Prosperity hits gold-copper-molybdenum in first hole at Pelumat South

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Prosperity Resources has completed drilling of the first hole at the South Pelumat project, situated in the company’s 80 per cent-owned BAM Joint venture area southern Aceh.

The company said it was encouraged by the results, which support the mapping and geochemistry it had undertaken in the area.

The hole returned gold-copper-molybdenum intersections including:

–    17 metres at 6.18 grams per tonne gold, including 3 metres at 13.91 grams per tonne gold and 1 metre at 60.0 grams per tonne gold from 219 metres;

–    10m at 0.97 per cent copper from 227 metres.

–    26m at 1.5g/t gold, 0.43 per cent copper, including 2m at 15.4g/t gold, 1.40 per cent copper, and 2m at 1.84g/t gold, including 1m at 2.05 per cent copper, and 1m at 2.05 per cent copper, 2m at 0.06 per cent molybdenum, an 4m at 0.06 per cent molybdenum from 254 metres; and

–    2m at 4.64g/t gold from 310 metres.

“The drill intersections achieved in our first hole at Pelumat are very exciting particularly when taken together with the encouragement we are getting from our ongoing exploration in the project area,” Prosperity Resources chairman Mo Munshi said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The intersections have also added significantly to our regional understanding of the controls of mineralisation in the local district and elsewhere in Aceh where we have found mineralisation and will assist with planning our drilling program regionally.”

 

Gold-copper intersections plotted over summary of drill hole geology. Source: Company announcement

 

Prosperity said the mineralisation is associated with a zone of brecciated retrograde skarn and brecciated and hydrothermally altered microdiorite and includes wide intercepts of highly gold-copper anomalous rock and local zones with significant molybdenum, which includes:

–    16.3m at 0.27g/t gold from 30.5m;

–    28.0m at 0.24g/t gold from 69.0m;

–    11.9m at 0.36 per cent copper, with 13.1m at 0.03 per cent molybdenum from 85.0m;

–    19.0m at 0.30g/t gold, 3m at 1.33 per cent copper, including 1m at 3.39 per cent copper from 178m; and

–    5.1m at 0.04 per cent molybdenum from 223.9m.

Prosperity has now commenced additional drilling to test the broad zone of what it considers to be highly-anomalous gold-copper-molybdenum values in soil and rock chip samples associated with outcropping skarns and altered microdiorite intrusives.

The company is also conducting ongoing mapping and sampling to the south where it has identified several other highly prospective targets.

Prosperity anticipates results from this new work will be released once all relevant analytical data has been received and checked and compilation is complete and been reviewed.

Hill End sees gold in first Big Nugget drill hole

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Hill End Gold has had a pleasing start to a recently-commenced drilling program at the North Big Nugget Hill and Gundowda Shear prospects situated within the company’s Hargraves project.

The drilling is being undertaken with the objective of extending the gold resource the company already has defined at Big Nugget Hill.

 

Drilling on site at North Big Nugget Hill prospect. Source: Company announcement

 

Hill End said the first drill hole of the current program in the North Big Nugget Hill prospect has intersected well-developed quartz veining over 6.4 metres from 69.9m down hole.

The company said it had been greatly encouraged to see visible gold has been observed in the core at 54.7m, 70.1m, 75.0m and 76.0m.

However, assay results are not yet available.

“Initially 1,350 metres of diamond core drilling is planned on sections spaced at approximately 50 metres to test an interpreted 400 metre northern extension of the Big Nugget Hill resource to a depth of approximately 100 metres,” Hill End Gold said in its ASX announcement.

“If initial results are encouraging, the program will be extended by a further 1,950 metres to test the prospects to a depth of 150 metres.”

Hill End has previously completed four diamond drill holes and one RC drill hole at the North Big Nugget Hill prospect with one of the diamond holes returning:

–    23.5 metres at 1.1 grams per tonne gold from 29.6 metres and 14.5 metres at 1.4 grams per tonne gold from 142.1 metres.

As part of the current program, Hill End said the adjacent Gundowda Shear prospect will be drilled near the historic Eureka Gold Mine.

The Gundowda Shear has not previously been drill tested, although nine rock chip samples of quartz veins from near the Eureka Mine returned results of up to 81.8 g/t gold.

Horseshoe commences eponymous drilling campaign

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Horseshoe Metals has commenced a diamond drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Horseshoe Lights volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) copper gold project located in the Bryah Basin in Western Australia.

The drilling kicks off a major drilling campaign being undertaken by Horseshoe Metals over the coming months to test a variety of targets at the Horseshoe Lights project.

 

Project location plan. Source: Company announcement

“The diamond drilling program consists of a minimum of four deep drill holes for approximately 1,500 metres, with hole depths of up to 450 metres planned,” Horseshoe Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“Additional holes have been planned and will be drilled, subject to the results of the initial four holes and ground conditions intersected at depth.

“The additional holes may be drilled using the diamond drill rig, a Reverse Circulation Percussion drill rig or a combination of both.”

The company said its aims throughout the drilling program are to drill test a major anomaly it identified by a Dipole-Dipole Induced Polarisation survey located on Line 2 immediately south east of the existing open pit.

Horseshoe also aims to drill test a coinciding South East Shear Zone, where it said historical drilling had intersected zones of running sandy quartz hematite, which was also observed in the Main Zone during previous mining operations.

Navaho completes first Nevada drill hole

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Navaho Gold has completed drilling its first diamond drill hole at the company’s Utah Clipper project in Nevada, USA.

Navaho said the drilling encountered a strongly fractured, altered pyrite-rich dyke within a thrust zone returning results of:

–    5.9 metres at 0.12 grams per tonne gold from 1,077.5 metres (using a 0.1g/t cut off).

Navaho considered this result to be particularly significant in that the Carlin-style mineralisation associated with Nevada gold exploration is often associated with dykes of this type.

 

Utah Clipper project location on Cortez Trend, Nevada. Source: Company announcement

Another zone of 4.1m at 0.10g/t gold from 1,141.5m was intersected in what the company described to be strongly fractured and silicified Lower Plate rocks.

Both gold zones recorded anomalous pathfinder elements indicative of Carlin style mineralisation.

In February Navaho announced silver mineralisation had been intersected in the upper part of the hole.

It said this has now been found to extend down the entire length of the hole.

Using a 10g/t silver cut off, a further three intervals were intersected of:

–    7.6m at 14.5g/t silver from 697.4m;

–    2.7m at 15.9g/t silver from 960.1m; and

–    2.4m at 65.1g/t silver from 1,115.7m.

Navaho believes further exploration work, including a second drillhole is warranted on the property given the close proximity to world-class gold operations, a defined target with surface geochemistry potentially indicative of Carlin style mineralisation at depth and encouragement from the first hole.

Navaho Gold managing director Mark Dugmore said that although the hole was technically a difficult one to drill, it had provided the company with a good idea of the depth to the prospective Lower Plate rocks.

“This, along with the elevated levels of geochemistry (particularly silver, gold and associated pathfinder elements) gives us encouragement to review our geological interpretation of the area and, given the close proximity to Barrack’s Pipeline-Cortez operations, target a further drill hole to test one of the remaining targets,” Dugmore said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Consideration will be given to the use of a large capacity open-hole drilling rig for any future drilling to reduce costs and the drilling time.”

Straits hits spectacular copper intersection

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Straits Resources released a short yet fairly succinct announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange proving that in some situations words can be superfluous.

The company has received assay results from a hole recently drilled at its Avoca Tank prospect in New South Wales.

The assay results for Hole TATD017 returned:

–    84 metres at 2.86 per cent copper, 0.88 grams per tonne gold, 12 grams per tonnes silver and 0.95 per cent zinc from 395 metres downhole. (calculated using a 0.5 per cent cut-off and up to 6m internal waste).
 
This zone contained a higher grade intercept of:

–    411m to 468m: 57m at 4 per cent copper, 1.27 per cent zinc, 0.99g/t gold, 15g/t silver (0.5 per cent cut-off, max 3m internal waste)

Including:

–    423 – 440m: 17m at 5.60 per cent copper, 1.26 per cent zinc, 0.85g/t gold, 19g/t silver (5.0 per cent cut-off, max 3m internal waste); and

–    455 – 467m: 12m at 6.38 per cent copper, 1.09 per cent zinc, 1.46g/t gold, 20g/t silver (5.0 per cent cut-off, max 3m internal waste).

 

Long-section of the Avoca Tank prospect drilling. Source: Company announcement

 

The announcement of the results follows a previous release, in which the company explained it believed it had hit something big but was not yet in the position to say how big.

Hole TATD017 is the first to successfully target the main lens at depth at the Avoca Tank prospect.

“This extends the known mineralisation of the high grade lens at Avoca Tank, significantly, which now has a down plunge extent of some 400 metres,” Straits said in its earlier ASX release.

“The mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike.

“The mineralised package in TATD017 is a total of at least 60 metres wide (slightly oblique so true thickness unknown) and contains a number of high grade massive sulphide lenses containing chalcopyrite, pyrite and sphalerite.

“This latest drill hole confirms the major discovery at Avoca Tank made last year and validates that we are sitting on a major find.”

The drilling program at Avoca Tank is ongoing with Straits having a further five holes planned in the short term to test the mineralisation at depth.

South Boulder hits new potash zone in Eritrea

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Resource extension diamond drilling undertaken by Eritrea-focused potash exploration play South Boulder Mines has intersected further high-grade shallow potash situated between two existing resource zones at the company’s Colluli project.

South Boulder said the combination of the shallow nature of the additional mineralisation with its high-grade and location provides potential to boost Colluli’s economics.

 

The new zone of mineralisation sits between the existing Resource areas A and B. Source: Company announcement

South Boulder believes potential exists for potash to be largely continuous between the existing resources and will test that theory with ongoing drilling.

The current JORC / NI43-101-Compliant Mineral Resource Estimate at Colluli stands at 1.08 billion tonnes at 18 per cent potassium oxide for 194 million tonnes of contained potash.

This is contained within an Exploration Target of 1.25 to 1.75 billion tonnes at 18 to 20 per cent potassium oxide.

Highlights of the recent drilling include:

–    5.09 metres of high-grade sylvinite from 100.34 metres, within a total 15.86 metres potash interval;

–    6.12m of sylvinite from 68.34m, including 2.93m of high-grade sylvinite from 70.17m, within a total 16.12m potash interval;

–    2.93m of high-grade sylvinite from 88.49m in between Area A and B, within a total 13.34m potash interval; and

–    2.02m of high-grade sylvinite from 53.89m in between Area A and B, within a total 16.17m potash interval.

The company is of the opinion that the recent sylvinite drilling results demonstrate correlation with previous drilling and have potential to further improve the economics of the project.

“The new discovery is likely to make a material improvement to the already-robust Stage 1 production schedule and mining costs of the world’s first open pit potash mine,” South Boulder managing director Lorry Hughes said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The shallow depth of the resource is the key difference between Colluli and other potash resources currently being mined.

“Most existing mine production is from depths of greater than 500 metres and to depths of up to 1,500 metres below surface.

“We expect to convert a large portion of our resources to mineable reserves because we can utilise open pit mining as opposed to low-conversion underground or solution-mining methods.
 
“The operating and capital cost structures are completely different to all other potash projects in the world and this is a major advantage for Colluli.”

Investigator extends Paris gaiety

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Investigator Resources has received the final batch of assays for a program of reverse circulation percussion (RCP) drilling the company completed at its Paris prospect, located on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia in late February.

The company said the final batch of assay results has produced a number of high silver grades of up to 7,365 grams per tonne silver, some of which required several cycles of repeat assaying with higher level techniques including concentrate level assays being conducted in Vancouver.

The new high-grade silver intersections add to the mineralisation the company previously reported in February.

 In addition to the high-grade silver intersections previously reported for Lines 7, 8 and 9, key new intersections along the one kilometre length of the Paris target include:

North Eastern Zone

–    7 metres at 1,810 grams per tonne silver from 31m;

Western Zone

–    10m at 432g/t silver from 49m;

South Eastern Zone

–    19m at 965g/t silver from 42m;

Central Feeder Zone

–    14m at greater than 427g/t silver from 97m;

–    8m at 710g/t silver, 0.81g/t gold from 90m;

–    6m at 596g/t silver from 40m; and

–    12m at1.43g/t gold from 41m.

Investigator said the drilling had struck new high-grade intersections flat-lying manto-style sheets with extensions that still are yet to be drill-tested.

The company is excited by the recognition of potential vertical feeder structures including the Central Feeder Zone of at least 400m, which it considers could potentially add up to 900 metres strike length of high-grade tonnage to the Paris system.

 

Paris prospect – Drilling and interpretive target plan. Source: Company announcement

 

“The recent inclined drilling intersected the Central Feeder structure largely missed by the initial vertical aircore drilling that otherwise made many silver hits in the flatter manto-style mineralisation,” Investigator Resources managing director John Anderson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The new opportunity is for a three to seven metres wide vertical structure assaying over 400 grams per tonne silver similar to some of the better silver mines around the world.

“This interpretation offers depth extensions for high-grade silver mineralisation with increasing gold credits already evident in some of the intersections.

“Although we are starting to find the limits to the high-grade pods in the flat overlying sheet structures, Investigator is moving the Paris prospect to a new level with the recognition of the first of the mineralised feeder structures that we predicted to underlie a large epithermal system like Paris.”

International Goldfields hits new gold in Brazil.

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: International Goldfields has received assay results from drilling conducted at the Ana Prospect located within the company’s 93 per cent-owned Latin gold project In Brazil.

The company has claimed the results have confirmed the discovery of a promising gold-copper discovery.

Highlights of the drilling results include:

– 21 metres at 5.9 grams per tonne gold from 45 metres, including 8 metres at 13.6 grams per tonne gold;

– 18m at 3.24g/t gold from 33m; and

– 6m at 5.18g/t gold from 36m.

Best copper intercepts include:

– 9m at 0.23 per cent copper from 51m;

– 9m at 0.24 per cent copper from 33m; and
 
– 6m 0.68 per cent copper from 36m.

The company said the assay results of 21m at 5.9g/t gold reinforces the potential for the tenor of the mineralisation at the Ana prospect as it is of teh opinion this combines with previously reported intercepts of 18m at 3.24g/t gold and 6m at 5.18g/t gold to confirm high-grade gold mineralisation along the newly drilled east-west trending vein zone.

“While International Goldfields is very excited about the high grade vein-gold intercepts at Ana, and will continue to target quartz veins to bring forth potential resources, the team is also excited about the results of the surface geochemistry that defines several targets for potential porphyry style mineralisation,” International Goldfields chief executive officer Travis Schwertfeger said in the company’s announcement to teh Australian Securities Exchange.

“Identifying large, bulk-mineable gold-copper targets has been the objective of the company since acquiring the project last year, and the recent work at Ana has defined the project’s best target to date.”

International Goldfields said it would be undertaking detailed mapping of the Ana prospect throughout the month of April as well as integrating datasets with surface geochemistry results to define drill targets.

The company will also have surface geochemistry crews carrying out soil sampling on other regional targets in the coming months.

An agreement is in place for 6,000m of RC drilling at the Latin gold project expected to commence in May.

Corazon discovers new sulphide zone at Lynn Lake

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Canada-focused nickel sulphide exploration play Corazon Mining has claimed discovery of a new zone of sulphide mineralisation at the company’s Lynn Lake nickel-copper sulphide project in Canada.

The company said its most recent drill-hole (CRZ017) has defined sulphide mineralisation with approximately 51 metres of disseminated nickel-copper sulphides, including zones of up to four metres of higher-grade semi-massive to massive sulphide.

The drilling interested mineralisation at 670m down-hole.

This is at a shallower level and approximately 50m to the east of the strong sulphide mineralisation which has been the target of Corazon’s drilling at the Lynn Lake project since its discovery in 2011.

CRZ017 is the first drill hole into the eastern margin of the EL Plug, an area that has recently been highlighted as prospective by electromagnetic (EM) geophysics.

 

Source: Company announcement

 

“EM is effective in identifying massive sulphide typical of the high-grade mineralisation at Lynn Lake,” Corazon Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“Within these deposits, massive high-grade nickel-copper mineralisation produces a stronger conductive anomaly than lower-grade semi-massive to disseminated mineralisation.”

The company said it was encouraging this particular hole had intersected such a broad zone of mineralisation so close to, what it considers to be, a strong geophysical anomaly.

Corazon described the identified conductor to be significantly stronger than any off-hole conductor it has been able to define so far within the EL Deposit and as such has become a priority target for the company.

“While determining the exact location and dimensions of this conductor will require additional work, modelling suggests that the conductor lies east of and at a similar level to mineralisation defined by Corazon’s drilling and is possibly a parallel feature between 700 metres and 850 metres below surface,” the company said.

Corazon said it intends to continue drilling at the EL Deposit and in the short-term the eastern and south-eastern margin of the intrusion will be a priority focus.

The company aims to define the potential of the EL Deposit at depth and progress the Lynn Lake project towards development.

Black Fire encouraged by Nevada drill results

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Black Fire Minerals has received assay results for the final four diamond drill holes completed as part of the Desert Scheelite resource drilling program at the company’s Pilot Mountain tungsten project located in Nevada, USA.

The last two diamond drill holes of the program, DSDD-14 and DSDD-15 both intersected substantial tungsten (scheelite) bearing skarn mineralisation and returned encouraging down-hole assay results including:

–    13.9 metres at 0.89 per cent tungsten, 1.75 per cent copper and 31 grams per tonne silver from 198.7 metres, including 7.2 metres at 1.16 per cent tungsten, 2.15 per cent copper and 37 grams per tonne silver from 202.3 metres; (Hole DSDD-15)

–    20.3m at 0.35 per cent tungsten, 0.22 per cent copper and 6g/t silver from 188.1m, including 1.8m at 1.24 per cent tungsten, 0.20 per cent copper and 8g/t silver from 193.5m.

Other Encouraging results were also returned from the other two holes including:
 
–    12.1m @ 0.42 per cent tungsten and 33g/t silver from 153.9m.

Black Fire said the results achieved in hole DSDD-15 represent the best copper intersection ever recorded at the Desert Scheelite deposit and that it may be indicating a vector towards increasing copper grades.

 

Mt Pilot project – Desert Scheelite deposit – Longsection showing completed BFM holes. Source: Company announcement

 

“The Board is extremely pleased with the results of the final holes from the Desert Scheelite drilling program and are particularly highly-encouraged by the remarkable result of hole DSDD-15 which has successfully extended the Desert Scheelite deposit at least 150 metres to the east outside of the historic Union Carbide Feasibility Study area,” Black Fire Minerals chairman Anthony Baillieu said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These results have confirmed the company’s belief in the exploration upside potential of the Pilot Mountain project.

“Work has now commenced on the maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate for Desert Scheelite which is on track for delivery in June, and which will lead on to the scoping study to be delivered later in 2012.”

Black Fire said the latest drill intersections have confirmed substantial resource tonnage upside potential having defined significant tungsten skarn mineralisation over 650m of strike and a vertical extent of 330m.