The ASIA Miner - Reporting Important Issues to Mining Companies in the Asia Pacific Region
Issue link: https://asiaminer.epubxp.com/i/632337
56 | ASIA Miner | Volume 13 • Issue 1 | 2016 Exploration A 15-HOLE maiden drilling campaign at Erdene Resource Develop- ment Corp's Bayan Khundii Gold Project in southwest Mongolia has established lateral and vertical extensions of the high-grade Striker Zone. Additional exploration is in the planning stage and is expect- ed to include a second phase of diamond drilling and metallurgical testing during the frst half of 2016. Mineralization in Striker Zone extended at depth with 26 metres @ 5.9 grams/tonne gold, including 15 metres @ 9.9 grams/tonne. A step-out hole 60 metres southeast of the deep hole intersected 35 metres @ 5.7 grams/tonne from surface, including 12 metres @ 16.0 grams/tonne. The maiden drill program commenced on November 8 and con- sisted of 15 angled (45 to 60 degree) diamond drill holes totalling 695 metres. Drill hole depth ranged from 31 to 70 metres with max- imum true vertical depth of approximately 50 metres. The program targeted the southwest portion of the Bayan Khundii prospect, a 550 metre by 300 metre area, where previous surface sampling and trenching completed by Erdene in the third quarter returned highly anomalous gold values. Apart from the results from the two holes mentioned above, high- grade veins were confrmed in a third, which returned a one metre intersection @ 167 grams/tonne. Visible gold was observed in 10 of the 15 holes drilled within a number of quartz veins as irregu- lar-shaped grains, up to 2mm. Gold mineralization has now confrmed through drilling over a 475 metre area and is open along strike and at depth. The mineral- ization is associated with quartz veins and/or hematite within, or along, the boundary of quartz-hematite veins and veinlets. The main mineralized veins are interpreted to dip at 40 to 50 degrees to the southwest. In the June quarter of 2015, Erdene conducted an initial explora- tion program on the southern portion of the Khundii licence which led to the discovery of the Bayan Khundii (Rich Valley) gold pros- pect, 20km south of the company's fagship Altan Nar Gold-Poly- metallic Project. Two separate mineralized zones were subsequently identifed over a 1.4km-long area that remains open in all directions. The Khundii exploration licence is in its 6th year of a 12-year term, and has no associated royalties. Erdene is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. It holds four exploration licences and a mining licence in southwest Mongolia. URANIUM developer and explorer Toro En- ergy has entered into a Heads of Agreement (HoA) with OZ Minerals to explore for nickel on two tenements near Toro's Lake Mait- land uranium deposit in Western Australia. OZ can spend Aus$5 million to earn up to a 70% interest in the non-uranium rights of the two tenements. OZ will spend an initial Aus$500,000 on exploration within 12 months of the satis- faction of conditions precedent under the HoA. OZ will be the operator under the agreement allowing Toro to remain focused on the development of its uranium assets. The primary focus for OZ will be nickel ex- ploration on the Yandal One nickel prospect within the Yandal Greenstone Belt in a Toro exploration licence. Australia's largest nickel deposit, BHP Billiton's Mount Keith, is less than 60km west of Yandal One. Toro's managing director Dr Vanessa Guthrie said the HoA would enable the company to maintain its focus and spend- ing commitments on the continued devel- opment of the Wiluna Uranium Project, in- cluding Lake Maitland deposit. "Toro is a uranium focused developer and explorer, however we welcome the interest and support shown by OZ Minerals in ex- ploring this exciting non-uranium opportu- nity. Given the location of the Yandal One prospect relative to Mount Keith it makes good commercial sense to explore its po- tential with a strong and capable partner such as OZ Minerals. Toro identifed the exploration opportunity during a review of prospectivity of its Wilu- na exploration tenements. Nickel grades of up to 0.45% average over 5 metres were returned from end of hole shallow rotary air blast (RAB) drilling in the 1990s by prior ten- ement holders. However further follow-up exploration has not been conducted. The drilling penetrated through 30-40 me- tres of cover before ending within relatively fresh ultramafc rock with Komatiite indica- tive mineral textures. Komatiites are the host rock to most of Australia's nickel, and Mount Keith is the world's largest Komatiite hosted nickel deposit. The historical RAB drilling crossed just to the south of a small anomalous lozenge shaped magnetic anomaly, similar to a 'classic' Komatiite hosted nickel geophys- ical target. The highest grade intersected was closest to this target. A total of three lines of 100 metre spaced drill holes, 1km apart, were drilled by the previous company while exploring for gold. Wherever drill lines crossed the magnetic trend the associated drill holes ended in ultramafc rock anoma- lous in nickel. Drilling extends Bayan Khundii project OZ Minerals will explore a tenement near Toro En- ergy's Lake Maitland uranium prospect in West- ern Australia for nickel. OZ to explore Toro ground for nickel