Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

Central Asia
Premier Gold starts Cholokkaindy exploration
PREMIER Gold has started its 2012 exploration
program on the Cholokkaindy licence
in the Kyrgyz Republic. The work has
started with an extensive soil sampling program
and further trenching while diamond
drilling will be undertaken later with the aim
of helping establish a geological r esource
on the licence in 2013.
Field work on Premier Gold’s Cholokkaindy prospect in the north of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The company expects to drill 1500 metres in
the target area of the Talbaital prospect, as well
as the Jarkonush pr ospect if the season allows.
Premier Gold plans to drill a minimum of
six holes to depths of up to 250 metres and intends
to report initial results from core obtained
from these prospects by the fourth quarter.
EXPLORATION company Hansa Resources
has finalized acquisition of the Zhumba
Gold Project in the Kokpektinsky and Ulansky
districts of Easter n Kazakhstan.
Zhumba was discovered in 1871 as a placer
deposit and since then ther e has been
ongoing small-scale production in the r egion.
In 1984-89 a local company mined the
Yuzhnaya zone by open pit to a depth of 70
metres producing 60,000 tonnes of ore with
an average grade of 5-6 grams/tonne gold.
Zhumba consists of two claims covering
259.76sqkm and is in the southeast continuation
of the West Kalba gold belt hosting
a number of producing gold mines including
the world-class Bakyrchik deposit. The regional
centre of Ust Kamenogorsk is 200km
from Zhumba along a paved road.
Zhumba is an orogenic gold system characterized
by intensive multi-stage mineralization
within an area of 2km by 4km with
three main styles of mineralization present.
38 | ASIA Miner | July/August 2012
The program is designed to extend and
define the length and depth of the known
surface mineralization and support the correlation
of mineralized structures across the
targeted area. Trenching and soil sampling
in priority ar eas has alr eady begun. The
combined work will indicate whether the
Talbaital prospect extends into Jarkonush
and more precisely map mineralized zones
over the total licence area.
A bulldozer has been preparing access for
the drilling rig, which is expected to arrive
during July. The bulldozing process is also
designed to expose new areas of mineralization.
The drilling program will be underta-
Hansa acquires Zhumba gold property
Historically, gold-quartz-sulphide veins
have been identified from 1 metre up to 6.5
metres thick with an average ar ound 1.5
metres and strike lengths up to a few hundred
metres.
Gold has also been identified in disseminated
gold-sulphide mineralized zones which
are tens of metres wide. Due to an historical
focus on the narrow veins style, the broader
disseminated style of mineralization has not
been systematically tested. Gold is associated
with pyrite and arsenopyrite. A zone of
weathering and oxidation above primary sulphide
mineralization has been developed at
the property to a depth of 30-40 metres and
has not been systematically explored.
In 1985, the Soviet Geological Survey drilled
four diamond holes and completed 50
trenches which delineated a total of 26 mineralized
bodies at cut-off of 2 grams/tonne
gold. The survey estimated a r esource in
Russian C1 category, for five mineralized
ken by Tamerlan, a highly qualified contractor
with extensive operating experience in
the Kyrgyz Republic.
Premier’s chief operating officer Richard
Nolan says, “We are pleased to start this
season’s exploration program which includes
the first drilling on Cholokkaindy , an
area in the Tien Shan gold belt which has a
history of producing gold mines. By the end
of this season we expect to be in a position
to map out the 2010 and 2011 surface
sampling mineralization into structures and
mineralized veins.
“This is an exciting time for Pr emier Gold
as we move in to the next stages of developing
the prospect which will provide a maiden
geological resource by 2013, the start
of the process of proving up a commercial
scale resource.”
Earlier this year the company changed its
name from Premier Management Holdings
to Premier Gold Resources and began trading
on the AIM market of the London
Stock Exchange. It also completed the acquisition
of Central Asia Resour ces Ltd,
bringing with it the Cholokkaindy licence,
which covers 24sqkm and is about 80km
west-southwest of Bishkek.
bodies of 192,000 ounces of gold at an
average grade of 4.4 grams/tonne, which
were described as steeply dipping, an average
of 1.5 metres wide and 200-600 metres
long. This historical estimate is based
on reports by the Soviet Geological Society
between 1984 and 89. The C1 category is
broadly similar to the CIM inferred definition.
Initial work planned by the T oronto and
Frankfurt listed Hansa will include compilation
of historical data, reconnaissance sampling
of thr ee styles of mineralization
including metallurgical testing, geological
and structural mapping, r estoration and
sampling of exploration adit, sampling of
open pit walls and further delineation of mineralization
geometry by means of tr enching
and channel sampling.
Hansa has concluded an agr eement with
Altynor Mining, a private BVI company, for the
effective acquisition of 81% of the shar es of
Altyn-Komir Ltd, the owner of Zhumba.