Bulletin Resources extends Nicolson’s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Argentina identifies Cerro Blanco target

THE DRILL SERGEANT: South America-focused gold and copper play Argentina Mining has identified a geophysical anomaly at its Cerro Blanco porphyry copper project in San Juan Province, Argentina.

Argentina Mining described the anomaly as a high chargeability zone (HCZ) identified by an Induced Polarisation and Resistivity (IP) survey, which the company considers to have the potential to be a large sulphide mineralised system.

Recent 3D modelling carried out by the company indicate that previous diamond drilling reached the margins of the HCZ.

The earlier drilling intersected wide zones of porphyry copper‐gold‐molybdenum mineralisation, recording a best result of:

–    108 metres averaging 0.20 per cent copper, 0.08 grams per tonne gold and 95 parts per million molybdenum from 233 metres.

The company said the latest result is consistent with its deposit modelling which suggests drilling had intersected a pyrite‐rich halo outside a potentially copper‐rich inner zone.

Argentina Mining has designed a program of three new diamond drill‐holes that will test the IP anomalism on three separate 200m sections.

Each drill hole is planned to be up to 700m to 750m deep with inclinations in the range of 75 degrees to 90 degrees.

The company has been encouraged by secondary copper mineralisation and other oxidation minerals that were exposed during the recent excavation for one of the drill pads.

This drilling has already commenced and is expected to be completed by mid‐October, with final assay results by November.

Argentina Mining managing director Eduardo Videla said that the HCZ target is highly promising and therefore the company moved immediately to drill test it to planned depths of up to 750m.
“This is a major development for Argentina Mining,” Videla said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Following the success of the initial drilling which confirmed porphyry copper‐gold‐molybdenum style mineralisation, we continued with the integration and interpretation of data from our drilling, detailed geological and alteration mapping, surface geochemistry, ground magnetics and the recently‐completed IP survey.

“Interpretation of the combined datasets provides a robust pointer to the target zone which may represent a large copper‐rich mineralised zone.

“This gives us confidence in the design and execution of the next round of over 2,000 metres of diamond drilling and dramatically enhances the potential for discovery of economic copper and gold mineralisation at the Cerro Blanco project.”

Burns drilling encourages Octagonal

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Octagonal Resources has received results from a recently completed infill aircore drilling program carried out at the Burns prospect, located within the company’s Hogan’s project in Western Australia, which the company said have defined two zones of gold.
 
Octagonal considers the Burns prospect to be a priority exploration target area that it is advancing through infill and extensional aircore drilling with the objective to define targets for bedrock drill testing.

The aim of the recently completed aircore drilling program was to enable the company to better define distribution of gold in regolith (weathered Archaean bedrock) anomalism.

Drilling was carried out using an 80 metre by 320 metre spaced grid and consisted of 101 holes, totalling 5,689 metres.

This was the first of two phases of infill aircore drilling the company is to undertake and that has been designed to eventually test the area with a 40m by 160m spaced grid to allow for targeted bedrock drilling.

Assay results of note from this drilling program included:

–    6 metres at 0.61 grams per tonne gold from 78 metres;

–    8m at 1.22 g/t gold from 80m;

–    4m at 0.55 g/t gold from 71m;

–    7m at 0.73 g/t gold from 82m;

–    6m at 0.20 g/t gold from 20m;

–    4m at 0.38 g/t gold from 42 metres to the end of hole;

–    8m at 0.29 g/t gold from 20m; and

–    2m at 0.89 g/t gold from 83m.

These results follow others released by Octagonal in May, which intersected zones of gold anomalism during regional aircore drilling using a 160m by 640m spaced grid.

These results included:

–    23m at 0.5 g/t gold from 18m to the end of hole;

–    12m at 0.3 g/t gold from 68m to the end of hole;

–    3m at 0.9 g/t gold from 44m; and

–    2m at 0.6 g/t gold from 63m to the end of hole.
 
“The gold results already intersected at Burns prospect are wider, higher grade, and more broadly distributed that those that led to the discovery of the Salt Creek Deposit, even though the drill hole spacing is also wider,” Octagonal Resources said in an announcement to the ASX.

“These observations further support the potential of the Burns Prospect to host a significant gold deposit.”

The company said it was highly encouraged by the latest results and will continue infill and extensional aircore drilling with the objective of refining gold in regolith anomaly targets for 2012.

It has already secured a land aircore rig for the second phase of infill drilling during October using a 40m by 160m spaced grid.

A lake aircore rig has also been booked to test for gold in regolith anomalism extending under the salt lake.

The lake aircore drilling program will commence as soon as an appropriate drill rig becomes available.

Gryphon Minerals sharpens Stinger

THE DRILL SERGEANT: West Africa-focused gold play Gryphon Minerals has received encouraging results from an initial round of RC and diamond drilling on its new Stinger discovery located only 10 kilometres to the east of the Nogbele gold deposit and planned processing plant, at the company’s Banfora gold project in Burkina Faso.

Gryphon said the drill results show, “Stinger has the potential to be a significant new discovery similar to the other Gryphon Minerals gold discoveries of Nogbele, Samavogo and Fourkoura at the Banfora gold project”.

“We are really excited by these initial drill results from our new Stinger target, highlighting multiple stacked zones of shallow mineralisation that remain open along strike and at depth,” Gryphon Minerals managing director Steve Parsons said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We continue to see the benefits in 2011 of our aggressive $30 million exploration program, with a maiden resource previously announced at the Samavogo deposit and now exciting drill results from the new Stinger discovery, which again further illustrates the high prospectivity of the district and potential for further new discoveries at the Banfora gold project.”

The initial drilling Gryphon has carried out at the Stinger prospect has been shallow, targeting gold less than 100 meters vertical depth on a new and previously untested north‐east trending zone several kilometres to the east of the current gold deposits at the Banfora project.

“Mineralisation occurs as multiple stacked zones, associated with silica flooded and albite altered hematite dusted intrusive with fine grained disseminated pyrite and pervasive sericite alteration with occasional minor milky veins and visible gold,” the company said.

Drilling to date has tested just two kilometres strike of a major regional shear zone that remains open along strike and down dip.

Gryphon is now undertaking a detailed drill RC and DD program that is expects will move Stinger from discovery to a potential resource estimate in as soon a time frame as possible.

The company has also identified a further 20 high priority regional targets that it has earmarked for systematic testing by reconnaissance style RAB and auger drilling throughout the rest of this year and into the next.

Gryphon recently announced a preliminary independent engineering study for the Banfora project and is now undertaking detailed feasibility studies on a 3.5 million tonne per annum open pit operation with a central processing plant located at the Nogbele deposit.

Gryphon anticipates that with further drilling and potential resource growth it will eventually be able to incorporate the new Stinger discovery into the detailed feasibility studies.