Ivanhoe hits high-grade on Entre’s Copper Flats

Vancouver — Deep drilling by Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T) on Entre Gold‘s (ETG-V) Copper Flats project, adjacent to Oyu Tolgoi in the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia, has cut a wide intercept of high-grade copper.

Hole 6A returned 608 metres, from 1,084 metres below surface, averaging 3.24% copper and 0.8 gram gold per tonne, for a copper-equivalent grade of 3.8%. Included in the intersection was a 322-metre portion grading 4.6% copper and 1.1 grams gold, or 5.3% copper equivalent. The hole was positioned to test the downward extension of the mineralized system about 80 metres down-dip.

Results for hole 8, a step-out 450 metres northeast of hole 6, also returned a significant intercept with 324 metres, from 1,388 metres below surface, grading 2.45% copper and 1.2 grams gold. The hole was terminated, having reached the rig’s limit, short of the West Bat fault, which marks the western limit of Hugo North mineralization.

With mineralization apparently trending more northward than north-easterly, holes 7 and 10, situated 600 metres and 1.2 km, respectively, of hole 8, are thought to have been collared too far to the east. As a result, Ivanhoe collared hole 20, about 250 metres west of hole 7, to test the projected extension of Hugo North. Seven drill rigs are active on Copper Flats.

The northward-plunging extension of the Hugo North mineralization that extends onto Entre’s ground occurs in a quartz monzodiorite with intense quartz flooding and stockworks. Mineralization in the porphyry copper-gold system is typically chalcopyrite and bornite with associated minor visible gold.

Ivanhoe Mines’ adjacent Hugo Dummett deposit hosts a 582 million tonne indicated resource grading 1.9% copper and 0.4 gram gold, using a 0.6% copper equivalent cut-off grade. There is an additional 1.07 billion tonnes of inferred resource at 1.1% copper and 0.2 gram gold. The deposits form a major portion of the Oyu Tolgoi project, which consists of a more than 6-km-long complex of copper and gold deposits.

Ivanhoe is earning up to an 80% interest in a 400-sq.-km section of Entre’s Shivee Tolgoi project by spending US$35 million.

Entre Gold gained a dime on the news to close at $1.93 per share on a strong volume of more than 2.3 million shares in early June, after steadily rallying from the $1.40-level during the previous week. The junior has 50.9 million shares outstanding.