THE DRILL SERGEANT: Avalon Minerals (ASX: AVI) has advanced the two most prospective copper-gold regional exploration prospects, Tjarro and Tjavelk, on the company’s Viscaria project in northern Sweden to drill-ready status.

The promotion follows the receipt of results from a helicopter electromagnetic/magnetic survey completed by Avalon of its regional exploration tenements in mid-2012.

The company has designed 3D modelling of these results, from which drill holes have been planned to test the source of the combined EM/magnetic anomalies.

 

Location of Avalon’s regional prospects. Source: Company announcement

 

“The Tjarro and Tjavelk targets generated from the Heli-EM/Mag survey data are high quality regional exploration targets being coherent and coincident electromagnetic and magnetic anomalies which are very clearly anomalous from the surrounding geology,” Avalon Minerals managing director Jeremy Read said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The coincidence of the magnetic and EM anomalies with highly anomalous copper and gold surface geochemistry and historic drilling results adds to their prospectivity and is extremely encouraging.

“This has been the result of three years of successful exploration work which we remain very excited about and has significant potential.”

Avalon said it anticipates this drilling will be completed in late March-April this year, following consultation with stakeholders and gaining approval of the drill program by the various Swedish regulatory bodies.

The company outlined the aim of this upcoming drill program will be to intersect new bodies of copper-gold or copper-magnetite mineralisation.

Avalon intends prioritising prospects it considers could possibly be mined and trucked to the processing plant it is planning to build at the A Zone and D Zone prospects in the south-west corner of its Viscaria project tenement package.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Balamara Resources (ASX: BMB) has released an updated JORC Mineral Resource for its 100 per cent-owned Montenegro base metals project (Monty) in Central Europe.

The revised JORC report for the Brskovo deposit is summarised below:

 

Source: Company announcement

 

Balamara explained the Resource has incorporated the results of in-fill diamond drilling undertaken by the company last year, which included the results from 10 holes drilled at the Brskovo deposit, as well as at a newly discovered silver zone.

Balamara said the final seven holes from the Brskovo drilling program have pretty much been completed, with remaining drilling or assaying to be completed during 2013.

The company’s drilling in 2012 mainly focused on the main Brskovo deposit with only limited drilling undertaken to date at the nearby Visnjica deposit.

This resource upgrade is therefore based entirely on Brskovo, with further drilling planned during 2013 at the Visnjica and Zuta Prla deposits, which Balamara indicated may lead to a potential upgrade of the JORC resource estimates for these two deposits.

The company said its 2012 drilling program had exceeded expectations by upgrading a significant portion of the Brskovo resource from the Inferred into the Indicated category, and by providing valuable information on the deposit and highlighting the value of the higher grade silver zone – which has been incorporated into the resource for the first time.

“This is a solid result from a fairly limited program of 10 diamond holes, with a further seven holes still to be added Balamara Resources managing director Mike Ralston said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are confident we will continue to enhance the value of the Monty project as we further develop this asset.

“We are also considering geophysical survey work in 2013 to identify new exploration targets, we have feasibility work underway including metallurgical samples to determine concentrate recoveries, and we have a further in-fill drilling program designed that will move to the other two Monty deposits, Visnjica and Zuta Prla, during 2013.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mutiny Gold (ASX: MYG) has welcomed Canadian-based Sandstorm Gold to the company’s share register.

Mutiny has issued Sandstorm 22 million shares in respect of a USD$2 million converting loan provided to the company in November last year.

Mutiny Gold said the issue of shares recognised a critical milestone in the development of the Deflector gold-copper project in Western Australia.

“At a time when global financial markets were facing historically difficult times and project funding had almost dried up for small miners, to have put together this deal with Sandstorm Gold Ltd was a major success story for Mutiny Gold and its supporters,” Mutiny Gold managing director John Greeve said in the company’s announcement the Australian Securities Exchange.

Mutiny Gold was able to reach agreement with Sandstorm Gold for the Canadian company’s first Metals Purchase Agreement (‘MPA’) in Australia.

According to Mutiny Gold the US$43 million ($41 million) MPA with Sandstorm will fund a significant portion of the Deflector capital costs.

This will, in turn, allow Mutiny to instigate a number of key financing aspects for Deflector’s development as well as providing additional certainty to the company’s bankers.

Mutiny’s principal lender Credit Suisse, which has an existing $11 million loan facility, is currently concluding the provision of approximately A$50 million in funding.

This funding will result in Credit Suisse providing debt finance of $25 million, with the remainder to be provided by a leading Australian bank as part of the proposed total $102 million Deflector funding package.

“Tied in with the quality drilling results we achieved last year, the subsequent significant increase to our JORC figures, the very robust outcomes of the Deflector Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), Mutiny Gold is well on track to achieve a number of major goals this year on the way to commercialising what is a very valuable asset at Deflector and then stepping up our plan to become a major new mining house with a number of nearby developments,” Greeve said.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) is beginning to reap the benefits of an ongoing $20 million exploration program being conducted on the company’s7000 square kilometre landholding in the Ashburton region of Western Australia.

Results of a round of drilling last year, which returned 9m at 12.7g/t gold, motivated Northern Star to design an RC/diamond drill program designed to target mineralisation open down plunge and along strike.

According to the company the latest program is returning encouraging results that are confirming the potential area.

In particular drilling at the Belvedere has returned pleasing results including:

–    8 metres at 14.7 grams per tonne gold and 47 grams per tonne silver from 68 metres, including 4 metres at 29 grams per tonne gold and 91 grams per tonne silver from 69 metres; and

–    9m at 8.7g/t gold and 21g/t silver from 107m, including 5m at 12.4g/t gold and 25g/t silver from 107m.

Northern Star explained Belvedere is situated eight kilometres from the company’s Paulsens gold mine on a 25km-long mineralised structure.

The Belvedere prospect is located within what the company has designated to be, the “Paulsens Mine Corridor”.

 

Plan view of the newly-defined 25km “Paulsens Mine Corridor”. Source: Company announcement

“The Belvedere results strongly support the company’s belief in the prospectivity of the 25 kilometre structure containing Paulsens,” Northern Star Resources managing director Bill Beament said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We believe we have some of the most promising yet barely explored gold ground in Australia.

“There is growing evidence of the potential for Paulsens look-alikes on the 25 kilometre structure as well as significant upside elsewhere on our 200 kiometre-long corridor.”

Last year Northern Star re-assessed historical data and defined a maiden resource of 18,000 ounces of gold at 3.3 grams per tonne.

The company considers Belvedere to possess similarities to the Paulsens orebody, where gold is also contained within a plunging quartz vein system.

Geological similarities are high gold grades, quartz vein-sulphide host, location near the Wyloo Dome fold hinge and proximity to key structures.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: The good news keeps coming for Sirius Resources (ASX: SIR) with ongoing drilling at the company’s Nova project confirming the continuity and grade of the deposit.

Sirius indicated it is currently on schedule for maiden JORC mineral resource estimate around the end of March with five drill rigs currently deployed on Nova.

Recently-completed infill drilling at Nova has intersected further broad zones of mineralisation consistent with what Sirius has encountered to date.

 

Detailed plan projection of Nova, showing location of new drillholes and assayed intersections. Source: Company announcement

 

The company has received assays for holes drilled prior to the Christmas break, which it claims has confirmed this continuity.

Intersections include:

625N Line:

–    62.34 metres at 2.98 per cent nickel and 1.38 per cent copper from 336.33 metres.

675N Line:

–    15.58m at 4.64 per cent nickel and 1.9 per cent copper from 417m;

–    34.23m at 3.54 per cent nickel and 0.88 per cent copper from 305.56m;
 
–    27.09m at 2.1 per cent nickel and 1.12 per cent copper from 214.77m; and

–    37.6m at 2.01 per cent nickel and 0.81 per cent copper from 330.65m.

725N Line:

–    33.92m at 2.6 per cent nickel and 1.19 per cent copper from 396.53m.

750N Line:

–    11.98m at 4.71 per cent nickel and 1.98 per cent copper from 396.76m.

The company demonstrated its confidence in the project by declaring in its ASX announcement that due to the large amount of drilling information it is now generating, it will no longer report visual intersections.

All drilling will now be reported once assays have been received.

Sirius has a second stage of metallurgical test work underway, which is also scheduled for completion by the end of March.

Drilling along strike from Nova is proceeding with two rigs testing a large area of what the company considers to be potentially mineralised contact.

“One of the holes drilled at the Tethys prospect, intersected two narrow zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation, attesting to the fertility of this contact,” Sirius said.

“The intersections comprise 1.18 metres at 1.44 per cent nickel and 0.31 per cent copper from 212.57 metres and 0.29 metres at 2.84 per cent nickel and 1.06 per cent copper.

“The first hole drilled to test conductor 3 did not hit the target.

“A follow up hole will commence once a downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) survey has been undertaken to guide this.”

Sirius shares dropped 3.11% to $2.18 during afternoon trading