For personal use only

Transcription

1 OCTOBER 9 ASX ANNOUNCEMENT Drilling Update The fourth quarter of 2012 will see MRG Metals Ltd (MRG) further the exploration program, as the Company prepares to drill three of its projects: 1) Xanadu - review of opportunities to: a. Monetise the 3-5,000 oz remnant Gold in old leach pit. (Current gross market value in excess of $6 million.) b. Plan Infill drilling, for early 2013, to scope out non JORC resource of approx 74,000 oz Gold previously drilled. Exploration target in excess of 200,000 oz Gold based on confirmation of resource extension. This will include a focus on the Stynes prospect where mineralisation outcrops at surface. (Targets lie adjacent to Northern Star Resources Mt Olympus and Sparta resources which approach 1 million oz Gold. Refer Figure 1) c. Plan for drill testing, in early 2013, the new analysis which suggests potential for resources just north east of the previous mine operations at the Ampitheatre. Recent discoveries by Northern Star Resources have changed the whole prospectivity of the Xanadu tenements, and MRG plans to ramp up activities. 2) Collie South - initial Aircore drilling on targets 1,3 and 6. (Targets lie along basin extensions which have produced over 400 Million Tonnes of Coal. Refer Figure 2) 3) Kalgoorlie East - follow up RC drilling for Silver from the first pass program plus additional drilling asociated with identified potential VMS, base metals target. (Targets adjacent to Kalgoorlie Gold Super pit and MacPhersons Silver Super pit. Refer Figure 4) 1) Xanadu Project (Gold) MRG Metals Ltds (MRG) wholly owned Xanadu Gold Project is located (Figure 1) approximately 40 km SE of Paraburdoo in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and covers Proterozoic sediments of the Paraburdoo Hinge Zone. Xanadu was originally a green fields discovery made by BP Minerals in the mid 1980's. The gold mineralisation at Xanadu has similarities to the large Carlin-style deposits of Nevada USA. Gold mineralisation occurs as gold bearing pyrite mineralisation hosted in calcareous sedimentary rocks along defined structural trends. Company Information Directors Albert Pietrzak Non Executive Chairman Andrew Van Der Zwan Managing Director Shane Turner Non Executive Director & Company Secretary MRG aspires to become an investment of choice, focused on: The discovery of gold, base metals and other commodities which fit its growth strategy ABN: ASX Code: MRQ Level 1, 1-3 Bath Lane Ballarat, VIC 3350 PO Box 237 Ballarat, VIC 3353 Phone: Phone: (Mel) Fax: Website: info@mrgmetals.com.au Quick Facts as at October 8, 2012 Shares on Issue: 88 million Market Cap: A$8 million Options: 44 million Cash in Bank: approx. A$4.0 million Debt: Nil Current Projects: Kalgoorlie East (Gold, Nickel) Collie South (Coal, Bauxite) Xanadu (Gold) Braemore Battery (Gold, Copper) Fraser Range (Gold, Base metals) Royalty Interest Diorite (Gold) Bell Chambers (Gold, Copper) Mulgul (Gold, Copper) Extensive exploration has been completed by several companies since 1985, comprising over 1500 drill holes (including grade control) for 25,000+ metres, more than 1,200 geochemical samples and detailed geological mapping and geophysics. Numerous prospects were delineated by this exploration and one of these, known as Amphitheatre, was mined and treated via a heap leach operation during 1993 &

2 1994. Approximately 167, g/t Au was placed on the leach pad with 90,000 tonnes of lower grade (0.4 to 0.8 g/t Au) material stockpiled separately. While production details are scant, it is believed that tropical cyclones and subsequent heavy rains severely disrupted the operation and the leaching operation was terminated prematurely. In addition to the resource delineation at the Amphitheatre deposit, a large amount of work including grade control drilling at the Claudius and Caesar Deposits was completed, allowing additional resources to be calculated for these areas. Note that these resources are not compliant with the current JORC code and may only be regarded as Exploration Targets under the JORC Code. MRG now plans to focus on 3 main areas of potential: a) Monetise the residual gold ore in the leach pad. b) In fill drill of the tenements based on previous exploration data. c) Drill new targets based on the recent analysis of new Satellite data. a) The Company plans to test for residual ore in the Amphitheatre leach pad and investigate avenues for extracting any remaining gold. Xanadu is currently undergoing further data consolidation and further field work is planned in the next quarter, to develop a comprehensive exploration plan. A priority of the plan will be how to quickly monetise the residual Gold resource sitting within the old Leach pit, which was abandoned during previous operations under significantly different gold valuations. It is anticipated (but requires validation) that in excess of 5,000 oz of contained gold sits within the old pad and a key element of the initial analysis will focus on the feasibility of recovering the gold economically. b) The extensive drill hole database of previous explorers has now been digitised and validated, enabling a 3 dimensional analysis of the prospects. This data is currently being used to plan a drill program, which will commence once all approvals are obtained. Several additional target areas remain that require further drilling in order to ascertain their prospectivity and potential for further shallow gold resources. MRG believes that further targets remain to be fully evaluated at Xanadu, including Big Bend, Arsenic Fault and Cleopatra as well as around more advanced prospects such as Stynes, Amphitheatre West, Claudius and Caesar. In particular, drilling will focus on the Stynes prospect, where mineralisation occurs within the Mt McGrath Formation, similar to the Mount Olympus deposit. The mineralisation is within silicified and pyritised sandstones and siltstones associated with a fault zone. It outcrops at surface and has been tested to a depth of 60 metres. c) In addition an analysis of ALOS & LandSat imagery along with radiometric/dem imaging has been completed to identify the geological characteristics associated with the known mineral anomalies and to facilitate new target identification. The Company has completed an interpretation of satellite imagery, with an emphasis on understanding the structural regime of the conduits for mineralising fluids. Additional targets have been identified near the Amphitheatre area, and close to the north - eastern boundary near to Northern Star Resource's recent Sparta discovery. The work of Northern Star Resources indicates that this region is developing into a significant gold province, with nearly 1 million Oz of resource identified to date. Page 2

3 Figure 1 Xanadu Gold Project 2) Collie South Project (Coal and Bauxite) The Collie tenement covers 33kms of strike directly south of the main Collie coal bearing basin & ground surrounding the western sub-basin of the Wilga coal bearing basin. (Figure 2) An exhaustive compilation of has been made of all available data for the area of the Collie tenements & environs. This has included data from previous drilling, gravity & airborne magnetic surveys and mapping. This compilation has identified 7 targets considered worthy of follow up. In the June Quarter of 2012 the Company has sought the required approvals and negotiated with Private Landholders for access in order to complete first pass drilling on four main targets, numbers 1, 3 & 6 on the below plan. Drilling is planned to commence late October, Page 3

4 Figure 2 Collie South identified target zones Page 4

5 Figure 3 Collie South satellite image of planned drill holes Page 5

6 3) KALGOORLIE EAST The Kalgoorlie East Project is located approximately 7 kilometres due east of the Super Pit in the eastern Goldfields of Western Australia and 2.5 kilometres west of the Nimbus Silver Mine. It is considered prospective for gold, nickel and Silver mineralisation, as the project lies along strike and in the same sequence or rocks as both the Golden Ridge Gold Mine and Blair Nickel Mine. The project contains widespread evidence of mineralisation. After an initial review of previous exploration and structural analysis, MRG Metals embarked upon widespread soil sampling. This first pass sampling was followed be more detailed grid based sampling, which highlighted some eleven areas warranting further exploration. Concurrent with the soil sampling, an Electro-Magnetic (EM) geophysical survey was commissioned, over those areas where elevated nickel in soil was coincident with ultramafic rocks. Eight of the anomalous areas were subsequently tested by Aircore drilling, while two strong EM conductors were probed by scout Reverse Circulation drilling. The Aircore drilling discovered three distinct styles of mineralisation; shear hosted gold mineralisation, lateritic nickel mineralisation, with up to 1% nickel and silver mineralisation within meta - volcaniclastics. Several of the holes in the southern part of the project area intersected elevated silver values, with hole KE047 terminating in a hard quartz vein returning values up to 88.7 g/t silver. Follow up RC drilling confirmed the presence of a mineralised structure, albeit at a lower grade. Recent sampling suggests that the mineralised area is likely to be further to the south. Further drilling of this target is planned during October to confirm this hypothesis. (Figure 5) The EM conductors were revealed to be black shale horizons containing up to 1.5% zinc and 0.2% copper, rather than Ni sulphide mineralisation. Analysis undertaken by MRG on the these black shales suggest that they are either the distal expression of a VMS style deposit or a large tonnage low grade deposit black shale hosted mineralisation similar to the Talvivaara deposit in Finland. Additional RC drilling is planned is test another conductor known as C7, to search for economic concentrations of sulphides. The Board of MRG has met to review the proposed exploration expenditure for the 2013 financial year and has approved a range of expenditure between $500,000 and $600,000 pending progressive outcomes. Page 6

7 Figure 4 Kalgoorlie East Gold Project Page 7

8 Figure 5 Kalgoorlie East Silver Drill target area FRASER RANGE AND BRAEMORE BATTERY No immediate exploration activity is planned for MRG at either its Fraser Range or Braemore Battery tenements. Only limited Expenditure is required for both through to mid-2013, and the Board has determined that no expenditure will be initiated in this period, pending review of other exploration activities occurring along trend. Specifically, the work of SIPA adjacent to Fraser Range and the recently announced diamond drilling program by Anglo Australian Resources on their Leonora project to the north of Braemore Battery. Andrew Van Der Zwan Managing Director The information in this report, as it relates to Exploration Results for the Kalgoorlie East Project, is based on information compiled and/or reviewed by Mr Keith Weston, who is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr Weston is a consultant to the Company and has the relevant experience with the mineralisation reported on to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Weston consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on the information in the form and context in which they appear. Page 8