the Phase 7 infill drilling.

“We are also looking forward to updating the recently released PFS for Kitumba with a view to optimising the economic outcomes.”

www.blackthornresources.com.au

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Investigator Resources (ASX: IVR) has received has received positive results from recent – initial metallurgical trials conducted on drill samples from the company’s Paris silver prospect in South Australia.

The Paris silver project is situated within the Peterlumbo joint venture tenement, of which Investigator has a 75 per cent interest and is manager, and is located on the Eyre Peninsula.

Investigator released a maiden resource for the Paris silver project last week of 20 million ounces of silver at 110 grams per tonne silver and 0.6 per cent lead using a 30g/t silver cut-off.

The recent metallurgical test work was undertaken by the company’s consultants, the Core Resources Group, located in Brisbane, and was carried out on representative Paris silver ore types.

“We are very encouraged with the first-pass metallurgical results that indicate the Paris silver mineralisation is likely to be amenable to conventional extraction processes,” Investigator Resources managing director John Anderson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Metallurgical samples representative of Paris silver deposit
ore-types; grade, grind size and cyanide leach recoveries in bottle-roll
tests over 24 and 48 hours. Source: Company announcement

“Standard laboratory techniques achieved good silver recoveries for a representative suite of samples of the Paris mineralisation.

“These initial metallurgical results add to the positive attributes of the grade, hallowness and open extent for the Paris silver project.

“More metallurgical work will be scheduled at the appropriate time in 2014.

“This is expected to achieve even better recoveries through optimisation of the processing pathway.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Doray Minerals (ASX: DRM) has intersected a third mineralised zone at the company’s high-grade Andy Well gold project near Meekatharra in Western Australia.

The new ‘Suzie Zone, located parallel to the high-grade Wilber and Judy gold deposits at Andy Well.

Doray recently completed RC drilling within the Suzie Zone, which has intersected a mineralised quartz lode and shear zone over approximately 250 metres of strike and from approximately five metres below surface down to a maximum depth of 120m.

Plan view of Suzie Zone in relation to Judy and Wilber Zones. Source: Company announcement

Results from the current program include:

–    1 metre at 12.9 grams per tonne gold from 102 to 103m;

–    4m at 8g/t gold from 46-50m, including 2m at 14.8g/t gold from 47 to 49m;

–     1m at 7.3g/t gold from 50 to 51m;

–    2m at 12.1g/t gold from 96 to 98m, including 1m at 21.0g/t gold from 97 to 98m;

–    2m at 6.9g/t gold from 127 to 129m; and

–    3m at 2.7g/t gold from 98 to 101m.

“When we made the decision to proceed with development of Andy Well last year, we were very confident of the potential to discover additional high-grade deposits within the project area, given the lack of previous exploration for this style of mineralisation,” Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Earlier this year, we announced a high-grade gold resource at Judy, the second high-grade gold resource at Andy Well.

“Now, with our first drilling campaign since moving into production, we have identified another high-grade zone, which, following further exploration success and when combined with Judy, could take the mine life of Andy Well out to almost six years.
 
The Suzie Zone was identified through a recent targeting exercise undertaken by Doray in which all exploration data generated to date at Andy Well were compiled and re-analysed using the increased understanding gained from mining of the Wilber Lode deposit so far.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Traka Resources (ASX: TKL) announced the identification of a number of electromagnetic (EM) targets by its joint venture partner Western Areas (ASX: WSA) in the Jameson area of the company’s Musgrave project.

Traka entered into the JV with Western Areas in June 2013, immediately after which WSA embarked on a program of work in a number of priority areas highlighted by previous exploration activity.

Traka said it had been encouraged by the progress the JV has achieved to date, which it considers to be a positive indication of any follow up work and drilling to come.

According to the company’s ASX announcement Western Areas plans to build on the results Traka has generated by way of exploration activities as well as utilising its own in-house experience to focus on the discovery of higher grade mafic hosted ore-bodies.

Recent exploration activities involved ground geophysical surveys of previously-identified priority targets areas, during which two EM crews systematically screened approximately 90 square kilometres of the project looking for the presence of conductors indicative of nickel and copper sulphides.

Plan showing JV tenure (blue), known nickel-copper deposits (green
stars), and recently defined EM anomalies (yellow stars) over TMI
magnetic. Source: Company announcement

“The data from the surveys has returned a number of conductive targets which are located on or adjacent to interpreted mafic intrusions,” Traka said in its ASX announcement.

“A number of these conductors are also located in areas of previously defined nickel and copper geochemical anomalism.

“Given their favourable nature and interpreted geological setting, the discovery of these conductive anomalies is extremely encouraging for the presence of nickel and/or copper sulphides.

“Further modelling of the conductive responses will be undertaken prior to the planning of drilling.”