Sumatra Copper announces new gold discovery Tandai project
Wednesday, November 2 2011 - 04:54 AM WIB
Newcrest Mining Limited has the right to earn a 70 percent stake in the Tandai joint venture, which is currently being managed by Sumatra Copper, by spending US$12 million. Newcrest initially committed $1.75 million to the project in November 2010 and a budget in excess of $4.2 million has been finalized for the 2011-2012 period.
The Tandai project is an under-explored, high grade gold and silver project located approximately 100 kilometers north of Bengkulu and covering approximately 1,000km2, the project has reported historic gold production of 1.4 Moz Au and 15 Moz Ag.
Current exploration has targeted Glumbuk, Toko Rotan and Lusang North prospects, where drilling commenced earlier this year.
The company said a series of vein breccias similar in appearance to those mined at the historically productive Tandai Lode, have been intersected in hole TDD 11024 with drilling occurring approximately 200 metres north of the Tandai Lode.
The company has drilled a second hole, TDD 11025, at a steeper angle and confirmed the upper base metal rich quartz vein breccia zone from 60.7 to 62.8 meters. Four other zones of quartz stockwork and vein breccias ranging from 0.2 to 3.6 meters down-hole width were also intersected. An 8.8-meter wide base metal rich quartz vein breccia was also intersected from 181.0 to 188.9 meters down hole which may correlate with the highest grade intercept in TDD 11024. Assay results from TDD 11025 are expected in early November.
The Lusang North prospect was outlined by the company in late 2010 where high grade quartz veins and hydrothermal breccias grading up to 104.00 g/t Au, 259.0 g/t Ag, 0.78% Cu, 1.36% Pb, 1.27% Zn were reported in a zone of artisanal mining. The veins have been mapped on surface and sampled prior to drill targeting.
Sumatra Chief Executive Officer Julian Ford said he was highly encouraged that the early stage drilling program had encountered such strong results and noted the close proximity of the prospect to the historic Tandai Lode.
?We targeted the program at Lusang North following recent character sampling of breccia zones earlier this year which returned bonanza values up to 104.00 g/t gold and are extremely pleased to find these high grade vein breccias,? Ford said.
The company has so far completed 2,897 meters of drilling around Tandai, including activity at other highly prospective targets at both Toko Rotan and Glumbuk to the north and south of Lusang North.
The first phase program was recently completed and the second phase program testing other prospect areas within the Tandai district, following up intersections from the phase 1 program and testing CSAMT anomalies is now in progress. (romel)