Ashburton's second drilling rig arrives at Obi gold project

ASX-listed Ashburton Minerals Ltd said on Tuesday that its second diamond drilling rig has arrived at the Obi Gold Project that will allow the company to accelerate the progress of the current drilling program.

The drilling program commenced several months later than expected due to initial delays in shipment of the rig to the site. This second rig is supplied by the current operator, PT Indo Asia Resources.

The rig is expected to be assembled on site and ready to commence drilling within the next two days.

Drilling progress to date has been steady and without significant down time. So far, six holes have been completed for a total of advance of 1,433 meter, the company said.

The first batch of 502 samples from these six holes has been dispatched from Obi this morning en route to Jakarta . The samples will then be airfreighted to ALS laboratories in Perth. Included in this batch are 94 surface geochemical samples (stream sediments, rock chips and magnetic lag samples) collected from the southern extensions of the artisanal gold workings.

The assay results from the laboratory will be available in late September, the company said. (romel)