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.
West Melton copper-gold project
Marmota Energy (ASX: MEU) has commenced drilling on the company’s
West Melton copper-gold project on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.
The program is designed to test for the source of a copper and gold geochemical anomaly Marmota defined on the project earlier this year.
The target is also strongly coincident with shallow modelled geophysical anomalies.
A 2000 metre maiden drilling program is underway, which is expected to take three weeks to complete.
The drilling will focus on key target areas within a 1.2 kilometre long coincident gold and copper-in-calcrete zone where individual sample assays ranging up to 197ppm copper were returned.
Rubianna kicks of drilling at Ruby Well
Rubianna Resources (ASX: RRE) has commenced an Reverse Circulation (RC) drill program at the Ruby Well project, within its Murchison tenements northeast of Meekatharra, Western Australia.
The drill program, which comprises approximately 56 RC drill holes for 5,000metres, has been designed to test multiple targets along known gold mineralised quartz vein horizons, in several areas, across the Ruby Well tenement.
“We are excited to be further testing the mineralised gold system at Ruby Well,” Rubianna Resources managing director Dr Steve Batty said.
“It will be interesting to see whether we can emulate the success of Doray Minerals who have a similar, high-grade quartz vein hosted gold system at their Andy Well deposit, located approximately 25 kilometres to the south of Ruby Well.”
Results are expected within three to four weeks from completion of drilling.
Resource upgrade drilling commences at Epanko deposit
Kibaran Resources (ASX: KNL) has commenced a resource upgrade drilling program at its Epanko deposit in the Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania.
The aim of the drilling program is to upgrade a portion of the existing JORC Inferred Mineral Resource of 14.9 million tonnes at 10.5 per cent TGC (total graphitic carbon) for 1.56 million tonnes of contained graphite to a JORC
Indicated/Measured Resource category.
Drilling will focus on two areas: along strike of the eastern zone drill holes – where shallow, thick, robust zones of high graphite mineralisation have previously been identified – and within the western zone between existing drilling and where the company reported its best trench result measuring 117 metres at 10 per cent TGC.
Planned drilling will focus on the shallow oxidised material to a depth of between 50 and 100 metres.
Successfully upgrading the Inferred Resource to an Indicated/Measured classification will allow the company to report its 2013 Scoping Study findings and commence work on a feasibility study which will progress the project to a development decision.
Drilling commences at Blair North northern zone
Northern Mining (ASX: NMI) has commenced a single reverse circulation (RC) drillhole BNRC095 with planned depth of approximately of 200 metres at the Blair North Northern Zone prospect (BNNZ), located at the East Kalgoorlie project.
The drillhole is targeting the northward extension of previous encouraging intersections.
The geology and existing drillholes support the hypothesis that the mineralisation continues to the north of drillholes BNRC066 and BNRC085 and intersections of gold mineralisation may improve the continuity of mineralisation and could also increase the potential for the establishment of a mineral resource at the prospect.
Thin intersections of high-grade gold were previously encountered in BNRC066 at 235.43m for 0.47m at 30.98g/t gold and in BNRC066 at 253.67m for 0.21m at 67.97g/t gold within a halo of lower to moderate grade halo of mineralisation in drillholes BNRC066 and BNRC085, visible gold was noted during core logging.
Should the planned drillhole BNRC095 finishes in mineralisation, it may be extended at a later date by diamond drilling if warranted.