Asia Gold eyeing Maluku copper-gold prospect

Canadian mining firm Asia Gold Corp. announced on Thursday it had signed an MoU with PT Harita Multi Karya Mineral (HMKM), a member of the Harita Group of Indonesia, to set up a joint venture to explore and develop the Kaputusan porphyry copper-gold prospect on Bacan Island, Maluku.

The prospect is within a 25,775-hectare KP (Kuasa Pertambangan) exploration lease granted to HMKM in January, 2005. The entire lease is within 15 kilometres of the ocean and the prospect is accessed by new logging roads.

Under the terms of the MOU, an Indonesian subsidiary of Asia Gold can earn an 85% interest in the Kaputusan KP prospect from HMKM by spending US$300,000 on exploration during the first year of the joint venture. Thereafter, the 15% interest held by HMKM is free carried to commercial mine production.

Porphyry copper-gold mineralization was discovered at Kaputusan during a joint Indonesian-German regional exploration program carried out between 1977 and 1979. A follow-up program during 1983-1984 included 5,550 metres of trenching and 1,575 metres of NQ-BQ diamond drilling in 10 vertical holes. Five trenches were re-sampled by Newcrest Mining Limited (Newcrest) between 1993 and 1997. Surface mineralization has been mapped and trenched over an area measuring approximately 1,500 metres by 1,000 metres.

Asia Gold plans to start exploration of Kaputusan in February. The first phase program will include surface geological mapping, stream sediment geochemistry and an Induced Polarization geophysical survey. A follow-up drilling program is planned conditional on the results of the first phase of exploration.(alex)