THE DRILL SERGEANT: Flinders Mines (ASX: FMS) has claimed the discovery of nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation from a maiden drilling program targeting those metals at the company’s wholly-owned Canegrass project, located 60 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet, in Western Australia’s Mid-West region.

The program consisted of 7 RC drill holes at two discrete targets, CG02 and CG39.

Flinders said all holes intersected sulphides.

The company commenced the drill program targeting copper and nickel mineralisation on the basis of geophysical data analysis it had carried out earlier in the year that showed the potential for the existence of sulphide mineralisation in the Canegrass area.

The company pointed out the new base metals mineralisation is in areas separate to its Canegrass’ magnetite iron and vanadium resources, which it considers adds substantially to the mineral potential of the Canegrass holding.

Assays have been received for only the first two of the seven drill holes, including:

–    13 metres at 0.91 per cent nickel, 0.58 per cent copper, 0.08 per cent cobalt between 104 to 117 metres, including 4 metres at 1.23 per cent nickel, 0.69 per cent copper, 0.10 per cent cobalt between 112 to 116 metres.

 

Total Magnetic Intensity image displaying anomalous areas
targeted (CG02 & CG39), with additional anomalous zones yet to be
investigated. Source: Company announcement

 

“All drill holes intersected distinctive ultramafic (pyroxenite) units, which are host to sulphide mineralisation of varying intensity and composition within a zone of disseminated to massive sulphides,” Flinders Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The similarity of geophysical responses, observed geology and sulphide mineralisation at CG02 and CG39 suggests that these targets may be part of a wider mineralised intrusive system.

“Total Magnetic Intensity, highlights several other associated anomalies. These anomalies will be further investigated during upcoming field activities.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Adelaide Resources (ASX: ADN) has received assay results from the first of two diamond drill holes it carried out in the first half of 2012 at the Wombat prospect, located on the company’s Moonta copper-gold project on Yorke Peninsula of South Australia.

The first drillhole, WOMDD001, returned the following intersections:

– 2 metres at 3.04 per cent copper from 198 metres (core recovery 77 per cent);

– 47m at 0.84 per cent copper from 236m (core recovery 60 per cent), including 22m at 1.14 per cent copper from 241m (core recovery 57 per cent), and 1m at 11.05 per cent copper from 295m (core recovery 35 per cent).

Adelaide said it has identified the main copper phase present to be native copper and it is now conducting screened copper assays to minimise analytical variability caused by copper nuggets.

The company said it has interpreted the main body of mineralisation intersected in WOMDD001 to be the same body intersected in adjacent historical holes MPD-05-21 (36m at 1.14 per cent copper) and MPD-06-22 (60.6m at 0.37 per cent copper).

Adelaide Resources has carried out handheld XRF scanning of the second Wombat hole, WOMDD002, which it said had also indicated the presence of copper mineralisation in a strongly weathered section of the hole.

Cut core samples from WOMDD002 have been submitted to the laboratory, with assaying now underway.

“We chose to target four prospects on the Moonta copper-gold project in our 2012 drilling program, namely Willamulka, Copper Hill East, Paskeville and Wombat,” Adelaide Resources managing director Chris Drown said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These Wombat results confirm that we have achieved highly encouraging drill intersections at all four of our 2012 target prospects.

“Our team now has the enviable, but challenging, task of selecting which prospects best warrant our future exploration focus and funding commitment.

“In this regard, results from the second Wombat hole, which is currently being assayed, will be of assistance in ranking the Wombat prospect against other of our Moonta project prospects.

“From a more fundament view point, these promising Wombat prospect intersections continue to demonstrate the exceptional and widespread prospectivity of the company’s Moonta copper-gold project.”

The Moonta project is situated towards the southern end of the Olympic Copper Gold Province on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia.

 

Moonta-copper-gold-project location. Source: Company announcement

 

The Wombat prospect is located in the northwest of the project in an area that is 100 per cent owned by Adelaide Resources.

Further drilling has taken place with the completion of the first diamond hole of a recently-commenced drilling program at Paskeville.

This hole was completed at a final depth of 353m with copper sulphide mineral chalcopyrite observed to be present in veins occurring sporadically between 83.7m and 330m downhole.

Geological logging of this hole has been completed and the core is now being sawn to provide drill samples for chemical assay.

Adelaide Resources anticipates results for these samples in late December.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Recent reconnaissance mapping and sampling work undertaken by Golden Rim Resources (ASX: GMR) has identified four high-priority areas within the company’s Sebba project in Burkina Faso.

Golden Rim considers the areas, located on the Gandi, Namantougou and Komondi permits, to represent immediate drill targets and has scheduled a program of Reverse Circulation drilling for January 2013.

 

Location of prospect areas at the Sebba project. Source: Company announcement

 

Tyena prospect.

This area has been previously partly-tested with broad-spaced RAB drilling lines designed to test a 1.7km long by 400m wide gold-in-soil anomaly.

This program returned results including:

–    8 metres at 2.43 grams per tonne gold from 0m, 12m at 1.46g/t gold from 12m, and 12m at 1.34g/t gold from 0m.

These were not followed-up due to other priorities, however the recent reconnaissance mapping in the area has identified a zone around 1.2km long and around 120m wide in the same area, which has been subject to recent artisanal mining.

New rock chip samples from mineralisation exposed in the artisanal workings has returned rock chip samples up to 27.7g/t gold.

“A new evaluation of the previous drilling indicates that the main zones of mineralisation may not have been adequately tested as RAB drilling may not have been able to penetrate the massive quartz veining in the area,” Golden Rim Resources said in its ASX announcement.

Kolankoy prospect.

This is a northeast-trending coincident soil and rock chip sample anomaly extending over 1.6km, which has been identified in the far NE corner of the Namantougou permit.

Rock chip samples up to 34g/t gold have been recently collected from mineralisation exposed in artisanal workings.

Samples of quartz veins with visible gold have been found in this area.

Komondi prospect.

The Komondi prospect is associated with a 10km long gold-in-soil anomaly on the Komondi permit.

“In the northern part of the prospect area mineralisation consisting of gold-bearing quartz / sulphide veins has been mapped over a width of approximately 30 metres,” Golden Rim said.

“These veins are exposed in artisanal workings over a strike of 500 metres.”

New rock chip samples from the area returned values up to 184g/t gold.

Bambeni 6 prospect.

The Bambeni 6 prospect lies on a west-north-west-trending structure in the western part of the Komondi permit.

“The prospect is coincident with a 1.6km long gold-in soil anomaly and recent reconnaissance mapping in the area has located new and highly active artisanal workings exploiting quartz veins hosted in a foliated porphyritic intrusive,” Golden rim said.

Rock chip sampling has returned grades up to 27g/t gold and 0.8 per cent copper.

Golden Rim said it is ranking the priority of each of the prospects and drill planning is currently underway.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Venturex Resources (ASX: VXR) has upgraded the Mineral Resource for the company’s Sulphur Springs copper-zinc deposit in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The upgrade follows the completion of a Reverse Circulation drilling program at Sulphur Springs, which Venturex said has confirmed high grade extensions to the Western Lens copper-zinc mineralisation.

Incorporation of the recent drilling results has increased the total Indicated and Inferred Resource for the Sulphur Springs deposit to:

–    12.83 million tonnes grading 1.5 per cent copper, 4.1 per cent zinc, 0.2 per cent lead and 17.6 grams per tonne silver based on a cut-off grade of copper greater than 0.4 per cent or zinc greater than 2 per cent.

 “This increase in the Sulphur Springs Mineral Resource is an excellent result with further upside possible,” Venturex Resources managing director Michael Mulroney said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We anticipate that this will provide a strong basis for a higher conversion resource to reserve rate for the Sulphur Springs deposit as part of the current Feasibility Study.

“This would be an excellent outcome and would confirm the long term potential and value of the Pilbara copper-zinc project.”

The increase in the Sulphur Springs Mineral Resource increases the total Mineral Resource for the Pilbara copper-zinc project to:

–    26.37 million tonnes grading 1.2 per cent copper, 3.4 per cent zinc, 0.3 per cent lead and 18.9 g/t silver .

Venturex also reported results of recent exploration activities on its portfolio of copper-zinc deposits in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia.

 

Whim Creek Region exploration targets. Source: Company announcement

 

The company has received most of the assay results for recent drilling undertaken on new target areas within the Salt Creek trend, located approximately 17 kilometres northwest of Whim Creek.

RC drilling at East Balla intersected a broad zone of footwall-style alteration (chlorite, silica, sericite and locally fuchsite) with local zones of disseminated, and occasionally semi-massive, sulphide mineralisation.

Venturex said the results confirmed the sulphide mineralisation within the mineralised intervals is predominately pyrite (iron sulphide) with traces of copper and zinc mineralisation and also highlighted a broad zone (up to 17 metres) of anomalous copper, zinc and lead values consistent with stringer mineralisation in a peripheral footwall setting.

Several RC drill holes at the Dough Boy prospect, located at the southern end of the Salt Creek trend, intersected broad (+20 metres) zones of footwall-style alteration but no significant assays were recorded.

The two RC drill holes completed 400 metres south west along strike of the Salt Creek deposit prospect intersected only minor disseminated sulphide mineralisation.

The two diamond drill holes completed to test down-hole EM anomalies positioned down plunge from the existing Evelyn copper-zinc resource on the Liberty-Indee Joint Venture revealed the targeted contact horizon has been extensively folded.

Both drill holes intersected small (0.5m) zones of sulphide mineralisation consisting of predominately pyrrhotite (iron sulphide) with minor zinc and copper sulphides.

Assay results included:

–    0.4 metres at 0.09 per cent copper, 3.36 per cent zinc, 0.07 per cent lead, 7g/t silver from 362.4 metres; and

–    0.6m at 0.48 per cent copper, 0.04 per cent zinc, 0.01 per cent lead, 4g/t silver from 335.8m.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Recent drilling carried out by Cauldron Energy (ASX: CXU) at the Bennett Well South prospect, within the company’s Yanrey uranium project in Western Australia, has identified a third high-grade uranium paleo-channel.

Cauldron considers the new channel to be of consistent depth, width and potentially significant length.

“The identification of this new 10 to 20 kilometre long channel by 500 metres wide, which appears to have 3 to 4 kilometres of the right high-grade uranium bearing sediments and is open to the north and the south and widening to the north, is a further significant development at this key Western Australian project,” Cauldron Energy head of operations Simon Youds said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Cauldron Energy has been undertaking drilling at Bennett Well South in recent weeks on the back of a recent drilling program at Bennett Well East that yielded encouraging results.

The company previously announced results from the first two holes drilled at Bennett Well South, which intersected 11m wide zones of uranium equivalent mineralisation from 91.0m and 85.6m.

Cauldron claims the latest results from drilling at Bennett Well South have established the presence of a wide paleo-channel, with a thick zone of anomalous uranium mineralisation, exhibiting high grades, over a consistent 2.5 to 3.0m vertical thickness in the drill holes.

Results include:

–    2.8 metres at 319 parts per million from 82.2 metres at grade-width 893 parts per million metres [ppm.m];

–    2.5m at 481ppm from 92.1m at grade-width 1178ppm.m; and

–    3.0m at 384ppm from 86.3m at grade-width 1152ppm.m.

“The extent of the uranium mineralisation extrapolated from these drill holes point to a uranium mineralisation envelope containing more uranium than initially established to be at Bennett Well and more recently outlined at Bennett Well East,” Youds said.

“The dimensions of the channel could extend as far as 10 kilometres to 20 kilometres in a north-south direction and excitingly the potential for further extensions of high grade uranium mineralisation with at least 3 to 4 kilometres of suitable sediments now believed to have the correct redox environment is a strong possibility given the drilling success at the Bennett Well prospects in the current drill program.”

Cauldron said it has been encouraged by these results and has high expectations for the Bennett Well resource extensions and new channels proposed for testing.

The Company has now extended its current program by 1,500 metres.