Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

SUCCESS FOR NORTON IN PADDINGTON EXPLORATION
MID-TIER gold producer and takeover target
Norton Gold Fields has spent $3.7 million on
exploration and resource development at its
flagship Paddington tenements in W estern
Australia. China’s Zijin Mining Gr oup has
made a takeover bid for Norton, which the
company’s Board has recommended that its
shareholders accept. Norton has drilled 243
holes over 26,495 metr es since embarking
on a two year, $37 million accelerated pr ogram
in January aimed at converting 700,000
ounces in reserve to resource and identifying
300,000 ounces in new resources.
Norton’s managing dir ector Andre Labuschagne
says the tenements which take in
693sqkm of land near Kalgoorlie in one of the
world’s most highly endowed gold provinces
has an ore reserve of 16.1 million tonnes @
1.94 grams/tonne gold for one million ounces
of gold. “The resource development drilling
strategy will target timely development of projects
for the next five years. Gr eenfields exploration
targets will also be developed to
identify the next generation of deposits.”
Significant intersections at several of the tenements
during the latest drill phase include
1.3 metres @ 43.5 grams/tonne gold fr om
148.2 metres at the Homestead underground
prospect; 1 metre @ 35.7 grams/tonne gold
from 7 metres at the Enterprise prospect and
18 metres @ 2.73 grams/tonne gold from 47
metres at the Janet Ivy prospect.
The company’s key target ar eas for r esource
development have now been identified
and include undergr ound resource
evaluation at the Homestead and Black Flag
prospects. The delineation of oxide and deep
primary resource extensions will be investigated
at the Enterprise and Janet Ivy prospects,
while exploration teams will focus on the delineation
of small open cut mining projects at
Mount Pleasant including Rose W est-Violet,
Green Gum and Golden Flag.
Norton will focus its initial greenfields exploration
work on the Bor der-Gidji project area
Australian Junior Explorers
which overlies strike extensions of the highly
prospective Boulder-Lefroy mineralized structural
corridor. The company has also under -
taken exploration activities in r egional
programs taking in the Breakaway Dam prospect,
Lady Bountiful Extended pr oject and
Golden Eagle prospect, with 24 holes drilled
across these three areas.
TORO STARTS DRILLING AT THESEUS URANIUM PROSPECT
SOUTH-Australian based uranium company
Toro Energy has begun a drill pr ogram at its
Theseus prospect in Western Australia. The
company aims to convert a major portion of
the exploration target range (ETR) to an inferred
resource. Last year Toro established an
ETR of 20-40 million tonnes @ 400-500ppm
uranium for 10,000-20,000 tonnes of uranium.
The drill program is also following up on
existing identified mineralization from previous
drill programs outside of the ETR. A mud ro-
Norton Gold Fields’ Paddington project is in the prolific Kalgoorlie gold province.
tary rig has commenced the initial program of
about 20,000 metres at the project.
Toro’s managing director Greg Hall says,
“It is very good news for Toro to be able to
start this drilling program early in the season.
Toro believes ther e is an excellent
chance to convert the ETR estimate to an
inferred resource over the next few months.
We are looking forward to further positive
news from Theseus, especially after the highly
successful extraction tests impr ove the
probability of an ISR project.”
Theseus was discovered by Toro in 2009
during a grassroots regional aircore drill program.
Initial results highlighted the potential
for sandstone-hosted uranium mineralization
and further drilling in 2011 confirmed the presence
of significant uranium mineralization.
There have been 130 holes drilled at the project
with half of them r eporting a gamma,
assay or prompt fission neutron (PFN) greater
than 0.5 metres @ 100ppm uranium.
July/August 2011 | ASIA Miner | 55