THE DRILL SERGEANT: Intrepid Mines has expanded the Inferred Resource estimate at its Tujuh Bukit copper-gold project in Indonesia.

The increase resulted from assay results the company recently received from a drilling program the company completed throughout the last six months around the known porphyry copper-gold zone of the Tumpangpitu area of the Tujuh Bukit project.

 

Updated Tumpangpitu porphyry resource outline to December 2011. Source: Company announcement

 

The expanded Inferred Resource estimate at the project now stands at 1.7 billion tonnes at 0.41 per cent copper and 0.46 grams per tonne gold, at a cutoff grade of 0.2 per cent copper.

The previously resource estimate released by the company in May 2011 was 990 million tonnes at 0.40 per cent copper and 0.45 grams per tonne gold at a 0.2 per cent copper or 0.2 grams per tonne gold cut-off.

The latest estimate is based on 41 drill holes in excess of 700 metres for approximately 36,600 metres.

In addition to these, five deep holes failed to intersect porphyry mineralisation.

Intrepid explained that although this latest Inferred Resource estimate may be a significant increase to the May 2011 estimate, the company remains confident the porphyry copper-gold resource at
Tumpangpitu can continue to grow, as it undertakes additional drilling.

The Tumpangpitu oxide gold-silver zone, which stands at 130Mt at 0.55 g/t gold and 18 g/t silver for 2.4 million ounces of contained gold and 80 million ounces of contained silver, is not included in the latest estimate.

“While we are pleased to have tripled the size of this porphyry resource in just a little over a year, we still have not reached the limit of the resource at Tumpangpitu, let alone across the entire Tujuh Bukit project,” Intrepid Mines chief executive officer Brad Gordon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We will soon have 11 drill rigs available, including one capable of drilling to depths of almost two kilometres.

“We look forward to initiating drilling at the Salakan porphyry and continuing to expand our exploration program across this exciting project area.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Emmerson Resources has extended the depth and strike of both the Goanna and Monitor discoveries at its 100 per cent-owned Tennant Creek project.

Two new drill holes recently completed by the company have struck high-grade copper mineralisation.

“The drilling continues to build on two very exciting discoveries that get better with each new hole,” Emmerson Resources managing director Rob Bills said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“At Monitor we have extended the continuity of high-grade copper some 200 metres to the east, and demonstrated great potential for high-grade gold beneath; whilst at Goanna we have defined multiple zones of high-grade copper, also with deeper high-grade gold.

“Goanna and Monitor are 2.5 kilometres apart and lie either side of the historic Gecko copper mine and associated infrastructure.

“This raises the intriguing possibility of discovering further gold beneath the known Gecko copper mineralisation.”

The latest drill hole at Monitor was designed to test along strike from a high-grade copper zone of 27m at 1.75 per cent copper, including 6m at 2.67 per cent copper and 6m at 3.53 per cent copper previously intersected by the company.

The hole did not pierce another previously announced, deeper gold-copper zone, however the company said the multiple copper intersections achieved contained elevated bismuth, which it said suggested proximity to gold mineralisation.

Emmerson said the mineralisation is consistent with other recently announced intersections and has provided it with increased confidence of the continuity and grade at Monitor.

Drilling at the Goanna project returned the second drill hole the company has reported with visible copper.

Emmerson claims it extends the Far South Shear by a further 170m as well as confirming potential for shallow oxide copper.

“This new “shear zone” style of mineralisation found at Goanna and Monitor was largely blind to previous exploration methods and demonstrates the potential for a new generation of deposits,” Bills said.

“The discoveries at Goanna and Monitor follow a systematic, multi-faceted exploration program that utilised the world’s most powerful HeliTEM geophysical survey, compilation of the 3D geology and structure, combined with ground based deep penetrating Induced Polarisation geophysics.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Doray Minerals has added to the high-grade Wilber Lode Resource at the Andy Well gold project (Doray 80 per cent).

The combined Inferred and Indicated Resource for the Wilber Lode and two associated quartz vein lodes now totals:

–    691,000 tonnes at 14.8 grams per tonne gold for a total of 329,000 contained ounces of gold.

The updated Resource represents an increase of over 90 per cent from the maiden resource Doray announced in February of 311,000 tonnes at 17.5g/t.

 

Schematic N-S Long Section of Wilber Lode resource with grade domains and classification. Source: Company announcement

The company has now defined the resource to a depth of approximately 480 metres below surface where it claims it to remain open at depth.

Doary has also re-estimated the previously released oxide shear zone resource to 115,000 tonnes at 0.7g/t for 3,000 ounces of gold.

The combined Andy Well resource, including all quartz vein and shear zone domains now totals 806,000 tonnes at 12.8g/t for a total of 332,000 ounces of gold.

“Our recent drilling campaigns have continued to deliver a stream of high grade gold intersections from Wilber over the last nine months,” Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The substantially increased resource confirms the Wilber Lode as a very significant high-grade gold deposit and, more importantly, gives Doray the added confidence to push ahead with our current development activities.

“We believe that further drilling has the potential to again increase this resource.”

Doray said further drilling at the Andy Well project will consist of diamond drilling of a number of additional holes at Wilber to lift the status of the inferred resources and continued testing of the extents of the open ended resource.

It will also be subjected to RC drilling to test the potential for extensions to the Wilber Lode, as well as a number of nearby additional targets as well as aircore drilling of a number of other high priority targets.

Drilling programs to follow-up high grade gold results from the company’s Side Well and Abbotts prospects are scheduled for after the Christmas-New Year break.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Global Resources Corporation has kicked off an initial program of 10 diamond drill holes at its Aktarma gold project, located in western Turkey.

Global Resources described Aktarma as a low sulphidation hydrothermal system, with a structure identified over 1.5 kilometres, which is open.

“It is great to see that we are making the first real step of our exploration program in Turkey,” Global Resources Corporation managing director Simon Finnis said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

 “It is through the outstanding efforts of our team in Turkey that we have been able to get our permits with minimal delays and this has led to the start of this drilling program.

“We have been greatly encouraged by the results of the work done in Turkey so far, and at Aktarma in particular.

“The extensive vein system offers good potential for an exciting and significant gold discovery.”

Global Resources said five of the drilling locations it has identified are located on farming land.

 

The drill rig at Aktarma. Source: Company announcement

 

However, Environmental Impact Assessment had already been received, which the company said means they can be readily accessed for drilling as no further permits from government are required once approval from the farmers is granted.

The company is now waiting for forestry and agricultural permits for the rest of the first drilling program at Atkarma.

It said it is confident it will receive these permits for the drilling of the remaining holes.

The drilling program has been planned to test the structures Global Resources has interpreted from recently completed Pole-Dipole resistivity and Gradient Array IP surveys and from surface geological mapping and geochemical programs.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Perth-based Ironbark Zinc has received all assays from wide spaced exploration drilling conducted over its 100 per cent-owned Washington land project in northern Greenland conducted in August and September.

Ironbark said the drilling has returned widths of high-grade, primary zinc-lead-silver-barite mineralisation located around and along strike from a single discovery drill hole that was completed by Rio Tinto in 1999 at the Cass Fjord prospect.

 

Washington Land drill locations in yellow and mapped mineralisation in red. Source: Company announcement

 

The Rio Tinto drill hole returned 1.2 metres at 8.4 per cent zinc and 98 grams per tonne silver from 2 metres depth.

Rock chip sampling conducted at the time indicated zones of zinc-lead-silver-barite mineralisation up to two kilometres from the drill hole location.

This surface mineralisation was interpreted to be indicative of remobilised material and surface enrichment.

Ironbark conducted a program of deeper drilling that averaged 100m depth per hole over a strike of over 3km.

“All holes drilled over a 2.7 kilometre strike were mineralised with follow up drilling planned for 2012,” Ironbark Zinc said in its ASX announcement.

“The results validate the Washington Land project as having the potential to host a large scale base metal resource.”

Notable intercepts form the recent drilling include:

–    3 metres at 16.4 per centzinc plus lead, 77 grams per tonne silver within 17 metres at 4.1 per cent zinc plus lead, 23 grams per tonne silver from 48 metres; and

–    2.5m at 8.7 per cent zinc plus lead, 134 g/t silver within 9.5 metres at 4.9 per cent zinc plus lead, 65 g/t silver from 17.5m.

The prospect was originally identified in 1999 by Rio Tinto while it was conducting a brief helicopter reconnaissance.

Just the one drill hole was completed before a pre-planned demobilisation of the regional exploration program saw it up stumps and walk away.

No follow-up work has been carried out on the prospect until Ironbark’s drilling campaign this year.

During 2011 Ironbark chartered a ship to transport and establish a new wholly owned exploration camp and diamond drilling rig.

“The camp will provide an excellent ongoing platform for future exploration activities at the Washington land project,” Ironbark said.