Celtic explores Malaumanda project

Drill crews are testing along strike and downdip of a recently discovered zone of mineralization on Celtic Minerals‘ (CME-V) Lodon Tops prospect, part of the Malaumanda project in Papua New Guinea.

The first hole drilled in the new zone returned 10.8 metres grading 4.5 grams gold and 28.9 grams silver per tonne, plus 0.73% zinc and 0.06% copper, beginning at a down-hole depth of 39.5 metres. The angled (minus 55) hole was designed to test beneath a previously cut trench. The geologic structures cut by the initial hole are similar to those seen at surface, reports Celtic.

Celtic discovered the zone late in 2003 after a landslip exposed a zinc-rich, quartz-sulphide vein system where grab sampling yielded up to 41.5 grams gold and 350 grams silver per tonne. 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, 33 metres northwest of the first, yielded a 7-metre section grading 11 grams gold, 76 grams silver, 3% zinc and 0.3% copper. Trench 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.

Drilling, trenching and prospecting have traced mineralization fairly consistently for 1.6 km. Grades are higher in faults that cut across the Main zone, which trends to the south-southeast and remains open at both ends.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Celtic has acquired 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 spending $2 million on work over the next three years. The company can boost this to 75% by matching that amount over the subsequent five years.

Three holes previously sunk by BHP Minerals were highlighted by a 115-metre section grading 1.83 grams gold per tonne; that hole was terminated at a depth of 340 metres while still cutting gold mineralization. Highlights from four holes drilled by Macmin Silver included 24 metres grading 6.55 grams gold, also ending in gold mineralization. All of the holes displayed intense silica, argilic or carbonate alteration. This 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 and appear to represent the top of a major gold-mineralized system on the northern slopes of the Crater Mountain complex. 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 Toronto on Jan. 21.