SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists

EXPLORATION REVIEWS
32 SEG NEWSLETTER No 63 • OCTOBER 2005
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Exploration Reviews (Continued)
owned subsidiary, AMR Nickel, has
entered into an agreement with Mineral
Development Company (Mideco) to
acquire its 20% interest in the Ban Phuc
nickel project, located west of Hanoi.
AMR has agreed to make a cash payment
of $2.5M to acquire its interest.
Upon completion of the transaction,
AMR will hold a 90% interest in the project,
with the Mechanical Engineering
Company of Son La province holding
the remaining 10%.
The Olympus Pacific Minerals Inc.
ongoing exploration programs on the
Phuoc Son and Bong Mieu Gold
Properties have delineated a total of
five deposits. On the Phuoc Son gold
property, 11 exploration and in-fill holes
totaling 1,918 m have been drilled.
Better intersections from step-out drilling
in the Dak Sa-2 (Bai Go) deposit area
include hole 132, 2.51 m @ 134.72 g/t
Au; hole 41, 0.23 m @ 26.3 g/t Au; and
hole 68, 3.2 m @ 3.49 g/t Au. Results
from the in-fill drilling on the Dak Sa-1
(Bai Dat) deposit include hole 121, 5.2
m @ 8.85 g/t Au; hole 122, 8 m @ 11.13
g/t Au; hole 126, 3.05 m @ 39.28 g/t Au;
and hole 127, 4.7 m @ 23.97 g/t Au.
AUSTRALASIA
Regional Correspondent:
Brent McInnes (SEG 1999)
CSIRO Exploration and Mining
With contributions from
James Beeston – Queensland
Queensland Department of
Natural Resources & Mines
Tony Christie (SEG 1992) – New Zealand
NZ Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences
Sue Daly – South Australia
PIRSA
Geoff Green (SEG 2000) – Tasmania
Mineral Resources Tasmania
Jonathan Law (SEG 1993 F) – Victoria
CSIRO Minerals
Tim McConachy (SEG 1987 F) –
New South Wales
CSIRO Exploration & Mining
Russell Meares (SEG 1996) –
New South Wales
Malachite Resources
AUSTRALIA
Geoscience Australia has released a
report indicating that Australia has the
world’s largest economic demonstrated
resources (EDR) of Zn, Pb, Ni, mineral
sands (rutile and zircon), Ta and
uranium. Australia is one of the top six
producing countries for commodities
such as bauxite, black coal, brown coal,
Cu, Au, iron ore, ilmenite, Li, Mn, Nb,
Ag and industrial diamond.
Mineral exploration spending in the
second half of 2004 rose to $AUD512M,
a 33% increase relative to the equivalent
period in 2003. While Au remained
the predominant target in 2004, its
share of total spending fell below 50%
to $414M, whereas base metal exploration
increased its share of spending to
$207.4M, an increase of 22.5%.
Nationally 39% of exploration spending
was directed at the search for new
deposits. Tasmania had the highest proportion
of exploration in this category
of any jurisdiction with 54.7% of its
spending, whereas the Northern
Territory had the lowest at 31.3%. Full
report details can be found at .
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
A significant grass roots discovery has
been reported by unlisted explorer RMG
Services at the Carrapateena prospect,
100 km southeast of Olympic Dam. The
second of two exploration drill holes
intersected 178.2 m @ 1.83% Cu, 0.64
g/t Au, 0.21% Ce and 0.13% La over a
vertical interval from 476 to 654.2 m.
The mineralized zone has similarities
with the Olympic Dam-Prominent
Hill–style of Fe oxide-Cu-Au (IOCG)
mineralization. The upper altered zone
consists of bornite-rich breccias, bornite
stringers and some chalcocite (~476–549
m), a central zone of more gneissic and
granitic material, and a lower zone of
dominant chalcopyrite (607-654.2m).
No significant U values were reported,
but Ag was slightly anomalous.
RMG’s drilling was 50% funded by
the South Australian government’s
Plan For Accelerated Exploration
(PACE), part of a five-year $22.5M initiative
to encourage mineral exploration
in South Australia.
TASMANIA
Zinifex Ltd announced an intersection
of 8.7 m @ 5.8% Zn contained an Ag
grade of 605 g/t in the Rosebery mine.
These grades correlate with those in a
nearby hole and suggest that a new lens
of ore has been discovered. Another hole
intersected 5 m of high grade ore containing
15% Zn. The company has also
intersected 23.8 m of alteration in a hole
in the Boco area, 9 km north of
Rosebery, including 3.1 m of mineralization
and 1 m of high grade Pb and Zn.
Zinifex and Resource Investments
and Finance Limited (RFI) have
announced a joint venture on RFI’s tenements
in the Hellyer area under which
each will invest $1M into exploration
over the next two years. RFI will conduct
the exploration and Zinifex will
have the right to select three areas on
which to fund and conduct a full feasibility
study in return for 70% of any
resources discovered.
Allegiance Mining has announced a
14 m intersection of 2.5% Ni in a hole
250 m west of the resource envelope and
150 m west of a previous intersection of
12 m of 1.6% Ni at the Avebury Ni
deposit. This extends the strike length of
the deposit to more than 1,000 m.
Lefroy Resources has extended the
strike length of mineralization in the
Lefroy goldfield, northeast Tasmania.
Drilling at the Pinafore Reef intersected
17 m of 4.49 g/t Au. A hole at the
Native Youth Reef returned 1 m intersections
of 23.88, 13.62 and 7.94 g/t Au.
The second of these was part of a 10-m
intersection at 2.41 g/t.
Copper Mines of Tasmania is
drilling a deep hole into a pyrophyllite
anomaly identified in an airborne
hyperspectral survey commissioned by
Mineral Resources Tasmania and conducted
by CSIRO and HyVista
Corporation in the Mount Lyell area.
The survey was funded by the
Australian Government under the
Western Tasmanian Minerals Program.
Some Cu mineralization has been intersected
high in the hole, but the target
depth has yet to be reached.
GTN Resources Limited is continuing
its drilling program on the King Island
scheelite deposit. GTN expects to complete
a full feasibility study by the end
of 2005 and production is scheduled to
commence in early 2006.
NEW SOUTH WALES
In the Lachlan fold belt Cu-Au region,
Newcrest announced that the
Ridgeway Deeps project will proceed
based on increasing the depth of mining
at the Ridgeway Au-Cu deposit at
their Cadia mining complex near
Orange by a further 300 m. The extension
will add production of 1.3 M oz Au