Vancouver — Ivanhoe Mines’ (IVN-T) exploration team has discovered a new gold-copper porphyry system within the company’s 100%-owned exploration tenements in Mongolia.
The new find represents the first gold-copper porphyry system that the company has discovered outside of the main South Gobi mineral belt that hosts the Turquoise Hill and Kharmagtai discoveries.
“The discovery is a great boost for Ivanhoe’s exploration team as it represents new conceptual thinking outside the Turquoise Hill-Kharmagtai porphyry belt,” said Douglas Kirwin, Executive Vice-President of Exploration for Ivanhoe. “One of the most exciting implications of this discovery is that it opens the door for large gold and copper porphyry deposits in a new region of Mongolia.”
Recent surface-sampling program in the area returned the highest gold, copper and molybdenum values that the junior has received to date from surface samples on any of its Mongolian projects.
Sampling has outlined an area the measures 400-by-250 metres in which surface gold values average 1.1 grams gold per tonne. Coincident to this zone and expanding outwards is an irregular northwest-southeast-trending zone that measures 900-by-450 metres. This zone hosts average surface values of 0.40 gram gold, 0.70% copper, 0.09 gram molybdenum and 1.4 grams silver, based on 122 rock-chip and float samples.
Individual samples assayed as high as 20.99 grams gold, 3.15% copper and 577.90 grams silver. Ivanhoe states that there is a much more extensive area of lower-grade gold, copper and molybdenum that extends further out from the main zone of mineralization.
Ivanhoe reports that five intrusive bodies have been identified in the area. These include: monzonite, quartz granite porphyry, pale diorite, monzodiorite and a plagioclase porphyry. These bodies have been intruded into units of sedimentary and volcanic rocks.
The strongest mineralization at surface occurs in a zone of disseminated and vein copper mineralization that is spatially related to a single intrusion of porphyry hosted by siltstones, sandstones and mafic to intermediate volcanics. The mineralization is associated with fine to cm-wide individual to stock-worked quartz veins containing iron oxides. Chalcopyrite veins that measure up to 5 mm-wide have also have been observed. Alteration is dominantly sericite, silicification and pyrite.
A magnetic geophysical survey indicates that some of the mineralization may be associated with a magnetite destructive event that is similar to the magnetite destruction observed at Turquoise Hill’s Central and Far North discoveries.
Ivanhoe will commence induced polarization and gravity geophysical surveys this month to delineate areas of potential sub-surface mineralization. This will occur ahead of trenching and drilling programs. Other areas in the district have also returned highly anomalous gold and copper values. These will be followed up as part of the future work.
Ivanhoe owns a 100% interest in the exploration licenses encompassing the project area. There are no underlying royalties. The company holds mineral licenses covering more than 82,000 sq. km in Mongolia and continues to review new exploration opportunities.
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