Bre-X continues Indonesian focus

Having focused on Indonesia for the past six months, Bre-X Minerals (ASE) has drill programs lined up for the fall on two advanced projects in the Asian archipelago.

In mid-August, the junior signed an agreement to acquire from a major company a 55% interest in a porphyry copper-gold property on Sangihe Island, North Sulawsi. In return, Bre-X must make exploration expenditures. The Taware Valley prospect lies within the North Sulawesi-Philippines porphyry copper-gold belt.

The 2,000-metre program will begin in October, after a month-long mapping program and a ground magnetic survey. It will be managed by Bre-X’s senior geologist, John Felderhof, who has spent 13 years in Indonesia and who helped discover the OK Tedi copper-gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

(In addition to a geological team familiar with the country, Bre-X has an office in Jakarta.)

Drilling is also planned for the Muara Atan (Busang) prospect in East Kalimantan. Three targets have been identified on the 57,571-hectare property. The most advanced of these will be drill-tested in an attempt to outline a potentially open-pit resource in the order of 20 million tonnes of at least two grams gold per tonne. Bre-X acquired an 80% interest in June. President David Walsh said Bre-X was attracted to Indonesia for the following reasons: vast, underexplored mineral potential; relative lack of competition; political and social stability; and established mining laws.