THE DRILL SERGEANT: Altona Mining (ASX:AOH) has claimed a new copper discovery at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Roseby project near Mt Isa in Queensland.

The discovery was made at Turkey Creek, located around two kilometres east of Altona’s 100 million tonne Little Eva deposit.

 

Copper deposits in the central portion of the Roseby project and the location of Turkey Creek. Source: Company announcement

 

Altona completed in 7 Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes and 3,571 metres of Rotary Air Blast (RAB) drilling over a 4.5 square kilometre area to test the Turkey Creek target and to test the area it has planned for infrastructure associated with the proposed Little Eva plant.

The Turkey Creek drilling was targeted to test malachite (green copper oxide) in outcrops over 800 metres of strike.

The mineralisation had initially been tested by two scout RC holes drilled by Xstrata Copper in 2011.

Altona said its current program had combined both RAB and RC drilling to define the extent of the mineralisation and the potential for an economic deposit.

Highlights from the RC drill intercepts include:

–    21 metres at 0.65 per cent copper, 0.02 grams per tonne gold from 23 metres;

–    24m at 0.62 per cent copper, 0.03g/t gold from 16m;

–    32m at 0.57 per cent copper, 0.02g/t gold from 61m;

–    41m at 0.47 per cent copper, 0.00g/t gold from 37m; and

–    38m at 0.46 per cent copper, 0.00g/t gold from 45m.

“The new copper deposit at Turkey Creek, discovered so close to Little Eva, reinforces the enormous potential for discovery within the greater Roseby project,” Altona Mining managing director Dr Alistair Cowden said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The deposit clearly has potential to provide additional feed to the proposed Little Eva Plant.

“There are a great number of similar targets to Turkey Creek within our 1,500 square kilometre tenure.

“Targets include combined copper anomalous drill and soil results, old workings and geophysical targets.

“Targets adjacent to the main Roseby deposits may have had recent work but those 10 to 30 kilometres distant may have had little or no exploration in the past 30 years.

“The Roseby tenements also show clear potential for both Dugald River zinc-lead-silver and Mary Kathleen uranium targets.”

The seven RC holes drilled at Turkey Creek all intersected low to medium grade copper mineralisation including higher grade zones up to 5 metres at 1.18 per cent copper.

Alton said the drilling has confirmed a 400m strike length of mineralisation with widths ranging up to 50m.

The mineralisation encountered by the RC drilling is open down dip and along strike to the north and to the south.

The company explained the sulphide mineralisation appears to be chalcocite dominant and low in gold, which is a new mineralisation style for the Roseby deposits.

Altona said the drilling has provided it with sufficient data for an initial inferred resource estimate to be completed later this year.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Graphite exploration play Lamboo Resources (ASX:LMB) is anticipating completion of exploration drilling of flake graphite Targets 2 and 3 at the company’s McIntosh graphite project in the East Kimberley of Western Australia ahead of schedule by the end of September.

Lamboo said it expects drilling of Target 1 to be completed by the end of October, which will include diamond drilling.

The company said targeted drilling had been made possible due to an extensive geophysical IP program coupled with detailed geological mapping that it claims has confirmed the presence of the graphite schist horizons.

Lamboo secured appropriate rigs for its exploration program in June, since when it has rapidly completed ground and geophysical work enabling a more targeted and efficient drill program.

 

Lamboo Resources Flake graphite McIntosh tenements and targets. Source: Company announcement

 

Lamboo has now completed 15 drill holes on traverses 100 metres apart and successfully intersected flake graphite in all drill holes.

The graphite schist horizon at Target 2 has been confirmed over a strike length of 900 m with the overall strike length of this target zone expected to be in excess of 1.5 kilometres.

This forms part of the aggregate strike exceeding 10km.

“Drilling results have confirmed the presence of wide intervals of graphite schist and graphitic gneiss,” Lamboo Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“A down hole intercept of 28 metres of graphitic marble and schist was achieved from surface in drill hole T2GRC040.

“Ongoing drilling has confirmed the presence of high-grade flake graphite that appears like graphitic ‘paint’ in some holes.”

Lamboo said it expected beneficiation of the graphite should not represent a major hurdle as it has demonstrated easy separation in drill hole water forming a characteristic sheen where the individual flakes can be discerned.

Petrographic analysis the company has conducted of surface samples has also highlighted graphite flakes at a microscopic level.

“These observations bode well for a relatively simple beneficiation – flotation process,” Lamboo said.

“This will have obvious implications for future flake graphite production in terms of substantially lower costs.

“Follow up drill results from the program at McIntosh Graphite are consistent with the above intercepts confirming the consistency of high quality flake graphite within the tenements.

“RC drilling will prove to be the most cost effective way of providing an assessment of the targets and achieving an initial resource for the project.”

Lamboo Resources holds the McIntosh flake graphite tenements, which now cover an area of 330 square kilometres and contain extensive flake graphite schist horizons.

The tenements extend to the Great Northern Highway affording direct access to infrastructure and the port of Wyndham, 300km to the north.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) has intersected further high-grade gold mineralisation while conducting new drilling below historic open pit areas at the company’s wholly-owned producing Mt Magnet gold mine in Western Australia.

Results received to date from reverse circulation (RC) drilling under the Water Tank Hill pit, include:

–    14 metres at 5.56 grams per tonne gold from 202 metres, including 5 metres at 13.3 grams per tonne gold;

–    11m at 10.85g/t gold from 254m, including 5m at 21.17g/t gold;

–    12m at 12.14g/t gold from 240m, including 5m at 24.06g/t gold; and

–    11m at 5.39g/t gold from 265m, including 6m at 8.29g/t gold.

Ramelius has received assay results for the first four confirmatory holes from an ongoing nine hole RC drilling program being undertaken below the Water Tank Hill pit, located south-southeast of the company’s Checkers Mill at Mt Magnet and west of the historical St George underground mine portal.

“Gold mineralisation at Water Tank Hill is associated with brecciated and sulphidic banded iron formation (BIF) sequences,” Ramelius explained in its ASX announcement.

“The gold mineralisation occupies a series of subvertical, high grade, plunging shoots similar to the gold mineralised system at the historical Hill 50 underground mine.”

Two of the drill holes were completed to test below the historical underground workings (mined to 136m below surface) to confirm the dip continuity of high-grade mineralisation at depth.

 

Longitudinal section looking east, highlighting the recent
high-grade Intersections within the southern shoot (yellow boxes).
Source: Company announcement

 

Ramelius said assay results received to date, from these holes confirm the continuity at depth of Water Tank Hill’s shallower high grade gold mineralisation.

The two other holes were drilled to test the near surface limits of historical underground stoping associated with the northern Water Tank Hill shoot.

Drilling was designed to confirm historical intersection up to 9m at 10.4g/t gold.

Ramelius said it had been encouraged by these holes as no voids or backfill were encountered.

Assay results for these holes are still to arrive back from the chemist.

The company said further drilling will be planned once all results from the current program have been received.

The Mt Magnet mine continues to build towards full production which is on target to be achieved in December this year at a rate of approximately 20,000 ounces of gold per quarter.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Southern Hemisphere Mining (ASX:SUH) (TSXV:SH) has increased the resource inventory for the company’s Llahuin copper project, located north of Santiago in central Chile.

Southern Hemisphere said recent drilling undertaken at Llahuin had also outlined a high-grade core with the potential to significantly enhance project economics.

The company said the resource upgrade supports its plans to develop a copper-gold operation at Llahuin as it underpins the progress of an ongoing Scoping Study, which is targeting initial production of 45,000 to 50,000 tonnes per annum of copper metal plus gold credits.

This Scoping Study is scheduled to be delivered in the December 2012 Quarter.

The updated JORC Code and NI 43-101-compliant Mineral Resource has been achieved within a total of fifteen months since Southern Hemisphere commenced initial exploration drilling.

It comprises a Measured and Indicated Resource of 144.9 million tonnes at 0.40 per cent copper equivalent containing 435,650 tonnes of copper and 459,180 ounces of gold.

According to the company this represents a 36 per cent increase in resource tonnage, a 37 per cent increase in contained copper and a 50 per cent increase in contained gold compared to the Maiden JORC and NI 43-101 Mineral Resource estimate it had completed in April this year (106.2Mt at 0.40 per cent copper equivalent for 318,000 tonnes of copper and 307,000 ounces of gold).

 

Upgrade of Maiden Resource Estimate. Source: Company announcement

 

“Our target is a mine with an annual throughput of 12 million tonnes, which would require the identification of 180 million tonnes of mill feed,” Southern Hemisphere managing director Trevor Tennant said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The next steps for this project will be to further expand the resource in the Cerro de Oro Zone and newly discovered Ferrocarril Zone with ongoing drilling, to test for extensions to the high-grade core at the Central Porphyry Zone and to complete the Scoping Study during the December Quarter.

“We believe we have a very significant copper-gold project on our hands at Llahuin and we are looking forward to progressing it to the next level.”

Southern Hemisphere said the drill results it received to enable it to complete the resource update also provide it with a flexible approach to production scheduling.

Recent drilling it has carried out at the Llahuin Central Porphyry Zone has delineated a high-grade core, currently showing 51 million tonnes at 0.50 per cent copper equivalent, which the company anticipates will be easily accessible as well as possessing the potential to provide higher grade feed during the early stages of production.

This, Southern Hemisphere said, would significantly enhance the financial robustness of the project as it represents an important strategic development for production scheduling and economics.

Deep drilling is currently underway targeting potential extensions to this high-grade core.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Exco Resources (ASX:EXS) has received results from five diamond drill holes that were recently completed at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Mount Colin copper-gold deposit in northwest Queensland.

All five holes intersected primary copper-gold mineralisation (chalcopyrite) in the target zone.

Results for the drilling of two extensional and three infill diamond drill holes included:

–    9 metres at 1.67 per cent copper and 0.18 grams per tonne gold from 372 metres (5.6 metres true width);

–    22m at 2.27 per cent copper and 0.25g/t gold from 366m (15.5m true width);

–    8m at 2.04 per cent copper and 0.27g/t gold from 246m (5.9m true width) and 6m at 1.08 per cent copper and 0.18g/t gold from 257m (4.4m true width);

–    14m at 2.50 per cent copper and 0.18g/t gold from 261m (9.7m true width); and

–    15m at 5.78 per cent copper and 0.53g/t gold from 308m (9.0m true width), including 6m at 11.29 per cent copper and 0.79g/t gold from 310m (3.6 true width).

In its announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange Exco explained it had commenced the current program of infill and extensional diamond drilling in June 2012.

Two holes were planned to target down-dip extensions to the current Resource, with a further five holes planned to obtain sufficient drill spacing that may allow for conversion of Inferred Resources to Indicated status.

Three of these five holes have been completed. A further infill hole is currently in progress with the other planned hole scheduled to be drilled shortly.

 

Schematic long-section showing colour contouring (grade multiplied
by true thickness) and pierce points of new and planned holes into
mineralised zone. Source: Company announcement

 

Mount Colin remains open at depth and in light of these positive results, Exco has planned an additional two down dip extensional drill holes with one hole already in progress.

Results are now being incorporated into resource evaluation and project development studies, which are also currently in progress.