THE DRILL SERGEANT: Horseshoe Metals (ASX:HOR) has told the ASX how busy it has been drilling at its 100 per cent-owned Horseshoe Lights copper – gold project and Kumarina copper project, located in the Peak Hill Mineral Field of Western Australia.

Drilling has been underway at Horseshoe Lights since May 2012 testing for shallow copper mineralisation north along strike of the open pit.

Much of the drilling has been in shallow areas outside the limits of the previous mineral resource estimate at the North West Stringer Zone, which the company said has shown good continuity of the mineralisation.

 

Drill hole location plan showing significant copper results. Source: Company announcement

 

Laboratory analyses of the latest 8 holes drilled have been received with the results including:

–    18 metres at 4.4 per cent copper (38m to 56m); including 1 metre at 23.5 per cent copper and 4 metres at 8.6 per cent copper;

–    17m at 0.9 per cent copper (72m to 89m); including 4m at 2.4 per cent copper;

–    15m at 1.6 per cent copper (115m to 130m); and

–    26m at 1.4 per cent copper (83m to 109m); including 3m at 2.5 per cent copper.

Horseshoe Metals completed its latest phase of RC drilling at the Kumarina project on 15 October and all drill samples are presently with a laboratory for analysis.

The company plans to recommence drilling at the Horseshoe Lights project in November.

Its focus for the upcoming drilling will be to test for deep, high grade copper/gold zones – potentially located down dip and down plunge of the Main Zone – of sufficient grade to potentially support underground mining.

The drilling will also follow up exploration targets outside of the immediate pit area which have not been adequately tested by previous exploration efforts.

A number of immediate drill targets exist including some untested targets identified during a geophysical survey completed in 2011.

The company plans to complete a revised mineral resource estimate once drilling has been completed and all database QA/QC matters have been addressed.

At a cut-off grade of 0.5 per cent copper, the current estimate is a total Measured, Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.6 million tonnes at 1.06 per cent copper and 0.13 grams per tonne gold for 91,000 tonnes copper and 37,400 ounces of gold.

The company is confident recent drilling and other exploration activities will lead to a significant increase on that figure.

Follow-up drilling at the Kumarina project is also planned for November 2012.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) has conducted reconnaissance auger soil sampling over the northern part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Dexter gold project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

According to the company this activity has identified a 14 kilometre-long gold-in-soil anomaly adjacent to the Yamarna Shear, returning peak values up to 59 parts per billion gold.

 

Dexter project – interpreted geology. Source: Company announcement

 

Breaker claims the results increase the overall strike length of gold-in-soil anomalies at Dexter to 32km with the gold trend remaining open to the south.

The best gold-in-soil anomalies were identifed in the northern part of the project, over an 18km distance, which Breaker said coincides with a series of stacked fault bends on and between the Yamarna and Dexter shear zones.

“As soon as we get confirmation of significant results we will progress from aircore to RC drilling and extend the auger sampling to unsampled areas of the project,” Breaker Resources executive chairman Tom Sanders said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is important to progress sequentially, identify any high tenor areas in the system as early as possible, and develop an understanding of what we are dealing with.”

Breaker has identified the apparent structural control, in conjunction with a gold-mercury-copper-zinc-silver metal association, to indicate a previously unexplored Archean bedrock gold system.

It considers the size, strength and coherence of the gold-in-soil anomalies, in the presence of significant transported cover rocks, indicate the inferred bedrock source is potentially large.

The company has scheduled an 8,000m aircore drilling program to commence in early November to determine the economic significance of the results over the northern 18km of the project.

To facilitate drill targeting, Breaker has already kicked off a program of infill soil sampling, which is nearing completion.

A series of aircore drill traverses will then be planned across the best soil anomalies defined by the infill soil sampling.

“The magnitude and cohesion of the gold-in-soil anomalies at Dexter is unusual considering the thickness of transported cover rocks,” Sanders said.

“By way of comparison, the Tropicana gold deposit, 80 kilometres to the southwest, has 15 metres to 20 metres of transported cover and is associated with a soil anomaly that is approximately 10 kilometres long (using a +3ppb gold contour) with a peak soil value of 31 parts per billion.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Kentor Gold (ASX: KGL) has revised its five year plan for the company’s Murchison Gold operation in Western Australia.

Kentor said the revised plan will increase production and reduce costs at the project.

The company said it is anticipating Resource estimates to be increased shortly as updates for a number of the pits at the Murchison Project are finalised following the recent completion of a 20,000 metre drilling program.

The new five year plan includes an increase in forecast average annual gold production from 24,000 to 30,700 ounces per year and a reduction in average cash costs of production from $1,223 to $1,075 per ounce of gold and strong cash flow at a range of gold prices.

“The revised five year plan has considerably strengthened the technical and financial aspects of the Murchison operation,” Kentor Gold managing director Simon Milroy said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“At the same time, cost pressures for equipment, contractors and consultants in mining appear to be starting to reduce.

“This bodes well for improving performance as the Murchison operation continues to ramp up to full capacity.”

The forecast performance improvements at Murchison follow completion of pit optimisation and design work and the revised mining schedule.

 

Pit scheduling in the revised five year plan

 

Kentor said the key change in the schedule is the incorporation of the high grade primary ore identified at NOA7 & 8, which will be sourced from underground and the incorporation of open pit mining at the Alliance pit.

The underground mine at NOA7 & 8 will provide a longer term source of high grade ore thereby lowering cash costs.

Further drilling is being planned at Authaal and New Alliance pits to target an increase in the low grade oxide resources that testwork has demonstrated are suitable for heap leaching.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) has encountered high-grade gold mineralisation on the Macnaughtan Line while conducting air-core drilling at the Tandarra prospect, which is part of the company’s Bendigo North group of gold projects, located north of Bendigo in Victoria.

The Initial results from hole ACT151 returned:

–    4.5 metres at 23.1 grams per tonne gold from 69.0 metres down-hole, including an interval of 1.5 metres at 59.2 grams per tonne gold.

 

Satellite image of part of the Tandarra prospect showing near
surface gold mineralisation trend, its projection to the north and south
and location of air-core drill holes. Source: Company announcement

 

Navarre indicated this is its highest gold result achieved for the Macnaughtan line, having only been bested by hole ACT015, which was reported in June returning 10m at 34.4g/t gold from a depth of 37m on the adjacent Tomorrow line.

“This result is further confirmation of the shallow gold-bearing quartz reefs we are discovering at this prospect,” Navarre Minerals managing director Geoff McDermott said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is further evidence of the similarities between gold-bearing reefs under shallow cover at Tandarra and the Bendigo Goldfield, 40 kilometres to the south.”

This initial result forms part of the first batch of assays the company has received for the first 16 drill holes of a 13,000m air-core drilling program which commenced at Tandarra on 1 October.

To date Navarre has drilled 29 holes in this current program, which is targeting the near surface strike extent of gold mineralisation along the projected northern trends of the established lines of reef.

Gold mineralisation within these established lines remain open to the north and south.

“These initial drill results from the start of our second field season at Tandarra reflect our growing geological knowledge about this emerging gold province,” McDermott said.

The latest results have compelled the directors of Navarre to extend a current Share Purchase Plan (SPP) by one week to allow all eligible shareholders to soak up the news and have an opportunity to participate in the offer.

The closing date of the SPP is now 5.00pm (Melbourne time) on Friday 26 October 2012.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Talga Gold (ASX:TLG) has completed its stage 1 diamond drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Nunasvaara graphite project in northern Sweden.

The 19 hole diamond drilling program was Talga’s first drill test at Nunasvaara and was designed to upgrade the size and status of this high-grade graphite resource.

 

Location map of Talga’s graphite projects and established transport infrastructure in northern Sweden. Source: Company announcement

 

The company said the drilling intersected graphite over approximately 1,200 metres length strike and to vertical extent of 140 metres depth, remaining open at depth and along strike.

Less than eight per cent of the greater Nunasvaara graphite unit has been drill tested to date, with Talga having recently commenced exploration of the remaining 15 kilometres of strike length.

The company has now received assay results from all 19 drill holes of this program.

Significant downhole graphite results were returned from every hole drilled.

Results include:

–    24.8 metres at 24.9 per cent graphite;

–    25.7m at 21.4 per cent graphite;

–    30.3m at 28.7 per cent graphite, including 26.3m at 30.2 per cent graphite;

–    40.2m at 28.2 per cent graphite, including 26m at 30.5 per cent graphite;

–    28.8m at 25.4 per cent graphite, including 4m at 30.8 per cent graphite;

–    33m at 19.9 per cent graphite, including 4.7m at 31.9 per cent graphite;

–    36.7m at 26 per cent graphite, including 18m at 30.4 per cent graphite;

–    24.3m at 22.5 per cent graphite; and

–    9.8m at 32.9 per cent graphite.

“The results are particularly pleasing for us as they having confirmed what the historical information indicated, and have even exceeded our expectations in some high-grade zones,” Talga Gold managing director Mark Thompson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Talga said it intends using the results to update the size and status of the current JORC code-compliant inferred mineral resource of 3.6 million tonnes at 23 per cent graphite and commence a preliminary economic Scoping Study in Q4.

“We are confident the upcoming resource estimate to be compiled on Nunasvaara will reach our target of 20 year mine life potential and our work program continues towards the goal of near term production,” Thompson said.

“The confirmation and expansion of this resource is but the first of several graphite deposits we expect to develop in Sweden.

“We recognise several significant opportunities within the mineral endowment of the projects, which will add value to our Australian gold assets.

“It is encouraging to see this becoming more recognised in the capital markets recently, reflecting our continued growth.”

Further drilling for geotechnical/pit wall studies or infill to obtain a higher resource status of the resource will be undertaken as required.

Pit optimisation studies are planned to commence in November before the preliminary economic study in December.