Vancouver —
The latest drill results from Olympus Pacific’s Bai Go portion of the Phuoc Son gold property in central Vietnam have persuaded the company and its partners to refocus their efforts on the central, higher-grade core of the mineralized zone.
Ivanhoe has a 32.6% interest in the project, with Zedex holding 10%. Olympus recently inked a deal with Zedex to acquire its interest in the project in return for shares. The deal has yet to be approved by shareholders and regulators. Following completion of the transaction, Olympus will hold 67.4% of the Phuoc Son project.
Recent stepout drilling failed to return bonanza gold grades from the high-grade shoot cut during last year’s 6,818-metre drill program. Highlights are as follows:
– hole 68 — 1.7 metres grading 4.53 grams gold and 0.59 gram silver per tonne;
– hole 69 — 1.45 metres grading 2.63 grams gold;
– hole 70 — 10.85 metres grading 5.42 grams gold and 8.41 grams silver, plus 0.8% lead and 0.02% zinc, including a 2.55-metre interval grading 9.49 grams gold, 9.14 oz. silver, 0.1% lead and 0.07% zinc;
– hole 74 — 2.1 metres grading 4.93 grams gold, 1.85 grams silver and 0.11% lead; and
– hole 75 — 2.7 metres grading 3.17 grams gold and 1.1 grams silver.
Based on these results, Olympus plans to move the rig back to the central Bai Go zone, where hole 45 returned 10 metres grading 10.65 grams gold, 12.57 grams silver, 0.9% lead and 0.11% zinc. The zone remains open to the east. Drill pads are being prepared for a series of new holes collared on 25-metre centres.
Mineralization is associated with multiple quartz veins measuring up to 32 metres in true thickness within the Dak Sa shear zone. To date, 22 holes have tested the Bai Go and nearby Bai Chuoi prospects.
Recently, the partners announced results from a hole drilled into the Bio Gio portion of the property. Hole 73 returned 5.52 grams gold, 4 grams silver and 0.3% lead over a narrow 10 cm.
Moving 3 km to the north, to the so-called Bo sector, a series of holes will investigate gold mineralization downdip from shallow artisan workings where grab sampling returned up to 37.84 grams gold per tonne. Geological mapping has discovered a poorly exposed shear zone hosted in hydrothermally altered greenschists. The zone has been identified in outcrop over an area measuring 600 by 25 metres.
Elsewhere at Phuoc Son, reconnaissance geological mapping and rock sampling have been conducted on six new prospects. Highlights are as follows:
– At the Khe Rin prospect, 7 km northwest of Bai Go, sampling of a silicified schist returned 0.53-7.56 grams gold per tonne.
– The Khe Cop prospect, 7.5 km northwest of Bai Go, yielded 0.1-1.84 grams gold from a quartz-veined limonitic schist.
– The Khe Do prospect, 6 km northwest of Bai Go, returned 0.14-18.71 grams gold from a sulphidic schist.
– The Vang Nhe prospect, 6 km north-northwest of Bai Go, yielded 0.15-6.73 grams gold from samples taken from a limonitic schist.
– The Suoi Cay prospect, 5 km north of Bai Go, returned 33.75-36.60 grams gold from a sulphidic quartz vein.
– The Tra Long prospect yielded 0.54-3.87 grams gold from samples taken from a quartz veined limonitic schist.
In other news, Asian Mineral Resources and partner Falconbridge have tabled the remaining results of drilling at the Ta Khoa nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE property in northwestern Vietnam. Falco can earn a 51% stake in the property by spending US$5.5 million prior to May 2003. To date, the major has anted up US$2.1 million.
The 600-sq.-km Ta Khoa concession, 160 km west of Hanoi, hosts several ultramafic intrusives with associated nickel sulphides. The most developed prospect, in the centre of the property, is the Ban Phuc resource, which contains 890,000 tonnes grading 3.35% nickel, 1.26% copper and 0.10% cobalt. Nine other prospects have been identified.
Last season, 18 diamond drill holes on four grids were completed. Six of these intersected sulphide mineralization, and five also cut platinum and palladium mineralization. Holes 1, 4 and 11 tested the King Snake prospect over a strike length of 1,100 metres. The King Snake conductor, 1.2 km northwest of the Ban Phuc resource, has now been traced continuously over 2,600 metres. Each of the drill intersections cut a narrow zone of massive and semi-massive sulphide mineralization. Results are as follows:
– Hole 4 intersected 1.12 metres grading 2.07% nickel, 0.2% copper, 0.04% cobalt, 0.39 gram platinum and 0.14 gram palladium, starting at a down-hole depth of 122 metres.
– Hole 11 cut 0.8 metre of 1.33% nickel, 0.82% copper, 0.05% cobalt, 0.41 gram platinum and 0.4 gram palladium, starting at 57.2 metres down-hole.
– Hole 2 was drilled to test a separate conductor on the Ban Phuc grid. The hole cut a 1-metre interval of 2.16% nickel near a 3-metre-thick ultramafic dyke.
– Hole 7 was drilled to test a well-defined conductor along the western edge of the Ban Phuc grid. The hole intersected two narrow zones of mineralization and returned anomalous platinum and palladium values but no nickel.
Asian Mineral Resources intends to start the next round of drilling in November with a minimum of 8-10 holes totalling 3,000 metres. The target will be the King Snake conductor, along strike from the recent drilling as well as at depth.
Meanwhile, 80 km northwest of Hanoi, Tiberon Minerals continues to drill its Nui Phao tungsten project. Over the past year, drill crews have investigated a large geophysical anomaly on the southern margin of the Da Lien granite. Tungsten mineralization is associated with massive-to-semi-massive sulphides and is classified as a skarn. Greisenization (that is, an influx of fluids concentrated in fluorine, beryllium and tungsten) has occurred in some areas.
Infill drilling is trying to delineate a tungsten resource minable by open-pit methods. The company reports that mineralization appears to be flat-lying and up to 160 metres thick; it extends for 2,000 metres in and east-west direction and 300-400 metres north-south. The main hub of activity is around an area associated with a large outcropping gossan in the Central zone.
Currently, five rigs are active, and all holes are being drilled vertically.
Hole 34, collared 100 metres west and 50 metres north of a previous hole, returned 28 metres grading 0.51 tungsten trioxide, 0.33% copper and 0.27% bismuth, plus 1.08 grams gold per tonne, at a down-hole depth of 153 metres.
Moving 35 metres south of hole 5 (79 metres of 0.39% tungsten trioxide, 0.23% copper, 0.13% bismuth and 0.4 gram gold), hole 36 cut two zones ranging up to 0.33% tungsten trioxide, 0.21% copper, 0.1% bismuth and 0.3 gram gold over 112 metres at a down-hole depth of 40 metres.
Holes 35 and 37 tested the northern edge of the mineralizing system in the Da Lien granite. The first hole cut two zones including 0.31% tungsten trioxide, 0.2% copper, 0.07% bismuth and 0.26 gram gold over 20 metres from 93 metres down-hole. Hole NP-37 cut 4 metres grading 0.34% tungsten trioxide, 0.34% copper, 0.03% bismuth and 0.04 gram gold from 37 metres down-hole. Tiberon is encouraged that the mineralization continues into the granite body. Based on geophysical data, the system probably ends 50 metres north of these holes.
The results have prompted the junior to add 6,000 metres of drilling to the current program.
“Most this program will be utilized on delineation holes,” says President Loren Komperdo. “The balance will be used on other areas of the Nui Phao project.”
Designed to test the grade, width and continuity of a z
one previously identified by the Geological Survey of Vietnam, the drill program covers a 2-km-long geophysical anomaly.
In addition to the drilling, Tiberon is carrying out metallurgical tests as part of a scoping study.
Mineralization is hosted in skarns and pyrrhotite-rich retrograde equivalents.
In March 1999, the junior settled all outstanding litigation with Vietnam Resources in regards to the Nui Phao project. Under the terms of the settlement, Vietnam Resources relinquished all rights to the property in return for 1 million shares of Tiberon. Tiberon and Vietnam Resources have released each other from all claims or actions. Tiberon now has a 70% interest in the Nui Phao project, with the remainder held by Vietnamese parties. The junior must fund all of work to the development stage; thereafter, each party pays its share.
At last report, holes 45, 47 and 48 were completed to a depth of 199, 187 and 124 metres, respectively. Holes 49, 50, 51, 52 and 53 are in progress.
Tiberon holds a 70% interest in the Nui-Phao property, with two Vietnamese partners splitting the remainder equally.
In addition to its Phuoc Son project, Tiberon has applied for two other licences in northern Vietnam: Ngan Son and Na Phac. The junior believes that the Ngan Son licence has the potential to host lead-zinc-silver-gold mineralization (replacement, stockwork and vein-style).
The 100-sq.-km licence area is in the Bac Kan province in the northeastern portion of the country. The centre of the property is 36 km north of the town of Bac Kan, which itself is 130 km north of Hanoi.
Exploration in the region began several hundred years ago, under the Chinese. During French colonial times, the state-owned Bureau de recherches geologiques et minieres (BRGM) explored the region. More recently, the area was mapped by the Geological Survey of Vietnam (GSV). Full reports of the GSV’s work are available in the government archives.
Tiberon reports that the Ngan Son area is rich in mineral occurrences, with more than 50 showings of lead, zinc, iron, silver and gold reported on GSV maps. Not one of these prospects has been investigated using modern geophysical and geochemical techniques, and few have been drill-tested.
The geological environment is dominated by sub-marine calcareous sedimentary sequences and thick sections of limestone that have been cut by Devonian, carboniferous and Permian-aged gabbro-diabase and granite intrusive events.
Tiberon has observed significant gossans of replacement-style sulphide carbonate mineralization. Once the exploration licence has been granted, the junior will investigate mineralization on three prospects: Na Noi, Ban Phang and Se Sao.
Mineralization at Na Noi takes the form of gossanous boulders that cover a 30-to-40-metre area. A shaft was sunk into the gossan and bottomed in high-grade galena ore, and the GSV states that oxidized mineralization returned up to 5% lead and 0.76% zinc, as well as anomalous silver, gold, copper and tin.
The Ban Phang prospect was previously investigated for its iron potential. The surface extent of gossan boulders suggests a strike length in excess of 100 metres and up to 200 metres wide. Three drill holes were completed for a total of 490 metres. The holes failed to penetrate the oxidized portion of the mineralization. Reports state that the mineralization is 10-20 metres thick and consists of massive siderite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Grab samples collected by Tiberon returned up to 14.3 grams silver and 0.31 gram gold.
The Se Sau prospect was prospected by BGRM, and reports indicate grab samples returned up to 15 grams gold and up to 300 grams silver per tonne. Tiberon has yet to prospect the area.
Also, Tiberon is in the process of securing the 100-sq-km Na Phac property, which is in Bac Kan province, near the Ngan Son exploration licence. Government archives mention 45 lead, zinc, iron, silver, mercury and gold occurrences in the area, none of which has received extensive work.
Tiberon has zeroed in on two prospects: Tom Luong and Xi Binh. These are believed to represent manto-style replacement mineralization. The surface expression of mineralization at Tom Luong is represented by a gossanous area that measures 400 by 500 metres. A shaft reportedly was sunk to a depth of 27 metres and remains in gossan. Base metal samples taken by Tiberon returned 0.05% copper, 0.03% lead and 0.04% zinc, as well as 0.12 gram gold and 25.6 gram silver.
Since the gossan is quite deep, the low base metal assays are believed to be representative of a highly leached cap.
The Xi Binh gossan is a marblized limestone that hosts iron-rich mineralization over a 150-by-400-metre area. The prospect has never been assessed for its lead-zinc-silver or gold potential. One grab sample from highly weathered and leached gossan returned 0.09% lead, 0.19% zinc, 0.049% copper, 0.1 gram gold and 6.3 grams silver.
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