East Asia Minerals expands Sangihe and Tangse targets
Tuesday, July 17 2007 - 04:30 PM WIB
Canadian mineral explorer East Asia Minerals Corporation (EAS) reported on Tuesday results from its initial exploration at its Sangihe in North Sulawesi and Tangse projects in Aceh. At both projects, historic mineralized zones have been verified and expanded. Drilling is scheduled to begin late July at Sangihe followed by drilling of the Aceh projects, including Tangse.
Sangihe
Interpretation of EAS data compilation together with results of ongoing mapping indicates the additional potential for extending the current Binebase - Bawone gold mineralization zones towards the northern and northwestern portion of the prospect. On a district scale the Binebase - Salurang structural corridor hosts multiple, similar discrete gold - silver mineralized zones that appear to be of the same style and orientation as the Bawone Prospect. This corridor connects the existing Binebase, Bawone and Salurang mineralized zones covering an area of approximately 3 kilometres long by 600 metres wide. Historic drill results at Bawone include 91.3 metres (29.2m to 120.5m) with 2.45g/t gold, 0.42% copper and 12.0g/t silver, and 20.2 metres (21.8m to 42.0m) with 3.97g/t gold, 0.47% copper and 21.0g/t silver.
A total of 150 rock channel samples from newly discovered mineralized outcrops and verification samples from rehabilitated previous worker's trenching were collected and assayed. This recently completed EAS sampling has verified the previously reported historic surface results in the Binebase-Bawone-Salurang corridor, and extended the mineralized zone along strike. Highlights from the extensions to known mineralisation include 2 metres with 2.90g/t Au & 10g/t Ag from a new exposure approximately 400 meters north of Bawone and 5 metres with 2.93g/t Au & 35g/t Ag including 3 metres with 4.03g/t Au & 53g/t Ag from the Bonsos area located 200 metres southwest of Bawone. These results provide additional evidence that the Binebase - Bawone mineralized zones may be continuous and more extensive than previously thought.
A Phase One drill program to confirm the Bawone mineralization and strike extension potential will begin at the end of July. The proposed EAS drill program will test for bulk tonnage, gold - silver targets in addition to the primary, high grade gold - silver - copper structural feeder zones.
Tangse
At the Tangse porphyry copper project EAS field crews have mapped and sampled the area where Rio Tinto identified supergene copper mineralization in the early 1990s. The work has distinguished younger fine grained diorite dykes clearly related to the main quartz diorite porphyry. These dykes are widespread and are interpreted to represent apophyses of larger mineralized intrusive bodies at depth.
A total of 672 samples have been collected and analyzed. The best results were found within a northwest trending, 300-metre wide fault zone on the east side of the Tangse target. In general quartz diorite dykes assayed between 0.2 to 0.8% copper. Several plus 1% copper grades, including 2 metres with 2.65% Cu, 2 metres with 2.15% Cu, 2.6 metres with 4.86% Cu and 2.5 metres with 2.85% Cu, were obtained from supergene enriched zones, and a 30 metre composite chip sample of one exposure returned 2.85% Cu. Two to three metre rock channel samples taken from leached and oxidized rock adjacent to the dikes typically assayed 0.04 to 0.1% copper, 40 to 200 ppm molybdenum and 0.1g/t gold.
Historic Rio Tinto drilling located 200 to 400 metres east of the EAS identified high-grade copper zone intersected 16 to 27 metres of supergene copper enriched material. EAS will drill test this expanded supergene copper target later this year.
Previous limited drilling by Rio Tinto also outlined a large porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit with historical order of magnitude estimates (non-NI 43-101 compliant) of at least 600 million tonnes (Mt) of lower grade material, including a higher grade zone of 30 Mt with grades between 0.3 and 0.8% Cu, and 0.02 to 0.03% Mo (May 1, 2007 news release). The Tangse porphyry system has been subjected to widespread supergene enrichment where the current work is focused.(alex)