Celtic Minerals (CME-V) has drill crews on their way to test along strike and down-dip of a recently discovered mineralized zone at the Lodon Tops prospect on the Malaumanda project in Papua New Guinea.
The company’s first hole on the new zone, no. 12, returned 10.8 metres running 4.5 grams gold, 28.9 grams silver per tonne plus 0.73% zinc and 0.06% copper, beginning at a downhole depth of 39.5 metres. The angled (minus 55) hole was designed to test beneath the previously cut trench no. LTR2. The geologic structures cut by the initial hole are similar to those seen at surface, reports Celtic.
Celtic discovered the zone late last year after a landslip exposed a zinc-rich, quartz-sulphide vein system that returned up to 41.5 grams gold and 350 grams silver in grab samples. An initial trench, cut immediately northwest of the slip, returned 8 metres of 8.6 grams gold, 44 grams silver, 0.7% zinc and 0.1% copper. A separate uncut 3-metre interval grades 19.7 grams gold, 100.3 grams silver and 1.24 % zinc.
A second trench dug 33 metres to the northwest of the first yielded a 7-metre section grading 11 grams gold, 76 grams silver, 3% zinc and 0.3% copper. Trench no. 5 yielded 4.4 metres of 15.5 grams gold, 90 grams silver, 0.06% copper and 0.76% zinc. Assay results are pending from eight other trenches and pits dug along the zone so far.
Celtic says drilling, trenching and prospecting has traced mineralization in the zone fairly consistently for 1.6 km. The company notes higher grades in faults cutting across the main zone. The zone trends to the south-southeast and remains open at both ends.
Meanwhile in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, the company recently inked a deal to take a 75% stake in the 44-sq.-km Crater Mountain project from New Guinea Gold (NGG-V).
Celtic can earn an initial 51% interest by funding $2 million worth of work over the next three years. The company can boost its position to 75% by matching that over the subsequent five years.
Three holes previously sunk by BHP Minerals were highlighted by a 115-metre section running 1.83 grams gold; the hole was terminated at a depth of 340 metres while still cutting gold mineralization. Results from four holes by Macmin Silver included 24 metres of 6.55 grams gold, also ending in gold mineralization. All of the holes displayed intense silica, argilic or carbonate alteration. All of the historical drilling targeted only a small portion of a 12-sq.-km zone of mineralization.
The Nevera prospects are the most advanced on the project. They are believed to represent the top of a major gold mineralized system situated on the north slopes of the Crater Mountain complex, at the northern end of the like-named structural corridor.
Pan sampling at Nevera South returned up to 256 grams gold and 86.3 grams gold per tonne, rock samples from the Southwest prospect grade up to 33% zinc and 453 grams silver, and soil sampling at Nevera West yielded 46 grams gold and 15 grams gold plus several anomalous arsenic values up to 860 parts per million. Most of the prospects have not been trenched.
Celtic shares were 6, or about 17%, higher at 42 in early trading in Vancouver following the news on Jan. 21.
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