Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Each week any number of junior exploration plays set out to drill their ground. Here’s a small selection of what’s been happening this week.

Drilling to extend Rosie

Duketon Mining (ASX: DKM) has kicked off a reverse circulation and diamond drilling program to test for a potential extension of the high-grade nickel mineralisation at the Rosie deposit within the company’s Duketon project in Western Australia.

The drilling will also test several new nickel targets at Duketon and the Thompson Bore gold prospect.

Diamond drilling at Rosie will test an in-hole EM conductor Duketon identified in a previous drilling program, which sits within a 180 metre-long corridor.

Previous drilling intersected high-grade nickel at both ends of this corridor, including 5.2 metres at 9.18 per cent nickel, 1.09 per cent copper and 7.14 grams per tonne platinum group elements.

Supplementary drilling program at Kharmagtai

Xanadu Mines (ASX: XAM) has launched a supplementary 2014 exploration program at the company’s Kharmagtai copper gold porphyry project, located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, following the success of the company’s first campaign.

The supplementary exploration program will comprise some 2,500 metres of diamond core drilling and will target areas of particular potential Xanadu identified in campaign 1.

Drilling is expected to be completed before early/mid-December and will mainly target the enlargement of higher-grade zones, specifically:

Potential extensions to porphyry copper-gold mineralisation at Altan Tolgoi;

Connections between the stockwork and tourmaline breccia-hosted copper-gold mineralisation at Altan Tolgoi; and

A new fourth area of mineralisation not included in the current Exploration Target.

The company anticipates the results will add useful insights to the geological model in areas of higher-grade mineralisation and should contribute to Xanadu’s resource estimate for the Kharmagtai project.

“We have taken the project a long way since its acquisition earlier in the year and this supplementary program, armed with the insights from the first campaign, allows us to progress this understanding still further ahead of a more substantive program pla nned for in 2015,” Xanadu Mines managing director George Lloyd said.

Bonya drilling recommences

Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) has commenced a follow-up reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at the Bonya copper project, located east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

The follow-up RC drilling is being undertaken at the Bonya Mine prospect where the previous drilling intersected massive copper sulphide mineralisation in a number of drill holes.

“Although the results from the Bonya Mine prospect were exceptional and are now being followed up with a second drilling program, the results from EM Anomaly 03 are also quite encouraging given the first pass nature of the drilling,” Rox Resources managing director Ian Mulholland said.

“The results from the other EM Anomalies, 04 and 05 are anomalous, and also worthy of further investigation.

“What is emerging now, as a result of this drilling program, is that there are a number of other targets within the area that we should prioritise.

“The results from the Bonya Mine prospect indicate that other areas of outcropping copper oxide mineralisation have the potential to host high-grade copper sulphide mineralisation.

“We’re designing a much larger and more extensive exploration program to fully assess the tenement area.”