Avocet reports encouraging gold grades from N. Sulawesi scout drilling
Wednesday, July 2 2008 - 07:45 AM WIB
Tanoyan is held under a local exploration licence (KP) that was acquired as part of the Banda portfolio announced on 29 June 2007. Avocet holds a beneficial 60 per cent interest in the Tanoyan project, with the Banda minority shareholders owning 25 per cent and the company's partners at North Lanut holding a 15 per cent back in right. Avocet is targeting a minimum resource of 500,000 ounces of gold at Tanoyan.
Avocet has completed 22 scout diamond drill holes (2,877 metres) to evaluate four low sulphidation epithermal vein systems - Rap?, Sondana, Lingkubungon and Talong-Modupola. The vein zones are 5 to 11 metres wide and have a strike length of at least 1,600 metres, as they extend to the south into the Company's Bolaang Mongondow Contract of Work (CoW) on which the Company's North Lanut mine and Bakan project are located. The four veins are 500 to 600 metres apart. Artisanal mining at Tanoyan has exploited high grade gold veins above the water table in the upper 40 metres of vein sections, but left the bulk of the vein systems intact.
The significant intercepts include
* Hole TND002 - 10.0m @ 8.81 g/t Au from 31 metres depth and 20.0m @ 3.13 g/t Au from 138 metres;
* Hole TND003 - 13.0m @ 1.39 g/t Au from 70 metres from a 500-metre segment of the Sondana Vein;
* Hole TND008 - intersected 4.1m @ 3.53 g/t Au from 54.9 metres and 5.4m @ 2.33 g/t Au from 122.0 metres on the Talong-Modupola Vein.
The Company has embarked on a second phase of drilling designed to test the potential for high-grade boiling zones beneath the chalcedonic veining intersected in the first phase. This will enable the estimation of the gold resource potential by the end of the year that may then warrant infill drilling to determine JORC-compliant Mineral Resources next year. Preliminary metallurgical test work will commence shortly, the company said.(alex)