MOD increases Sams Creek estimate

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: MOD Resources has increased the inferred mineral resource estimate for the company’s Sams Creek gold project in New Zealand by 33 per cent.

The new JORC-compliant inferred resource estimate for Sams Creek now stands at 18.65 million tonnes at 1.71 grams per tonne gold, at 0.7grams per tonne cut-off to a revised total of 1.024 million ounces.

 

Project location. Source: Company announcement

 

The resource is all contained within an 800 metre strike length of the Main Zone prospect, which represents less than 15 per cent of the known six kilometre strike length of the Sams Creek dyke.

The Main Zone resource remains open at depth.

The increased resource is based on the results of a stage one drilling program of 9 diamond holes within the Main Zone prospect MOD recently completed at Sams Creek in March 2012.

MOD Resources chairman Miles Kennedy said being able to increase the resource at Sams Creek to more than one million ounces with its initial 9-hole drilling program gave the company confidence Sams Creek had the potential to host a multi-million ounce gold resource.

“Sams Creek is an intrusive-related gold deposit and there are many examples around the world where these types of gold deposits are very large – including Fort Knox and Donlin Creek in Alaska, Vasilkovskoe in Kazakhstan and Kidston in Australia,” Kennedy said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It is also significant that limited exploration has been completed on the remaining 85 per cent of the known strike length contained within the Sams Creek permit, which provides significant scope for us to expand the existing one million ounce resource.”

Previously reported results from the stage one drilling program at Sams Creek included:

–    29 metres at 2.23 grams per tonne gold, including 10 metres at 4.27 grams per tonne gold;

–    48m at 1.5g/t gold, including 9m at 3.17g/t gold; and

–    12m at 2.11g/t gold, 9m at 4.01g/t gold.

MOD is earning up to 80 per cent of Sams Creek from OceanaGold by sole-funding staged exploration programs.

New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals agreed to extend the Sams Creek exploration permit for five years to March 2017 following the successful completion of the stage one drilling program.

Completing that preliminary drilling program was also the prerequisite for MOD to earn its initial 40 per cent interest in the Sams Creek permit from OceanaGold.