SOUTHEAST ASIA SPECIAL — Pacific Wildcat defining resource at Sulut

The giant gold discovery by Bre-X Minerals on the Island of Kalimantan in Indonesia spawned a huge land rush led by a host of Canadian juniors.

In many cases, representatives of these companies have not even set foot on the ground they plan to acquire.

But that is not the case for Pacific Wildcat Resources (VSE), which has been developing gold projects in Southeast Asia since its restructuring in 1994, long before the Indonesian exploration boom.

The company is now 30% owned by each of Viceroy Resources and Gwalia Consolidated and is well-funded, with roughly $5.7 million in working capital and 8.9 million shares outstanding.

Pacific Wildcat holds an interest in two Indonesian properties, including the Sulut property on the island of Sulawesi and the Jambi property on the island of Sumatra.

The company is concentrating its efforts on Sulut, where previous work by a major international mining company outlined a geological resource of 12 million tonnes grading 2.09 grams gold plus 4.4 grams silver per tonne.

The resource is centred around the old Doup-Benteng gold mine, which was mined by the Dutch from 1936 to 1941.

Subsequent drilling by Pacific Wildcat, including 44 holes totaling 2,864 metres, supports the resource estimate.

Exploration to date has identified epithermal gold-bearing veins and vein stockworks, silica-pyrite alteration containing variable gold content, and limestone-hosted gold mineralization.

Pacific Wildcat sees good potential for the discovery of a limestone-hosted gold deposit.

A large diamond drilling rig is on the property and will continue drilling within the resource area to the end of June, at which time the economics of the project will be assessed.

Gordon Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the company, says two targets close to the resource area will also be drill-tested.

Pacific Wildcat will retain a minimum 52% interest, as well as assume management of the Sulut property, according to the property agreement with its Indonesian partners.

The Jambi property, located on the southwestern side of the island of Sumatra, covers 74,100 hectares in a relatively remote and mountainous location.

Elevation ranges up to 2,000 metres, and vegetative cover is predominantly tropical rainforest. Access is by helicopter or by river boat in some areas of the northeastern portion of the ground package.

Exploration work at Jambi has been limited to a detailed drainage sampling program which outlined eight prospective areas.

Two of the areas were followed up with mapping, as well as preliminary soil auger and rock geochemical sampling programs.

Pacific Wildcat believes the Jambi property is prospective for epithermal-to-high-level, porphyry-style deposits and expects to have an exploration crew on the property in the near future.

The upcoming program is budgeted at up to US$500,000 and will include follow-up work on the previously identified targets.

Fitzpatrick says the program may also include some shallow drilling with a small portable drill rig.

Pacific Wildcat holds a 95% equity interest in the Jambi property, while its Indonesian partner holds the right to acquire an additional 15% interest upon completion of a feasibility study.