Ivanhoe resumes work at Kharmagtai

Vancouver — Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T) has resumed drilling on the Kharmagtai property, 120 km north of its Oyu Tolgoi (Turquoise Hill) copper-gold deposit in Mongolia.

The drilling is centred on the Gold Hill area, where a pair of pipe-like quartz vein stockworks with high-grade copper-gold porphyry mineralization were identified.

Hole 259 cut 203 metres (from 3 metres) averaging 2.45 grams gold per tonne and 0.45% copper. The mineralization is adjacent to an east-west-trending andesite dyke and exhibits a high 5-to-1 gold-to-copper ratio. The intercept confirms similar results from last season.

The two stockwork pipes have returned significant gold-copper grades. They appear associated with a series of quartz diorite dykes, which, while relatively narrow near the surface, may coalesce into a larger structure or porphyry stock at depth.

Both structures, the northern and southern stockworks, remain open laterally and to depth.

A resource estimate is planned, following conclusion of the current drill program.

Ivanhoe owns 90% of Kharmagtai; the remainder is held by QGX (QGX-V), which has a carried interest through to production.

Ivanhoe produces copper and iron ore from operations in Myanmar and Tasmania. The wholly owned Oyu Tolgoi project, which is progressing toward the feasibility stage, hosts an inferred resource of 1.16 billion tonnes grading 1.29% copper and 0.23 gram gold in the Hugo Dummett deposit.

At presstime, the issue was trading just above $8. Ivanhoe has 271.7 million shares outstanding.