Vancouver —
Drill hole B02-01 was drilled in the Boka-1 North area and returned 2.9 grams gold over 116.45 metres, starting at a down-hole depth of 39 metres. This included a 25.6-metre interval that averaged 4.2 grams gold starting at 39 metres down-hole, as well as an 8.34-metre interval of 3.7 grams gold starting at 70.96 metres down-hole and a 27.05-metre section of 3.1 grams gold starting at 128.4 metres down-hole.
The entire mineralized intersection was in oxide material and 80 metres downdip of the existing tunnels. Mineralization is dipping at about 30 to the east, and the intersection from drill hole B02-01 is believed to represent the true width.
“From what I’ve seen of the drill holes, I think these results will be the worst,” says President John Paterson.
Gold mineralization at Boka is associated with quartz-carbonate stockworks and heavy sulphide breccia zones hosted in carbonaceous sediments and, in some places, gabbro.
These sulphide breccia zones have been observed in tunnels XG-13 and XG-15. At Tunnel XG-15, check samples that were analyzed by screen fire assay methods at ALS Chemex returned values as high as 111 grams gold over 2.5 metres, 149 grams gold over 2 metres and 605 grams gold over 3 metres. The same sulphide breccia material has been intersected in drill holes B03-02A and B03-04.
Drill holes B02-02 and B03-03 have been logged and sampled, and core samples are being prepared at Langfang Laboratories in China. The pulps will be sent to ALS Chemex in Vancouver for screen fire assay.
Hole B02-02 was collared 226 metres north of hole B02-01. It intersected mineralization characterized by heavy stockwork at 67.05 metres down-hole and was mineralized to the bottom of the hole, which was terminated at 270 metres owing to recovery problems. Visible gold, as well as electrum, were identified in the core.
Hole B03-02A was set up to twin hole B02-02 and intersected the same mineralized zone at 56.8 metres. Visible gold was observed at 60.55 metres and electrum was identified in several intervals within the drill section.
Three drill rigs are currently coring holes B03-02A, B03-04 and B03-05. Southwestern plans to add another two rigs since broken ground related to the intense deformation and brecciation slows down the drilling process.
Boka 1 North is part of an extensive system of gold mineralization that extends for 5.5 km from the Boka 11 prospect in the north to Boka 7 prospect in the south. It is defined by a strong gold-in-soil anomaly, and more than 200 tunnels that have been excavated at various levels along the trend. A second gold-in-soil anomaly that extends for an additional 20 km has been defined farther south and southwest.
The most extensive tunnelling can be seen at Boka 1 North and South over a strike length of 1.8 km. The current, 5,000-metre drill campaign is testing the continuity along strike and downdip of the Boka 1 gold mineralization at drill spacings of 200 metres.
Results from the drilling indicate that the gold mineralization at Boka dips shallowly to the east and trends north-south. Mineralization is believed to be stratabound and confined to a highly sheared carbonaceous slate unit.
Further assay results are pending. Southwestern is looking into options to speed up the sample processing procedures, including having an independent qualified prep lab on site at Boka.
In addition to drilling, the company is collecting two 500-kg samples of oxide and sulphide material, which will be shipped to Lakefield Research in Ontario for preliminary metallurgical studies. The oxide material is being pulled from tunnel KD24-13, which is 270 metres long and has intersected oxide mineralization 300 metres below surface.
The Boka project is a joint venture between Southwestern Resources and Team 209 of the Nuclear Industry of Yunnan Province. Southwestern stands to earn a 90% interest by spending US$4 million over four years and paying US$1.7 million.
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