Alligator continues Tin Camp drilling

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Brisbane-based uranium play Alligator Energy has released results from an ongoing drilling program being carried out at its Tin Camp Creek project in the Northern Territory.

Alligator has received results from two holes recently drilled at the Caramal prospect and six drill holes undertaken in the South Horn area.

Drilling at Caramal was limited in July due to a drill rig breakdown.

A second rig was sourced and used to drill the initial 6 drill holes in the South Horn area.

Drilling recommenced at Caramal in August designed to test for down dip extensions of mineralisation.

Uranium intersections at Caramal include:

–    20 metres at 2027 parts per million uranium from 24 metres and 13m at 3095ppm uranium from 2m; and

–    5m at 1184ppm uranium from 30m and 3m at 1194ppm uranium from 21m.

Mineralisation at Caramal is considered by Alligator to occur within structural breccia zones which are parallel to stratigraphy and is un-related to adjacent dolerite dykes.

“The results from recent drilling continue to confirm this model,” Alligator said in its announcement to the ASX.

“High grade mineralisation in CAD11-05 was associated with chert and chlorite breccias having strong visual similarities to the mineralised chert breccias from the Ranger No1. Orebody.”

Initial diamond drilling has been undertaken in the South Horn area with assay results received from the first six drill holes.

Four of the holes were drilled along strike from historic South Horn drill holes which intersected uranium mineralisation.

Drilling results from the South Horn Prospect include:

–    4 metres at 1061 parts per million uranium from 70 metres and 11m at 563 parts per million uranium from 41 metres;

–    2m at 1432ppm uranium from 76m and 2m at 1158 ppm uranium from  48m; and

–    5m at 978ppm uranium from 46m and 1m at 990ppm uranium from 34m.

Alligator considers a re-assessment of the area is warranted to determine the effectiveness of historic drilling orientations and the potential to intersect fracture and stockwork zones in the area.

The recent drilling has re-focused the company’s attention on the Caramal area and additional drill rigs have been engaged to accelerate drilling in September and October.

Drilling has commenced to the east of Caramal targeting potential distal strike extensions to mineralisation.

Drilling is also continuing to test down dip extensions to mineralisation to the north.

A further 2000 metres to 3000 metres of drilling is also planned in these areas in September and October.

Sheffield confirms scale of McCalls deposit

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Bulk minerals explorer Sheffield Resources has released the results from a 30 hole drilling program at its McCalls heavy mineral sand exploration project.

The project is located 110 kilometres north of Perth, near Gingin in Western Australia.

Of the 30 holes drilled, all returned mineralised intervals of greater than one per cent Heavy Mineral (HM), with all but two of the holes ending in mineralisation.

One drill hole was extended in order to test the depth potential of the deposit.

This 85.5 metres of mineralisation and was still in mineralisation at the end of the hole.

Drilling results that recorded significant intersections included:

–    85.5 metres at 1.52 per cent Heavy Mineral from 4.5 metres;

–    58.5m at 1.49% HM from 4.5m;

–    61.5m at 1.32% HM from 1.5m;

–    49.5m at 1.52% HM from 1.5m; and

–    45m at 1.60% HM from 6m.

“These drill results are excellent, and improve on both the average grade and the dimensions of the deposit as outlined by BHP’s prior drilling; confirming our belief that McCalls is potentially a very large scale, high titanium ilmenite project with significant zircon credits,” Sheffield Resources managing director Bruce McQuitty said in an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

McQuitty also said the drill results exceeded the expectations set by historic work at McCalls.

The 30 hole drilling program was designed by Sheffield to infill earlier broadly spaced drilling carried out by BHP, which had explored the McCalls region during the early 1990s.

On one section Sheffield completed 25 drill holes to infill 8 holes drilled by BHP.

What the company found to be of significance is that the average width and grade of the latest drill intersections is higher and the average slimes component lower than those of the BHP drill intersections.

In a release to the ASX in January Sheffield declared an Exploration Target for McCalls of between 1.5 billion tonnes and 2.5 billion tonnes grading between 1.1 per cent HM and 1.3 per cent HM.

The average heavy mineral grade of 1.35% for all intersections achieved from the recent drilling program is above the higher target range.

Sheffield considers this suggests either the presence of a large zone of higher grade material within the overall deposit, or a conservative grade estimate for the Exploration Target.

Aphrodite confirms gold at North Menelaus

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Perth-based gold exploration play Aphrodite Gold has scored some encouraging results from a maiden reverse circulation drilling program recently completed over the company’s North Menelaus gold prospect.

North Menelaus is located four kilometres north of the company’s Aphrodite gold deposit near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The company has recently concluded an initial five hole (874 metres) RC drill program to explore the North Menelaus zone over a strike length of 180 metres and to a maximum vertical depth of 180 metres.

Drilling was completed along three lines spaced 80m apart and in a zone where gold mineralisation had been reported in historic drill holes.

Historic gold intercepts achieved at North Menelaus include: 23m at 3.20 grams per tonne gold from 83m; 5m at 4.73g/t gold from 161m; and 2m at 5.48g/t gold from 122m.

All five holes drilled during the recently carried out program intersected significant gold mineralisation (greater than 0.5 g/t) with intercepts up to 15 metres in length (down hole).

Gold intercepts from the recently completed program include:

– 2 metres at 7.05 grams per tonne gold from 102 metres to 104 metres;

– 4m at 3.60g/t gold from 84m to 88m; and

– 15m at 1.33g/t gold from 122m to 137m.

“These results are very encouraging and confirm that our Aphrodite gold project has the potential to grow into a significant gold camp,” Aphrodite Gold exploration and development director Leon Reisgys said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.”
 
Although North Menelaus is still in early stages of exploration activity Aphrodite said it could still be interpreted as possibly representing an offset of the same zone/structure which hosts the Chameleon gold prospect located 500m to the south south east.

Recent drilling carried out by Aphrodite Gold at Chameleon has already identified gold mineralisation over a strike length of 600m.
 
The North Menelaus prospect is one of a number of gold targets which the company has identified within the Aphrodite project.

Aphrodite said it plans to undertake further drill testing of North Menelaus before the end of 2011.

Bulletin Resources extends Nicolson’s

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold exploration play Bulletin Resources recently completed a program of RC drilling on its 100 per cent owned Nicolson’s gold project located near Halls Creek in northern Western Australia.
 
Two deep RC holes carried out by Bulletin have extended the high-grade Nicolson’s Footwall lode to a vertical depth approaching 300 metres.
 
Results from the final assays from the drilling at Nicolson Find have been received. Two of these holes, which targeted the down-plunge extensions of the recently discovered Footwall lode, intersected gold mineralisation including:

–    5 metres at 9.3 grams per tonne gold from 263 metres; and

–    5m at 7.4 g/t gold from 314m.

Bulleting considers these results have provided it with further confidence in the down-plunge continuity of the Nicolson’s deposit.

The company expects to complete further drilling on the Footwall lode as soon as it is able to have the RC rig returned to site.

This is currently anticipated to occur in early October.

Two additional lines of RC drilling were also completed north of the Rowdies deposit.

Rowdies is located approximately 800 metres south of the Nicolson’s pit and is one of several open pit resource targets along the main Nicolson’s host structure that have been subjected to limited testing so far.

Highlights from this drilling include:

–    4 metres at 27.5 grams per tonne gold from 57 metres; and
 
–    1m at 92.5 g/t gold from 57m;

“These highly promising down-plunge results provide us with even more confidence on the resource growth potential of Nicolson’s at depth,” Bulletin Resources managing director Marty Phillips said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
 
“The recent drill results from Rowdies and the adjoining Wagtail prospect continue to increase the likelihood for further high grade mineralisation at shallow depths. This will contribute valuable tonnages to our opening stockpiles at commissioning.”

Now that Bulletin has received all results outstanding from the recently completed drilling, the company has commenced work on updating its current resource model.

Bulletin said it expects the new resource estimate for the Nicolson’s project to be released in the first half of October.

Two drill rigs have been booked for the December quarter.

An air core rig will be used to continue the assessment of the open pit targets at Rowdies, Wagtail North and Wagtail deposits in addition to commencing the sterilisation drilling of the planned mine infrastructure and waste storage sites.

Aspire identifies Mongolian coal seam

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Northern Mongolia-focused coal play Aspire Mining has identified a new coal seam formation.

The seam is located around four kilometres from the resource area at the company’s Ovoot coking coal project in Northern Mongolia.

The company currently has four drilling rigs working to determine the resource potential of the area.

Aspire has completed 5,000 metres of exploration drilling as part of its 2011 program, in addition to infill, geotechnical and hydrological drilling.

A further 5,000 metres of exploration drilling is expected by the end of calendar year 2011.

“The exploration team has now intersected coal in three holes approximately four kilometres to the north east of the existing resource area,” Aspire Mining managing director David Paull said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The coal was logged as hard, bright or sugary coal and we now need to understand the extent of this coal seam.

“We have pre-collared a number of the holes to start core drilling to get coal quality data and determine the extent and orientation of the mineralisation.

“This will indicate whether the coal shallows and thickens as we head further south towards the resource area.”

Results from the three holes – which are 1.7 kilometres apart – included:

–    A total of 2.8 metres of coal from 261 metres;

–    A total of 3.1m of coal from 366m; and

–    A total of 3.1m of coal from 338m.

Aspire has a magnetics program planned in order to determine the structure and shape of the Ovoot Basin and to aid in the identification of possible shallower coal seams.

“With this view of the coal being closer to the base of the Jurassic sediments, it is now evident that potential coal is still open to the north east and east of the existing resource area,” Paull continued.

“We are currently exploring this area as part of the extensions to the Ovoot Resource area and to further determine the potential resource.

“Currently four drilling rigs from two drilling companies are on site at Ovoot with a fifth large-capacity rig expected later in October.

“It is expected that all rigs will be available to continue drilling through the winter.”

A larger Coretech 1800 rig has recently arrived on site, which means the company is now able to drill the holes that are required to be deepend.

This will enable it to test for the potential coal seam extensions.

Aspire is also set to commence a close spaced magnetics program as a supplement to existing seismic data and to help guide interpretations.

The company is now considering ground versus airborne options to address the whole Ovoot Basin, which Aspire considers will provide it with an effective exploration targeting tool going forward.

Centaurus on track for Jambreiro upgrade

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Brazil-focused iron ore play Centaurus Metals has received final results from recently completed drilling at its Jambreiro iron ore project.

The company said the results support previous results, which demonstrated quality and consistency of mineralisation at the project.

Resource estimation work is currently underway with on upgrading the project’s current JORC Resource estimate (combined Measured, Indicated and Inferred) of 70.6 million tonnes at an average grade 28.0 per cent iron.

This is expected to be completed by the end of September 2011.

“With the receipt of all outstanding assay data for the project, we can now progress the finalisation of the Resource upgrade ahead of new pit optimisation and mine scheduling work for the Pre-Feasibility Study to be delivered by mid-November,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“All of the prospects at Jambreiro host a large proportion of friable mineralisation, which will provide the project with significant operational benefits at the start of future mining activities due to low operating costs.”

Drilling was carried out across the Jambreiro iron ore project deposits.

Highlights of the recent results from the Tigre deposit include:

–    45.5 metres at 27.9 per cent iron, 1.6 per cent aluminium oxide and 0.05 per cent phosphorous from 89.1 metres;

–    53.8m at 29.1% iron, 1.4% aluminium oxide and 0.04% phosphorous from 78.6m; and

–    54.1m at 26.2% iron, 2.3% aluminium oxide and 0.06% phosphorous from 121.2m.

Centaurus said these results will allow some of the existing resource, currently classified as Inferred but within the current pit design, to be upgraded to the Indicated category.

Results from the South East Extension Zone have confirmed the friable nature of the mineralisation held there as well as demonstrating the extension of the Tigre Resource into this Zone.

Highlights from the South East Extension Zone of the Tigre deposit include:
 
–    43.0 metres at 30.4% iron, 0.7% aluminium oxide and 0.06% phosphorous from 37.0 metres;

–    11.2m at 41.1% iron, 3.8% aluminium oxide and 0.03% phosphorous from surface; and

–    36.0m at 29.8% iron, 2.3% aluminium oxide and 0.05% phosphorous from 44.0m.

These results have also provided support for the company’s hopes for the South East Extension Zone exploration target of 20-30 million tonnes at a grade of 28-33% iron, which it expects to convert to Resource and added to the existing Tigre Resource estimate (Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 61.2Mt grading 27.7% iron) by the end of September 2011.

Drilling of the Cruzeiro, Galo and Coelho prospects at Jambreiro is also now complete with results demonstrating continuity of friable mineralisation at the Cruzeiro prospect with consistent widths of 30m to 35m.

The Galo prospect returned an intersection from one of the final drill holes of 37m at a grade of 29.5% iron.

With all final assay data received Centaurus is well-advanced with the process of data validation and geological interpretation.

The company said a JORC Resource estimate is on schedule to be completed by the end of September.

Based on the assay results from the South East Extension Zone, the company said it expects to be able to increase the overall Resource base at Jambreiro.

The new resource will be used as a platform for a Pre-Feasibility study, which is due in November.

GBM Resources upgrades Bungalien

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: GBM Resources has completed a 26 hole, RC drilling program on its Bungalien phosphate project areas located in the Georgina Basin, southeast of Mount Isa in North Queensland.

The company received results that included peak phosphate values exceeding 25 per cent phosphorous pentoxide from the 1,436 metre RC drill program.

Results included many intersections of significant widths greater than 10% phosphorous pentoxide mineralisation including:

–    13 metres at 7.0 per cent phosphorous pentoxide, including 5 metres at 12.7% phosphorous pentoxide;

–    15m at 3.7% phosphorous pentoxide including 3m at 12.2% phosphorous pentoxide;

–    13m at 7.6% phosphorous pentoxide including 5m at 13.3% phosphorous pentoxide;

–    5m at 12.3% phosphorous pentoxide including 1m at 26.0% phosphorous pentoxide;

–    24m at 4.2% phosphorous pentoxide including 5m at 12.3% phosphorous pentoxide; and

–    4m at 14.3% phosphorous pentoxide.
 
“The latest drilling results from Bungalien are very encouraging and confirm the extent of phosphate prospectivity encountered in the initial drilling campaign conducted in 2008,” GBM Resources managing director Peter Thompson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Additional scout drill holes undertaken in new areas also intersected phosphate mineralisation including:

–    7m at 4.19% phosphorous pentoxide at Horse Creek; and

–    9m at 2.14% phosphorous pentoxide at Limestone Creek.

The company said these results demonstrate areas of its tenements hold potential for untested phosphate mineralisation at shallow depths.

GBM’s main objective for the latest round of drilling was to build on phosphate results from the first round it had completed in December 2008 and to extend the area of phosphate mineralisation.

Drilling focused on areas of phosphate mineralisation interpreted to be within 50m of surface, which showed large areas underlain at shallow depth by rocks of the Beetle Creek Formation.

The largest phosphate deposits in Australia are found in the Georgina Basin, the largest of which is the Phosphate Hill mine owned by Incitec Pivot, located just 50 kilometres south of GBM’s Bungalien project.

Mutiny hits high grades at Deflector

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gold-copper company, Mutiny Gold has hit some impressive gold intersections while drilling at the West Lode of its Deflector gold deposit.

The deflector deposit is part of the company’s Gullewa project located in the South Murchison region of Western Australia.

The latest results are from a recently completed diamond drilling program carried out on the Deflector deposit extensions.

Mutiny will be incorporating the results into a revised resource estimation, which it expects to release soon.
 
A diamond drill program of 30 holes was carried out to enable the upgrade of the resources within the proposed area of initial underground mining at Deflector.

Notable intersections include:

–    3.6 metres at 153 grams per tonne gold and 13.3 per cent copper from 145m;

–    12m at 3.4g/t gold and greater than 0.1% copper from 262m;
 
–    3m at 47.6g/t gold and 1.5% copper from 249m;

–    4m at 17.4g/t gold and 1.2% copper from 300m;

–    3m at 22.8g/t gold and 1.2% copper from 282m;
 
–    3m at 18.1g/t gold and 0.3% copper from 292m;
 
–    3m at 18.8g/t gold and 0.8% copper u from 316m;

–    6m at 20.9g/t gold and 0.3% copper from 255m; and

–    4m at 6.2g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 308m.

The company said it had achieved multiple intersections within some holes, due to there being a number of parallel lodes present at depth within the deposit.

Mutiny indicated the intersection of 3m at 153g/t gold and 3.3% copper to be of particular significance with this particular hole implying high-grade gold- copper mineralisation is open below 130m vertical depth.

Other high-grade intersections the company achieved at vertical depths of around 215m to 270m has it considering significant mineralisation persists at depth.

The intersection of 6m at 20.9g/t gold was from a hole drilled 600m to the south of the one mentioned above.

The company is confident it indicates the length of the deposit within which high-grade mineralisation can be expected to be present at depth.

Mutiny Gold plans to commence production with an open pit mining operation at the Deflector deposit, followed by underground mining after two years.

The currently known Deflector gold-copper deposit contains Mineral Resources of 3.4 million tonnes at 5.4g/t gold, 4.7g/t silver and 0.8% Copper for 590,000 ounces of gold, 510,000 ounces of silver and 25,500 tonnes of copper.

Measured and Indicated Resources total 1.5Mt at 4.8g/t gold, 6.4g/t silver and 1.1% copper for 235,000oz of gold, 310,000oz silver and 16,500t of copper.

Red Mountain intersects gold at Zhongqu

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: China‐focused gold company Red Mountain Mining has intersected gold mineralisation during an initial underground drilling program at the company’s Zhongqu project in Gansu Province, China.

The Stage 1 drilling program intersected gold mineralisation with the best results including:

–    31 metres at 4.61 grams per tonne gold, including 4 metres at 9.51 grams per tonne gold and 8 metres at 10.07 grams per tonne gold;

–    14.3m at 4.50 g/t gold, including 6m at 7.14 g/t gold and 3m at 6.27 g/t gold;

–    8m at 7.65 g/t gold; and

–    4m at 5.71 g/t gold.

Red Mountain has an agreement to acquire 51 per cent of the Zhongqu project.

So far the company has drilled 17 holes for 2,352 metres at the Xinqu operating gold mine, which is one of three main exploration target areas within the Zhongqu project.

Drilling commenced from the deepest working “6 Level” of the Xinqu mine, which has been mining hematitic brecciated ore at or near a granodiorite ‐ limestone contact.

This encountered mineralisation in 13 of 17 drillholes with intercepts encountering the same style of mineralisation as seen in the Xinqu mine.

The spatial orientation of the limestone hosted structures has yet to be fully understood but they have returned significant gold intersections.

The company’s main objectives for the drilling program are to expand and better understand the known mineralisation at Xinqu.

It also represents the first stage in bringing the gold prospects at the project into JORC Code compliance.

“We are encouraged by the width and tenor of the gold ore system as it confirms that the project is capable of hosting mine grade mineralisation amenable to modern mechanised underground mining methods,” Red Mountain chief executive officer Andrew Richards said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These results will contribute to the estimation of an initial resource model by Red Mountain Mining.

“The deepest intersection was approximately 200 metres vertically below the 6 Level and only 400 metres below surface.

“This is considered shallow by Australian standards and easily accessed by a decline.”

Red Mountain has a further round of underground drilling of approximately 2,000m planned to commence in October.

This has been designed for the company to gain a better understanding of the newly encountered mineralisation as well carrying out some infill drilling to establish tonnage potential.

Two shallow metallurgical drill holes will be drilled to test each style of mineralisation.

Rox results revisit uncovers gold discovery

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Rox Resources has revisited results from a recent drilling program at its Mt Fisher gold project, located approximately 250 kilometres north of Leonora in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Rox conducted a 3,000 metre program of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling at Mt Fisher during July.

The results from this program were previously reported in August.

Rox has had a closer look at several zones of 4 metre composite sampling by re-sampling them at one metre intervals to gain better definition of the grade and thickness of the mineralisation.

The upshot from this has been the identification of previously unknown high-grade gold zones and has confirmed the presence of multiple zones of high-grade gold mineralisation.

The company said it is excited by the one metre re-split assays as they have confirmed the high-grade prospectivity of the Mt Fisher gold project and the mineralisation identified from previous sampling.

New results reported include:

Hole MFRC001:
–    1 metre at 8.40 grams per tonne gold from 205 metres at the Damsel prospect. This zone was previously not detected by the composite sampling.
 
Hole MFRC004:
–    6m at 4.08 g/t gold from 106m, including 4m at 5.53 g/t gold from 106m at the Dam prospect. This interval was previously reported as 8m at 3.08 g/t gold from 104m;
 
–    1m at 5.79 g/t gold from 142m, previously not detected by the composite sampling;

–    2m at 4.83 g/t gold from 149m, including 1m at 8.34 from 149m. This interval was previously reported as 4m at 1.37 g/t gold from 148m; and

–    1m at 3.20 g/t gold from 254m, previously reported as 4m at 0.59 g/t gold from 252m.

Hole MFRC005:
–    3m at 2.66 g/t gold from 128m at the Dam prospect, including 1m at 5.91 g/t gold from 129m. This interval was previously reported as 4m at 1.54 g/t gold from 128m.

Hole MFRC010:
–    1m at 5.51 g/t gold from 40m at the Damsel, previously reported as 8m at 1.53 g/t gold from 36m.

Hole MFRC011:
–    4m at 1.61 g/t gold from 176m at the Damsel, previously reported as 4m at 1.00 g/t gold from 176m.

The drilling results from hole MFRC010 were previously reported including 9m at 4.43 g/t gold from 54m, highlighting a zone of potential near surface mineralisation at the Damsel prospect.

Rox now also consider holes MFRC001 and MFRC011 to indicate potential at depth for economic grade mineralisation at that prospect.

“Our first drilling campaign at Mt Fisher has been very successful,” Rox Resources managing director Ian Mulholland said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have discovered some previously unknown zones of high grade mineralisation which is very exciting and gives us confidence that the mineralisation we’ve previously defined continues at depths with potentially economic grades.

“We’ve also confirmed the potential for Mt Fisher to host multiple shallow high-grade gold deposits and high-grade gold mineralisation at depth.

“We now intend to conduct a more extensive drilling campaign to prove up JORC resources at several prospects by the end of this year.”

Rox has booked a rig to begin further drilling at Damsel, Dam and other prospects from mid- October to the end of November, with a 5,000 metre to 6,000 metre program of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling planned.

This drilling will follow-up several high priority targets generated from a recently-conducted VTEM survey that indicated sulphide bodies in favourable geological locations, with the goal of defining JORC resources at a number of these prospects.