Partners dig into Crater Mountain

The Nevera prospect has returned the best ever results form the 44-sq.-km Crater Mountain property in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.New Guinea Gold (NGG-V) cut seven trenches totalling 460 metres at Nevera. Four of the trenches, which reach depths of up to 3 metres, managed to reach bedrock. Trench 7 yielded the best result, a 48-metre section grading 10 grams gold per tonne.

Trench 6 encountered 20 metres running 1.2 grams gold. The company notes that only a third of the trench reached bedrock. The two remaining trenches returned anomalous gold values up to 0.8 gram.

Trench 7 was dug some 500 metres west of drill hole NEV-2 (sunk by a previous operator), which returned a 115-metree interval of 1.8 grams gold. The hole was terminated while still in mineralization at a depth of 340 metres. About 50 metres to the north, historic hole NEV-5 cut 24 metres running 6.5 grams gold.

So far, drilling and trenching has targeted an area measuring 12 sq. km. Most work has been completed at the northern end at the Nevera prospect. The area contains zones of epithermal alteration, including vuggy silica, crustiform/colloform textures, active mineralized hot springs and hydrothermal breccias.

The project is centred on a partly dissected strata-volcano intruding into a fine-grained sediments. Gold and copper mineralization is associated with quartz feldspar porphyry, quartz diorite and other dioritic intrusive bodies and andesitic volcanics.

Celtic Minerals (CME-V) can earn an initial 51% interest in the project by spending $2 million on work over the next three years. The company can boost this to 75% by matching that amount over the subsequent five years.

Based on the positive results, Celtic has applied for a license to explore some 751 sq. km of land around Crater Mountain. The new land would be included in the joint venture, with Celtic able to earn a 75% interest by funding $4 million worth of exploration.

The Nevera prospects are the most advanced on the project and appear to represent the top of a major gold-mineralized system on the northern slopes of the Crater Mountain complex. Pan sampling at Nevera South returned up to 256 grams gold and 86.3 grams gold per tonne; rock samples from the Southwest prospect grade up to 33% zinc and 453 grams silver; and soil sampling at Nevera West yielded 46 grams gold and 15 grams gold plus several anomalous arsenic values up to 860 parts per million. Most of the prospects have not yet been trenched.

Shares in New Guinea were 8, or 13%, higher at 68 in early afternoon trading in Vancouver following the news on Feb. 6. For their part, Celtic shares were a nickel, or 12%, higher at 46.