Entre Gold gets off to good start at Ann Mason

Entrée Gold’s (ETG-T, EGI-X) first diamond drill hole at its 100%-owned Ann Mason  porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit in western Nevada’s Yerington district returned 988 metres of copper mineralization in what Greg Crowe, the company’s president and chief executive, describes as “an excellent start to the program.”

The hole returned 987.8 metres averaging 0.31% copper or 0.38% copper equivalent, including a higher grade section of 340 metres averaging 0.40% copper or 0.51% copper equivalent.

Over the last 35.8 metres of the hole, mineralization averaged 0.41% copper or 0.53% copper equivalent, an indication that mineralization continues to greater depths, the company says.

With the completion of the first hole, located in the southwestern portion of the resource, copper mineralization has been extended for 325 metres below the limit of the current resource.

“The continuity of mineralization below the previous resource area further illustrates the upside potential for the discovery of additional resources,” Crowe said.

The deposit, 80 km southeast of Reno, has an inferred resource of  810 million tonnes grading 0.40% copper at  a 0.30%  cut-off grade for about 7.1 billion pounds of contained copper. The resource includes 165.9 million tonnes of 0.01% molybdenum at a 0.3% copper cut-off.

Copper mineralization starts at a depth of about 100 metres with consistent grades greater than 0.3% copper beginning at a depth of 214 metres.

Entre Gold’s Ann Mason property includes the deposit as well as the Blue Hills prospect to the northwest and is made up of a group of unpatented mining claims totaling roughly 1,837 hectares. 

In August 2010, Entrée unveiled an exploration program on the Ann Mason property with an approved budget of up to US$2.7 million to explore the potential for higher grade mineralization at depth and for extensions west of the currently defined Ann Mason resource.

Currently two drills are operating at Ann Mason and the holes are 100 metres to the northeast and 100 metres to the southwest of the first hole. About 20 infill and step-out holes are planned. 

In November 2010 Entrée Gold said induced polarization geophysical surveys suggest  that the sulphide system at Ann Mason may extend for at least 3 km west to the Blue Hill area, where drilling has shown surface oxide copper mineralization underlain by primary sulphide mineralization.

Elsewhere in the United States Entrée Gold is exploring for porphyry-related copper systems in Arizona, New Mexico, as well as in other parts of Nevada. Its flagship Lookout Hill property, however, is thousands of miles away in Mongolia, and surrounds the Oyu Tolgoi project of Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto, and the Mongolian government.

The company has $21 million in its treasury. Major shareholders include Rio Tinto with 13% and Ivanhoe Mines with 12% of the company’s roughly 114.4 million outstanding shares.

At presstime in Toronto Entre Gold was trading at $3.15 per share and over the last year the company has traded between a low of $1.84 on July 8 2010 and a high of $3.47 on Dec. 31 2010.