Robust intersects major new anomaly at Romang gold project
Tuesday, November 9 2010 - 01:02 AM WIB
Final processing of the data has revealed a major new resistivity anomaly located over the Batu Jagung prospect area in line with the general style of the Lakuwahi mineralisation previously defined at both Batu Mas and Batu Hitam, the company said on Tuesday.
The discovery of the resistivity anomaly significantly enhances the potential of Batu Jagung, which was previously scout drilled by Billiton in 1990 and Robust in 2010. The drill holes indicate very encouraging, near-surface silver mineralisation including some high-grade intercepts, it said.
The drilings by Billiton and Robust found silver intercepts with high grade of 50 meters @ 93 g/t Ag, and 8 meters @275 g/t Ag.
The interpretation and synthesis of the geophysical model is still being progressed by the company, however, it is now evident that the drilling direction of the earlier holes at Batu Jagung may have been less than optimal.
These findings present an opportunity for the company, as the new geophysical model provides more detailed information to better plan future drilling at Batu Jagung. This drilling will be carried out in the near future with the arrival of drill rigs 5 and 6 on Romang Island during November 2010.
The Batu Jagung anomaly alone is more than 60% the size of the entire Batu Mas-Batu Hitam anomaly and so far, only five drill holes have been completed (compared with nearly 100 holes at the Batu Mas-Batu Hitam anomaly). Therefore Batu Jagung clearly represents an additional significant exploration target for Robust.
Both the Batu Mas-Batu Hitam and the new Batu Jagung resistivity targets remain open. Further 3D IP-Resistivity surveys are planned as soon as the initial survey on the Romang North project has been completed later this year.
Robust said that the phase one metallurgical testwork on the Lakuwahi sulphide mineralisation has been successfully completed.
From the drill results received to date, it is clear that the near-surface gold-silver mineralisation at Lakuwahi is underlain by extensive zones of lead, zinc and copper sulphide bearing breccias, which carry variable and often significant levels of precious metal mineralisation.
Robust has now embarked on a staged program of metallurgical testing with the aim of determining a commercial process flow-sheet for the recovery of the base metal sulphides and associated precious metals.
The next stage of testwork has already begun and will consist of bench-scale flotation tests to evaluate 3 different flowsheet options, with results expected within the next two months. (kanti)