Goldminco picks up Aussie assets

Vancouver The takeover of AurionGold by Placer Dome (PDG-T) has paved the way for Goldminco (GCP-V) to pick up 2,516 sq km of promising ground in Australia.

The Perth-based junior acquired two Philippine properties and an arrangement with Placer Dome Asia Pacific (PDAC), an arm of Placer, through its 2002 acquisition of Australian company Templar Resources. The arrangement calls for the subsidiary to offer Goldminco any projects of which it divests itself. The junior also gets carried through to development and is reimbursed for all its exploration costs on any joint-venture deal it contributes. The deal covers southeast Asia, China, Australia and New Zealand.

With Placer’s acquisition of AurionGold complete, the major found itself with a number of projects that failed to meet its target objectives. Having gone through the data on these properties, Goldminco has elected to pick up the New Temora, Blayney and Goonumbla projects in the New South Wales Lachlan Fold Belt.

The Palaeozoic orogenic belt is home to Northparkes (64 million tonnes grading1.89% copper and 0.48 gram gold), held 80% by Rio Tinto (RTP-N) and 20% by Japanese-based Sumitomo, as well as Newcrest Mining’s Cadia Hill and Ridgeway deposits with reserves of 210 million tonnes grading 0.18% copper and 0.72 gram gold and 41 million tonnes grading 0.75% copper and 2.4 grams gold, respectively.

The 1,020 sq km Temora Project hosts the Mandamah copper-gold prospect, where previous drilling cut up to 0.5 grams gold and 0.4% copper over 206 metres and 142 metres grading 0.9 gram gold and 0.3% copper. The property also holds the Dam target, where previous drilling returned up to 1 gram gold and 0.7% copper over 167 metres.

The 550 sq km Blayney project lies only 15 km southeast of the Cadia Hill and Ridgeway deposits and is considered prospective for gold skarn and structurally controlled gold systems. The most advanced target is Discovery Ridge, where a 1995 resource calculation based on 81 drill holes came in at 2.44 million tonnes grading 1.5 grams gold.

Lying 10-km from the Cadia Hill operation, the Ferndale prospect was tested by 9,466 metres of drilling returning up to 6 metres grading 2.1 grams gold and 0.4% Copper, and 68 metresaveraging 0.18 gram gold and 0.3% copper.

The 506 sq km Goonumbla project covers the northern and southern ends of the volcanic belt, which hosts the Northparkes mine. Very little exploration has been completed on this ground.

Earlier this year, Goldminco launched a 1,000 metre drill program over the high-grade Balabag gold property on the western side of Mindanao Island in the Philippines. The property was first worked by Rio Tinto in the late 1990s. Some 300 channel and chip samples collected over a portion of a major ridge returned a weighted average of 10.97 grams gold and 258.69 grams silver. Small-scale mining is scattered throughout and on both sides of the impressive ridge. The highest-grade sample collected to date came from the face of the old Tinago workings, returning 273 grams gold and 109 grams silver.