Agincourt commences first drilling at Martabe gold project

Australian mining firm Agincourt Resources Limited announced Monday that the first drilling by the company at Kapur prospect in Martabe gold and silver project on North Sumatra had commenced.

?Drilling at Kapur prospect commenced on 15th October 2006 and is the first of a 21 hole, 2,700m initial program in the Kapur Gambir district,? the company said in statement. The company planned to drill 15,000m at the prospect.

Previous owner Normandy Mining drilled two holes in the prospect, one of which intersected 10.6m @ 8gpt gold from surface, including 2.9m @ 27.7gpt. Subsequent trenching at the surface of the hole determined that the mineralisation was hosted in transported colluvium.

Beside Kapur prospect numerous highly prospective targets within the district including Natas, Tegar and Gambir remain essentially untested with no drilling being completed at Kapur Gambir since 1998, despite the identification of a district scale Low Sulphidation vein system, the company added.

A second drill rig will be mobilized in mid November to start drilling at the Purnama East, Baskara East and Pelangi deposits within the Martabe district, said the company.

On July 2006 Agincourt and its Indonesian partner Dharmawangsa Group acquired a 90 percent interest in Martabe from previous owner US gold mining giant Newmont Corp. For US$80.25 million. Dharmawangsa has option to acquire 30 percent stake in the project. (denny)