THE DRILL SERGEANT: Northern Star Resources has received the latest round of results from infill and resource drilling being conducted on the 25 grams per tonne gold Extension zone of the Voyager 1 lode at the company’s Paulsens gold mine in Western Australia.
 
The company said the results provide further evidence it is on track to deliver the sharp increases in production and cash generation it has forecast for 2013.

Northern Star now anticipates grades at Paulsens will be increased next year from the current head-grade of around seven grams per tonne, which will in turn help drive a rise in production to as much as 115,000 ounces of gold, a lowering of costs resulting in surplus cash generation of $65 to $85 million next calendar year.

 

Long Section view of significant drill results for Voyager One including the Extension zone. Source: Company announcement

“These latest drilling results reinforce our strategy to deliver sharply higher production and cashflow next year,” Northern Star Resources managing director Bill Beament said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“At the same time, we have a multi-pronged exploration program underway in and around Paulsens and at our neighbouring Ashburton project.

“We are confident that these programs will be generating substantial growth in our inventory and further increases in mine life, production and cashflow.”

The Voyager 1 lode is currently the main ore source at Paulsens and has produced 170,000 ounces over the past two years.

The lode continues to be open down plunge and the company believes this lode will continue to grow and be the mainstay for production for a number of years.

The high-grade extension zone at Voyager 1 formed the major part of Northern Star’s recently released resource upgrade on the Paulsens project to 403,000 ounces of gold.

The latest drilling results from Voyager 1 were not included in the resource upgrade.

Northern Star has intersected the extension zone ahead of its initial timeframe of the December Quarter 2012, which the company outlined will result in the higher-grade ore boosting the project’s production profile sooner.

The first development level in the extension has been underway for the past month with face grades averaging 12g/t so far.

The first extension zone level is one of the highest grade levels ever developed in the seven-year history of the Paulsens mine.

The company expects future head-grade will also be boosted by the fact that historical mine performance indicates stoping/production grades are normally higher than development grades.

 

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Bullabulling Gold has received assay results from a completed program of infill drilling at the company’s Bullabulling gold project in Western Australia.

Bullabulling conducted the drilling targeting two areas where it was seeking additional information to finalise open pit designs for a prefeasibility study it currently has underway to evaluate development of the 3.4 million‐ounce Bullabulling gold project.

 

Drill hole collar locations with July 2012 holes shown in red. Source: Company announcement

 

The drilling from Bacchus East tested areas below the Bacchus Pit, where hole spacing was previously too broad to confirm geological continuity reported healthy intercepts including:

–    24 metres at 1.14 grams per tonne gold from 19 metres;

–    11m at 1.10g/t gold from 212m;

–    3m at 3.18g/t gold from 75m; and

–    5m at 1.59g/t gold from 48m.

“The results demonstrate down‐dip continuity of the footwall lodes in Bacchus East below the Bacchus Pit and confirm significant widths of higher grade mineralisation (+1g/t gold) remain open at depth,” Bullabulling Gold said in its ASX announcement.

“This is expected to lead to an expansion of the resource in this area.”

Drilling also tested a largely undrilled section of the corridor between the Hobbit and Dickson’s Prospects, which is traversed by the Great Eastern Highway.

Results from the two drill fences immediately adjacent to the road reserve indicate that mineralisation is sporadically developed in close proximity to the highway.

This drilling also returned encouraging results, including:

–    8m at 6.59g/t gold;

–    10m at 0.88g/t gold; and

–    8m at 1.53g/t gold.

“The drilling between Hobbit and Dickson’s has successfully demonstrated continuity of mineralisation along strike, albeit with some thinning evident immediately adjacent to the highway,” the company said.

“It is anticipated that this will expand the resource and increase the mining inventory within this area.

“An assessment of whether there is sufficient additional resource present to warrant relocation of the highway will be incorporated into the prefeasibility study.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Alara Resources has received encouraging assay results from a diamond drill program currently underway at the company’s Washihi copper-gold Joint Venture project in Oman (Alara earning 75 per cent).

The company announced results of a hole drilled in the middle of a recently identified magnetic anomaly, which it claims to have confirmed continuous copper mineralisation.

Assay results of the latest drilling showed:

–    112.35 metres at 0.78 per cent copper and 0.11 grams per tonne gold from 112.65 metres, including 67.35 metres at 1.0 per cent copper from 112.65 metres and 12.75 metres at 7.5 grams per tonne silver from 105.25 metres.

 

Drill hole locations at the Washihi copper-gold project. Source: Company announcement

 

The results follow three previous holes drilled within the low magnetic anomaly, which returned:

–    72m at 1.3 per cent copper and 0.15g/t gold;

–    18m at 1.4 per cent copper and 0.21g/t gold; and

–    40m at 0.6 per cent copper and 0.21g/t gold.

Alara claims its exploration activities have discovered copper-gold-silver mineralisation at Washihi thickens and extends considerably.

Prior to the commencement of the company’s current drill program, historical exploration had been focused to the south and south-east of current drill holes.

According to Alara its current drilling has indicated sulphide mineralisation to be open to the north-west and south-east.

Future drilling will be focused on expanding current mineralisation.

“We are now beginning to see the fruits of our extensive geophysical work including detailed magnetic susceptibility measurements on drill cores and drilling campaign in Oman where the most recent results have indicated the potential for a major copper-gold discovery,” Alara Resources managing director Shanker Madan said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These drilling results are very encouraging and provide further visibility around the potential project size and economics of the Washihi project.”

Alara indicated it will shortly be announcing further assay results from the Mullaq prospect, which is situated adjacent to the Washihi prospect, where the company said drilling has confirmed the presence of copper mineralisation.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Bassari Resources has encountered high-grade gold intercepts from a resource drilling program currently underway at the company’s Makabingui gold project in Senegal, West Africa.

Bassari is conducting the drill program with its focus on growing Resources at Makabingui to over one million ounces by year’s end.

The current resource drilling program has returned high-grade intercepts from combined diamond and reverse circulation drilling.

 

Bassari Permits – Kenieba Inlier, Senegal – West Africa. Source: Company announcement

Highlights from the latest drilling include:

–    6 metres at 22.8 grams per tonne gold from 192.3 metres and 2 metres at 4.8 grams per tonne gold from 117 metres;

–    3m at 36.6g/t gold from 45m;

–    2m at 7.6g/t gold from 13m;

–    4m at 2.2g/t gold from 88m;

–    1.1m at 11.9g/t gold from 106.2m;

–    8m at 4.5g/t gold from 99m;

–    4m at 8.7g/t gold from 95m;

–    6m at 6.7g/t gold from 46m; and

–    2.4m at 3.4g/t gold from 178.6m.

“The latest drill results continue to show the mineralised system is large and our expanded drilling program is growing the resource,” Bassari Resources managing director Jozsef Patarica said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have now drilled more than 18,500 metres with a significant area covered.

“With our step out drilling strategy we are still seeing continuity of mineralisation at depth and along strike.

“The latest results have also confirmed new lodes across strike and a continuation of the system at depth.

“Since recently visiting assay facilities we have also seen an improvement in sample turnaround times which will continue to be an area of focus for the remainder of the program.”

The current gold inventory at Makabingui stands at in 6.1 million tonnes at 2.6g/t gold for 503,000 ounces of gold at a 0.5 g/t cut-off.

The resource is defined to an average depth of 115 metres.

Bassari has concluded preliminary metallurgy work it said points to high recoveries and a simple processing path.

 

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mutiny Gold has updated the JORC-compliant Resource for the company’s Deflector gold-copper deposit in Western Australia.

Using a 0.5 grams per tonne gold cut-off grade, Mutiny announced the August 2012 Deflector resource model represents an increase of 61,000 ounces of gold, and a 26 per cent increase of average gold grades when compared to the previous resource model the company used in its recently released Bankable Feasibility Study.

 

Plan and three-dimensional view of Deflector. Source: Company announcement

“As expected, the recent highly successful exploration results have translated into a more robust resource model with significantly higher gold grades and additional ounces,” Mutiny Gold managing director John Greeve said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The key impact on the Deflector project is likely to be an increased head-grade due to fewer tonnes mined at a higher grade, which will be determined by mining studies.

“The drilling programs from November 2011 to March 2012 have been outstanding.

“Mutiny Gold’s exploration strategy has been to support a low-cost, profitable operation and the results have achieved this.

“With an improved understanding on the geological controls of mineralisation and gold distribution, the company will now aggressively pursue our corporate goal of reaching 2.5 million ounces for Deflector.”

The new estimate for Deflector includes all drilling, including high-grade intersections the company reported in June from the 2012 exploration program.

The Deflector resource now contains JORC-compliant mineral resources of 2.87 million tonnes at 6.41 grams per tonne gold, 6.82 grams per tonne silver and 0.95 per cent copper for 729,000 ounces of Equivalent gold including 591,000 ounces gold, 628,000 ounces silver and 27,000 tonnes of copper using a 0.5 grams per tonne gold cut-off grade.

Mutiny has commissioned consultants to update the open-pit and underground mine designs, with the intention of converting the updated resource to a new reserve.

The company said indications so far demonstrate the higher-grades have the potential to increase the metals production rate of gold and gold copper concentrate, with an associated positive impact on the economics of the project.

Mutiny anticipates the higher head grade should lead to a greater metals output per tonne of ore processed, potentially up to a 28 per cent increase.

The company said the resource model appears to lend itself to a greater overall increase in tonnes of ore mined leading to the expectation that that the deliverables from the new model will be a significant increase.