Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

THE completion of data logging from the final
drill holes of the phase one exploration pr ogram
has prompted Draig Resources to claim
that says its Teeg licence in central-souther n
Mongolia shows great promise. The company
intersected coal in 18 holes during the pr ogram
which was completed at the end of April.
A series of steeply dipping coal seam intersections
were logged at shallow depths of
less than 175 metres along a north-west trending
strike length. These intersections are at
open pit mineable levels.
The 6000 metre program was conducted
solely on Teeg, which sits within Draig’s parcel
of Ovorhangay licences in this coal-rich
area of Mongolia. Draig owns eight coal exploration
licences in Mongolia, four in Ovor -
hangay province and another four in the
South Gobi province further to the south, not
far from the Chinese border. It acquired the
Teeg coal licence shows ‘great promise’
The extremes facing Draig Resources in its drilling program at the Teeg licence in central-southern Mongolia.
XANADU Mines intends to acquir e the Oyut
Ulaan Copper/Gold Project in the South Gobi
region through the purchase of Temujiin Mining’s
wholly-owned subsidiary Vantage LLC.
The ASX-listed company has executed a
terms sheet with Temujiin, which is a private
Canadian company.
Upon completion of a satisfactory due diligence
and conditional on Temujiin shareholder
approval, Xanadu will negotiate a
definitive agreement to purchase Oyut Ulaan.
Once definitive documentation is finalized and
a mining licence issued, which will ear n Xanadu
an initial 25% inter est, the Board will
propose purchase of the remaining 75% be
approved at a general meeting of shar ehol-
licences in late 2011 through BDBL LLC, previously
a subsidiary of Peabody-Winsway.
The collated data from the 6000 metre program
showed that among the best coal
seams intersected were those with apparent
seam thicknesses of 86.28 metr es, 66.75
metres, 37.8 metres and 36.12 metres. The
86.28 metre intersection extended from 27
metres to 146 metres.
The ASX-listed company has been undertaking
resource modelling to determine the
structure of the licence and anticipated completing
a maiden JORC-compliant estimate
for Teeg by the end of June. Coal quality and
petrographic testing is continuing at ALS laboratories
in Mongolia and Australia. Draig’s
managing director Mark Earley says, “I’m extremely
pleased with the progress we made
in the tough operating conditions imposed by
the harsh Mongolian winter-spring period.
ders. This process is expected to be completed
during the current quarter.
Oyut Ulaan comprises a tenement package
of 120sqkm and is about 275km northeast of
the Oyu Tolgoi mine and 60km west of the industrial
centre of Sainshand and the main
Trans-Mongolian Railway. It was explored by
Mongolian and Russian geologists in the
1960s and worked on by Ivanhoe Mines from
2001 to 2009. Ivanhoe rationalized its extensive
copper porphyry exploration licences in
the region after it decided to concentrate solely
on the Oyu T olgoi project, resulting in the
transfer of ownership to Temujiin.
Extensive geophysical, tr enching and drill
data has been compiled by pr evious owners
Mongolia
“All the coal we inter cepted was relatively
shallow and definitely at open pit mineable levels.
I think the Teeg licence shows great promise
based on the drilling we have done to
date. Our aim is to complement these results
with the drilling to be undertaken during the
phase two program, which will include the
South Gobi licences.”
The company plans to begin the phase two
program later in the year. As well as including
the South Gobi licences, the program is likely
to also include further exploration at T eeg
with some additional exploration also expected
to be undertaken on the neighbouring
Nariin Teeg licence, building on a geophysics
survey completed over the licence in February
2012. Draig has completed the establishment
of its Mongolian of fice and has
appointed Terrence Thompson as the Mongolian-based
general manager.
Xanadu eyes off new copper/gold project
which Xanadu is interr ogating. Successful
completion of this acquisition will further consolidate
the company’s copper and gold asset
portfolio in the South East Gobi region, which
should benefit from the near-term rail infrastructure
planned for the area.
Consideration of the acquisition includes issuing
3.95 million new shar es and Aus$4.25
million of shares based on a price equal to the
15 day VWAP as calculated on the day of the
general meeting. An additional 15 million shares
will also be issued to Temujiin upon Xanadu
defining a JORC-compliant r esource over a
mineable area of at least 90 million tonnes at
an average 1% copper equivalent and subject
to a favourable pre-feasibility or scoping study.
July/August 2012 | ASIA Miner | 27