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Mongolia
Haranga increases Selenge interest to 80%
THE acquisition of a further 20% interest in a
joint venture company that holds five exploration
licences comprising the Selenge Iron
Ore Project in northern Mongolia has boosted
Haranga Resources’ ownership to 80%. The
ASX-listed company maintains full operational
and management control of the joint venture.
Selenge covers 600sqkm in the heart of
Mongolia’s premier iron ore development region,
about 200km north of Ulaanbaatar. The
project has access to the Trans-Mongolian
rail line and nearby rail spurs.
Drilling is ongoing with four diamond rigs in
operation. Significant widths of iron mineralization
have been intersected at all three of
the targets drilled thus far and metallurgical
test work has started in initial samples. The
company aims to define an initial JORC-compliant
resource early in 2012.
A total of 36 diamond core holes have been
drilled for a total of 8366 metres. Drilling has
focused on the Bayantsogt prospect where
Haranga Resources’ projects in Mongolia. The company is focusing on the Selenge project in the country’s north.
there are at least five major iron lodes each
averaging about 20 metres and up to 103
metres in apparent width.
Assay results received to date include 28
metres from 3 metres @ 30% iron, 17 metres
from 50 metres @ 28%, 41 metres from 107
metres @ 26 metres including 10 metres from
113 metres @ 42%, 18 metres from 65 metres
@ 31%, 5 metres from 106 metres @
40%, 9 metres from 13 metres @ 39% including
5 metres from 14 metres @ 47% and
38 metres from 68 metres @ 24%.
Mineralization at Bayantsogt is primarily
hosted in Banded Magnetite Skarn and is
similar in nature to the nearby 300 million
tonne Eruu Gol deposit, which has proven
amenable to low-cost mining and beneficiation,
and is currently Mongolia’s largest
iron ore export mine.
Initial drilling at the larger Dund Bulag
prospect has recently discovered significant
widths of iron mineralization of a similar nature
to Bayantsogt while mineralized intersections
from initial drilling at the Huiten Gol
prospect appear to be smaller in width but of
a higher iron grade than Bayantsogt.
All targets are associated with large magnetic
anomalies and lie within a well-defined
structural corridor that contains all of the
known iron ore deposits in Selenge
province, including Eruu Gol, which currently
produces about 2.5 million tonnes of magnetite
concentrate annually.
Initial estimate for South Gobi Coal Project
AN initial JORC resource estimate of 63.1
million tonnes for Guildford Coal’s South Gobi
Coal Project underpins the potential start-up
open cut mining opportunity of 1-2 million
tonnes annually for at least 20 years. The estimate
comprises 38.2 million indicated and
24.9 million inferred tonnes.
The ASX-listed company lodged mining licence
application for two tenements and expected
to have these granted by the end of
2011. It has completed scoping studies for
the start-up operation and mining is targeted
to begin by the end of the second quarter of
2012 in the North Pit.
The company will continue drilling on other
key tenements in the South Gobi Project to define
the JORC resource required to underpin
the conceptual Central, West and East pit mine
strategy for the project. Discussions with potential
offtake partners have also commenced.
Guildford’s interests in Mongolia are held
through its 70%-owned subsidiary Terra Energy.The
South Gobi Coal Project comprises
five exploration licences in South Gobi
province about 1000km southwest of Ulaanbaatar
and only about 60km from the Chinese
border station town of Ceke.
The project is also about 50km east of
Nariin Sukhait which includes SouthGobi Resources’
Ovoot Tolgoi mine and the MAK
mine, which currently produce and export
coking and thermal coal to customers in
China. These mines produce more than 5
million tonnes annually of high volatile bituminous
coals which are marketed as separate
thermal and coking coal products.
This coal is currently sold ROM at the mine
gate to Chinese traders who transport the
coal by truck to a Chinese border coal stockpile
at Ceke where it is then transferred by rail
to Chinese power stations and steel mills.
The company also has the Middle Gobi
Project, which consists of two exploration licences
in Dundgovi province, about 200km
south of Ulaanbaatar and about 200km
west of the Mongolian railway grid with a logistics
route to China via the Erlianhaote
border crossing. Guildford recently announced
a significant upgrade in exploration
targets at its Mongolian projects to a range
of 30 million to 1.38 billion tonnes
32 | ASIA Miner | January/February 2012