Augur launches another drilling program at Wonogiri gold project
Tuesday, March 18 2014 - 02:10 AM WIB
ASX-listed Augur Resources Ltd announced Tuesday that drilling at its Wonogiri gold and copper project in Central Java has recommenced.
The objective of the 3,000 meter program will be to further define two higher grade gold-copper zones intersected in Randu Kuning by previous drilling and to complete a drilling program on exploration targets adjacent to Randu Kuning identified by the recent induced polarisation (IP) geophysical survey, the company said in a statement.
Previous drilling by Augur in 2012 in the Geblak and Gawe prospect areas confirmed the presence of epithermal-type gold mineralisation and follow-up drilling will test the vein systems along strike. The Geblak prospect returned the highest gold grades from rock-chip sampling with an assay of 23.6 g/t Au and 22.3 ppm Ag.
It is also noted that epithermal type quartz veins occur outside of the high IP chargeability zones. Surface rock sampling has confirmed that these zones also are gold-bearing and, as such, will be tested by drilling.
Data from local geology and completed drilling indicates that the mineralisation at Randu Kuning is related to a near vertical gold-copper porphyry mineral system. The occurrence of adjacent epithermal style quartz veins and associated clay-pyrite alteration is consistent with such a deposit model. On Java, these deposit styles have a genetic link to a northward migrating Oligocene to Miocene volcanic arc system (the Sunda Banda Arc). A number of significant copper-gold porphyry deposits (+/- associated epithermal mineralisation) are situated within the Sunda Banda Arc, including Newmont Mining Corporation?s operation at Batu Hijau (914Mt at 0.53% Cu and 0.40 g/t Au), Newmont?s Elang deposit on the island of Sumbawa (2,425Mt at 0.31% Cu and 0.33 g/t Au) and the Tujuh Bukit deposit (1,900Mt at 0.45% Cu and 0.45 g/t Au) in eastern Java.
A total of 12,207 meters of drilling in 55 diamond drill holes has been completed at the Wonogiri project. Forty two of these, (7,215 meters) have been drilled at the Randu Kuning prospect area. Average drill depths were 318.0 meters with hole depth ranging from 157.6 to 855.0 meters. This work has defined a JORC compliant mineral resource of 1.54 million ounces of gold equivalent at a 0.2 g/t AuEq cut-off (90.9Mt at 0.53g/t AuEq).
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak