New high-grade copper results strengthens Rex development options

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Rex Minerals has continued positive news flow of high-grade copper results from infill and extension drilling underway at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Hillside copper project in South Australia.

The company said the recent results have broadened its mine development options with assay results from the latest drill holes at Hillside demonstrating further extensions to the recently-discovered high-grade zones within the Dart and Zanoni structures.

Rex has an assessment of the development options for Hillside underway, which includes commencing production from a shallow higher-grade open pit mine.

This latest round of results of high‐grade copper intersections stem from drilling conducted at the Hillside project since July 2011 and as such they are not contained within the current Hillside Mineral Resource Estimate, which the company released in July 2011.

Highlights of the latest results from drilling at Hillside include:

32 metres at 1.0 per cent copper, 0.1 grams per tonne gold and 16 per cent iron for 1.2 per cent copper equivalent, including 6 metres at 3.1 per cent copper, 0.5 grams per tonne gold and 22 per cent iron for 3.4 per cent copper equivalent – Dart/Zanoni structure;

22m at 1.0 per cent copper, 0.2g/t gold and 17 per cent iron for 1.2 per cent copper equivalent – Zanoni structure;

30m at 2.0 per cent copper, 0.8g/t gold and 21 per cent iron for 2.5 per cent copper equivalent, including 8m at 5.1 per cent copper, 2.9g/t gold and 22 per cent iron for 6.3 per cent copper equivalent – Dart structure;

11m at 1.5 per cent copper, 0.5g/t gold and 20 per cent iron for 1.9 per cent copper equivalent – Zanoni structure; and

18m at 3.7 per cent copper, 0.3g/t gold and 24 per cent iron for 3.9 per cent copper equivalent, including 4m at 12.9 per cent copper, 0.6g/t gold and 28 per cent iron for 12.7 per cent copper equivalent – Zanoni structure.

 

High-grade drilling results received at Hillside located between 20m and 200m beneath the surface. Source: Company announcement

“The latest results, when added to the other recent high‐grade intersections on the Dart and Zanoni, have quickly provided Rex with valuable options to be considered as we move towards mine development at Hillside,” Rex Minerals managing director Steve Olsen said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Having completed the recent capital raising, the discovery of shallow, high‐grade ore has placed Rex in a strong position to maximise the value of the Hillside project.”

Talisman scares up exploration targets at Halloween

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: A maiden drilling program conducted by Talisman Mining at the company’s Halloween project in Western Australia has quickly delivered a series of encouraging gold intercepts.

Results from the 2,158 metre RC drilling program include:

–    10 metres at 3.56 grams per tonne gold from 84 metres, including 2 metres at 4.9 grams per tonne gold from 84 metres and 2 metres at 10.40 grams per tonne gold from 86 metres;

–    6m at 1.52g/t gold from 18m, including 2m at 3.26g/t gold from 20m;

–    28m at 0.53g/t gold from 70m, including 2m at 1.90g/t gold from 70m and 2m at 3.56g/t gold from 78m; and

–    2m at 1.14g/t gold from 62m.

The drilling program at Halloween was designed to test a series of copper-gold soil geochemical anomalies which Talisman said had been identified through an exploration program of geological mapping and in-fill soil sampling.

 

Simplified geological plan with drill hole locations showing gold intercepts. Source: Company announcement

 

“The gold mineralisation identified from the drilling program appears to be related to strong silica-carbonate-epidote-pyrite alteration along a volcanic sedimentary horizon and adjacent basalt with up to 25 per cent disseminated/stringer pyrite and trace chalcopyrite mineralisation,” Talisman Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“The host volcanics intersected in the drill holes also show pervasive magnetite development and strong manganese enrichment with elevated zinc-lead geochemistry.

“These are key pathfinders which are potentially indicative of a VMS-related exhalative mineralising system.”
Talisman said its previous exploration experience in the Doolgunna region has indicated Fixed Loop Electromagnetic (FLEM) surveys over key exploration target areas may provide useful exploration targeting information.

The company is set to commence a detailed FLEM survey over the Halloween prospective volcanic corridor.

The aim of this survey will be to defining follow-up conductive drill targets that might be related to massive copper-gold sulphides along strike and down dip from the better RC gold drill results.

The FLEM survey will be completed in April. Talisman indicated further RC, and potentially diamond drilling, will most likely be undertaken later in the June Quarter.

The Halloween project is situated 16.5 kilometres west of Talisman’s Springfield VMS copper-gold project and 11.5km south-west of the DeGrussa VMS copper-gold project, currently being developed by Sandfire Resources.
 
Talsiman said it has interpreted the mafic volcanics and sediments at Halloween to be part of the Narracoota Volcanic Formation, which hosts the DeGrussa VMS deposits to the east of Halloween.

Adelaide Resources confirms copper / gold discovery at Paskeville

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Adelaide Resources has claimed confirmation of a copper / gold discovery at the Paskeville prospect situated within the Moonta project, located on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia.

Recent drilling undertaken at Paskeville returned an un-bottomed intersection of 42 metres at 1.10 per cent copper and 0.11 grams per tonne gold, including 5 metres at 2.93 per cent copper and 9 metres at 1.69 per cent copper.

The latest results follow an announcement made by Adelaide Resources in March of intersections of 10m at 1.06 per cent copper and 9m at 1.27 per cent copper from the first hole drilled by the company at Paskeville.

Since then Adelaide has completed a further 23 aircore holes and a single diamond drill hole that have returned results including:

–    7m at 1.16 per cent copper and 0.13g/t gold;

–    7m at 1.07 per cent copper;

–    7m at 1.40 per cent copper and 0.26g/t gold; and

–    5m at 1.05 per cent copper.

The drilling also identified the presence of silver with a best intersection of 10m at 26.6g/t silver.

“Compelling targets exist along strike from the area drilled to date, and on the broader Paskeville geochemical anomaly which is much larger than the area drilled so far,” Adelaide Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“In light of these excellent results the company’s Board has approved additional funding to immediately commence follow-up drilling.”

 

Moonta copper / gold project location. Source: Company announcement

 

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

The majority of the project tenement is 100 per cent-owned by Adelaide Resources.

The remainder is held by the Moonta Porphyry Joint Venture, in which the company holds 90 per cent equity with Breakaway Resources holding the remaining 10 per cent.

The Paskeville Prospect falls in the east of the Moonta Project tenement in an area wholly-owned by Adelaide Resources.

Maiden Brazil drilling returns strong results for Centaurus

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Centaurus Metals has completed a maiden drilling program on the Fittipaldi prospect at its Serra da Lontra iron ore project in south-east Brazil, which has returned significant widths and grades of iron mineralisation.
 

The company expects Serra da Lontra, located 110 kilometres from the export port of Ilhéus in the State of Bahia, Brazil to become the cornerstone of an Export Hub alongside the company’s domestic iron ore business based around the Jambreiro project in the State of Minas Gerais.

 

Location map showing infrastructure in the immediate locality of Serra da Lontra. Source: Company announcement

Centaurus has completed a total of 2,900 metres of drilling at Serra da Lontra (1,600m of diamond and 1,300m of RC drilling), out of a planned 7,500m drilling program, which has been designed to support a maiden JORC resource estimate for the project.

“We are very pleased with these early results, which have given us significant confidence in the potential of this Project to underpin our export strategy in Brazil,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Our focus will be to progress the drilling, in parallel with ongoing geotechnical drilling at Jambreiro, as the basis for a maiden JORC resource at Serra da Lontra which we are confident of delivering in July this year.”

Highlights of the first drill results include:

34 metres at 36.6 per cent iron, 8.4 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.05 per cent phosphorous from surface;

15m at 36.6 per cent iron, 2.2 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.06 per cent phosphorous from 7m and 25m at 33.4 per cent iron, 2.4 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.06 per cent phosphorous from 59m;

21m at 33.9 per cent iron, 6.8 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.06 per cent phosphorous from surface and 10m at 34.3 per cent iron, 5.6 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.07 per cent phosphorous from 25m;

25m at 32.0 per cent iron, 2.0 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.07 per cent phosphorous from 61m;

23.2m at 32.5 per cent iron, 1.2 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.08 per cent phosphorous from 11m;

31.7m at 34.2 per cent iron, 4.7 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.06 per cent phosphorous from surface;

27m at 34.3 per cent iron, 3.2 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.08 per cent phosphorous from 28m; and

11.5m at 41.6 per cent iron, 3.2 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.05 per cent phosphorous from surface and 18.8m at 34.0 per cent iron, 1.2 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.08 per cent phosphorous from 19.8m.

Centaurus said the drilling provided strong support for its Exploration Target of 30 to 50 million tonnes grading 30 to 40 per cent iron for the Serra da Lontra project.

As drilling at the Fittipaldi prospect nears completion, the company will be moving one of the contracted diamond rigs to Jambreiro to commence the geotechnical drilling required as part of the Jambreiro Bankable Feasibility Study.

Blackham fires up new drilling program at Matilda

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackham Resources has re-commenced drilling at the company’s Matilda gold project with a program of approximately 2,000 metres targeting the Matilda Mine area.

The drilling will pay particular attention to shallow oxide mineralisation at the M10 prospect.

The current drilling follows on from the company’s first campaign at Matilda in February, which returned a number of high-grade intercepts from the M10 prospect including:

–    16 metres at 4.50 grams per tonne gold from 34 metres;

–    7m at14.0g/t gold from 74m;

–    8m at 9.98g/t gold from 107m; and

–    6m at 5.11g/t gold from 41m.

Blackham said the February drilling identified a core shoot, which remains open up and down plunge as well as extensive supergene mineralisation that is open in several directions.

 

Schematic long section of M10 deposit and recent drilling. Source: Company announcement

“This current program will build on the original program by testing the extensions of mineralisation as well as following up several new mineralised positions on the peripheries of the M10 prospect and nearby M6 pit,” Blackham Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Results from the program are expected around the end of April.”

In conjunction with the Matilda drilling, Blackham said it is continuing to evaluate resource opportunities at the project following its recent upgrade of the Regent deposit to 237,000 ounces of gold and a combined project total of 757,000 ounces of gold.

Blackham’s exploration work is targeting previously defined deposits, which it said are most likely to be converted to reserves in the near term.

Kumarina increases knowledge at Murrin Murrin project

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THE DRILL SERGEANT:  Kumarina Resources has received results from a recent drilling campaign undertaken on the Malcolm /Challenger open pits at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Murrin Murrin project in Western Australia.

Highlights from the drilling results include:

–    13 metres at 6.26 grams per tonne gold;

–    2m at 3.46g/t gold;

–    4m at 3.68g/t gold;

–    3m at 3.75g/t gold; and

–    1m at 2.85g/t gold (EOH).

“These results enhance previous results reported in the Prospectus and furthers the company’s understanding of the structure,” Kumarina Resources managing director Jamie Sullivan said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The results will be used, along with a further phase of drilling, to quantify resources available from expansion of the two pits, which were only mined to a depth of 30 metres.”

Kumarina drilled twenty RC holes for 1410m along the eastern side of the Malcolm and Challenger gold pits.

Step-out holes were designed to test for extensions of gold mineralisation under and between the two pits.

The company said the results provide further support to its earlier drilling campaigns in that it has demonstrated the mineralisation below the pit floor is continuous down to at least 55 metres.

The mineralisation remains open at depth.

Kumarina said it is planning further infill and deeper drilling to test continuity of mineralisation between sections and down dip.

 

Kumarina Resources project locations. Source: Company announcement

The company is now awaiting final results from recently completed drilling programs carried out at it Ilgarari and Nangaroo copper projects, also located in Western Australia.

Kumarina said it expects these results will be released later in the month.

Cleveland set to investigate Brazilian targets

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Cleveland Mining Company is following up a number of drill targets it has identified as being, “worthy of further investigation”, on the company’s Porto Grande iron ore project in Amapá State, northern Brazil.

Cleveland has The Company has secured two diamond drill rigs to immediately commence reconnaissance drilling, which will remain on the project area for at least three months.

The company said recently completed geophysics, mapping and sampling had identified five initial drilling targets.

First pass exploratory drilling will be performed on all five target areas, with drill‐hole design determined via field observations.

“We came to Amapá last year and secured a 1300 square kilometre unexplored area linked to excellent infrastructure and surrounded by projects with significant iron‐ore mineralisation,” Cleveland Mining Company managing director David Mendelawitz said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Within days of beginning the first pass of work we had found mineralisation with iron content as high as 63 per cent.

“The company is greatly encouraged by the geological fieldwork already performed on its tenements and has mobilised a larger team of focused professionals and a couple of drill rigs to begin to test the initial targets that we have generated.”

Cleveland is continuing with due diligence on another iron ore project over which it signed a non‐binding Memorandum of Understanding in February.

The Resource at this project is currently undergoing re‐modelled to a JORC standard whilst the Company works on a Binding Option to Purchase Agreement with the vendors.

Correction: The Roadhouse originally incorrectly reported this iron ore project
to be the Porto Grande iron ore project.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

Fox launches follow up drill campaign at Ayshia

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Base metals development and exploration company Fox Resources is gearing up to commence a new program of drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Ayshia volcanogenic massive-sulphide (VMS) deposit.

The drill testing follows encouraging drill results from the Ayshia deposit reported by Fox during February and March 2012.

 

Planned drilling in relationship to recently completed holes, DHEM
targets and known mineralisation at Ayshia. Source: Company announcement

 

The company is currently in advanced discussion with a drill contractor and expects to have a contract organised shortly.

The new program is to consist of six diamond drill holes for a total of approximately 2500 metres of drilling, which is planned to test down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) targets Fox defined via a geophysical surveying program undertaken at the end of its last drilling campaign.

The company is of the opinion the DHEM targets indicate the presence of mineralisation both along strike and down plunge of the current drilling extents.

“Since the initial zinc resource was defined in 2006, no further exploration has been conducted at Ayshia,” Fox Resources chief executive officer Laurie Chew said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is now pleasing to see the results of our geological re-assessment produce positive drill results and exploration momentum.”

The previously reported results from Ayshia include:

–    34.85 metres at 1.1 per cent copper, 0.5 per cent zinc, 3.4 grams per tonne silver and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from 169.65 metres to 204.5 metres downhole;

–    23.7m at 3.2 per cent copper, 0.4 per cent zinc, 7.3g/t silver and 0.14g/t gold from 209m to 232.7m downhole; and

–    9.25m at 4.4 per cent copper, 1.7 per cent zinc, 16.9g/t silver and 0.22g/t gold from 259.6m to 268.85m downhole.

Fox said its recent exploration at Ayshia has highlighted the potential of the Whundo VMS district where the company currently holds, within its tenure, three VMS deposits for which mineral resources have been calculated, along with a number of other VMS occurrences.

Panoramic hits high-grades beneath Heron South pit

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Panoramic Resources has received the results for a first pass of resource verification Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling completed beneath the Heron South pit at the company’s Gidgee project, located 640 kilometres northeast of Perth.

Best intersections from the drilling program include:

–    6 metres at 37.13 grams per tonne gold from 123 metres;

–    8m at 8.11g/t gold from 146m; and

–    6m at 6.44g/t gold from 129m.

In December 2011, Panoramic completed a seven-hole RC drill program for 1,368 metres beneath the Heron South pit at the Gidgee project.

The company has now received final one metre assays results for this program.

In its ASX announcement Panoramic said the latest results, combined with several historical drill holes, have confirmed the presence of a consistent, steep, east dipping, mineralised bedrock structure beneath the Heron South pit.

 

Longitudinal section Heron South pit showing drill hole pierce points and grades. Source: Company announcement

This mineralised bedrock structure is open to the north, south and at depth with a consistent nature of bedrock structure that allows the company to estimate the true width of each intersection.

Further RC drilling and metallurgical testwork is scheduled for Heron South this calendar year.

Ventnor Resources receives Thaduna / Green Dragon assays

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Ventnor Resources has had previously reported visual intersections from drilling carried out at the Thaduna prospect assayed and has also received additional assays from Phase 4 drilling at its Thaduna and Green Dragon copper project.


Results from the assays include:

–    19 metres at 1.85 per cent copper from 246 metres, including 6.57 metres at 3.93 per cent copper and 19.2 grams per tonne silver from 258 metres downhole;

–    13m at 2.87 per cent copper from 130m including 8m at 4.48 per cent copper and 15.6g/t silver from 131m downhole; and

–    9m at 2.68 per cent copper from 180m downhole.

“The assays have confirmed our visual observations of the mineralisation and have increased our confidence to drill deeper,” Ventnor Resources managing director Bruce Maluish said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Particularly significant is the type of mineralisation which has been encountered as it conforms to a typical hydrothermal system and supports the possibility of deeper primary copper mineralisation.

“The deep drilling program is underway after a short delay due to the recent rain in the region with five deeper holes to test the mineralisation at 275 to 300 metres below the surface expected to be completed by the end of April.”

 

Drillhole location plan for Thaduna showing the location of the reported drillholes. Source: Company announcement

Ventnor commenced the Phase 4 drilling in January with a program of around 9,000m of predominantly deeper diamond core drilling down dip and along strike of previously outlined mineralisation with some RC infill drilling above 200m vertical.

In March the company announced a strong intersection of visible chalcopyrite and bornite, the core of which was logged and cut with half core samples submitted for assay.

Ventnor said it has also received additional assays that confirm a continuous mineralised zone over 520m of strike length under the existing pit at Thaduna.

The company has further infill drilling planned in this area as part of the Phase 4 program, which is scheduled to be completed following the current campaign of deeper drilling.

The Thaduna and Green Dragon copper project is located 170 kilometres north of Meekatharra in Western Australia.

The project is situated in the the Doolgunna district, 40 kilometres east of the Degrussa project of Sandfire Resources.