Olympus active in Vietnam

Vancouver – Despite cutting encouraging gold values during a newly completed 2,300 metre drill program at the Khe Rin prospect, Olympus Pacific Minerals (OYM-V) aims on moving the rigs back to the Bai Dat and Bai Go targets on the Phuoc Son project in Vietnam.

The reconnaissance drill program covered a 4-km area and identified three prospects that yielded gold-skarn mineralization associated with intrusive stocks. At Khe Rin some 7 km northwest of the high-grade gold mineralization shoots at Bai Dat and Bai Go, the best results came from holes 4 and 10, which cut 6.5grams gold per tonne over 3.1 metres from 27.4 metres downhole and 4.35 grams gold over 9.9 metres from 71.4 metres downhole, respectively.

Moving 1.4 km to the south at the Khe Do prospect, hole 23 hit 9.5 metres grading 7.9 grams gold from 78.4 metres downhole and hole 1 cut 1 metre grading 69.98 grams gold from 75 metres downhole at the Tra Long target.

The prospective area was delineated earlier this year by an open-ended, 3-km-long gold-in-soil anomaly that is coincident with a zone of strong calc-silicate (skarn) alteration. The Khe Do and Khe Rin mineralized zones both occur in metamorphosed volcano-sedimentary rock sequences. The skarn alteration in these rocks is thought to be related to a granodioritic intrusive that lies just below the surface. Olympus states that the associated base-metal assay results show a strong relationship between gold and copper values, consistent with high-temperature formation within a near-porphyry environment.

Although none of the holes cut an intrusive stock, syenite, leucodiorite and hornblende-quartz-diorite dykes were intersected. Some of these dykes show high-temperature contact-skarn zones, quartz veining, gold mineralization and biotite-quartz-potassium feldspar alteration. The gold correlates well with molybdenum values at Khe Rin and with bismuth-tellurium grades at Khe Do.

Prior to drill testing the skarn targets, Olympus Pacific has focussed it attention on the Dak Sa shear zone in the southeastern portion of the project. Drilling tested the downdip extension of gold mineralization exposed within shallow, small-scale mine workings along the western limb of a northerly plunging anticline at Bai Dat, as well as the nearby Bai Go prospect.

The Bai Dat zone comprises gold, silver and base metal mineralization hosted by quartz veins and breccias in greenschist metamorphics. The westerly dipping quartz vein system appears to have been folded near the surface into a northerly plunging anticline. Veins are typically 1 to 4 metres thick, with breccias and quartz-carbonate veinlets locally extending into the wall rocks. Open-pit and underground artisan miners have worked the vein over a 300-metre strike length along the anticline axis. The high-grade shoot was cut by 18 of the 32 holes drilled showing an average grade of 22.7 grams gold over 3.6 metres.

Moving 1 km to the north at Bai Go, mineralization is associated with multiple quartz veins that measure up to 44 metres in true thickness in the Dak Sa shear zone. To date, 15 of the 28 holes drilled intersected a high-grade gold shoot. The average grade for the holes was 13.2 grams over 5.3 metres

After the current monsoon season, the rig will be used for further in-fill and step-out drilling at the two zones, with follow up drilling at Khe Rin expected to begin next year.

The 100-sq.-km Phuoc Son gold project is in central Vietnam, 140-km southwest of the port city of Danang. Phuoc Son is a joint venture held by Olympus, with 57.18%, Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T), with 32.64%, and Zedex, with 10.18%. Olympus is the project operator.