WMN completes first drilling at Sulawesi graphite tenement
Friday, January 30 2015 - 11:24 AM WIB
ASX-listed Western Mining Network (WMN) said that its recently acquired PT Mekongga Sejahtera (Mekongga) has completed its first phase core drilling program over approximately 9.5-hectare of its 98.04ha graphite tenement in Tamboli, Kolaka, Southeast Sulawesi, with outstanding initial assay results.
The initial diamond drill holes at the Mekongga graphite deposit intercepted 825.79m of graphite mineralisation, the company said in a statement Friday.
?15 diamond holes were drilled for a total of 1,000m at a 50m to 100m spacing and depths ranging from 10m to 100m per hole. Weighted average total carbon for three of the holes are: 21.27%, 14.67%, and 14.54%. The highest interception grade was 32.44% at 2.6m depth from the surface taken at one of the drill holes. We also identified existence of flake graphite observed in drill cores,? it said.
These results, combined with superior location and infrastructure, confirmed that Mekongga could become the lowest cost graphite producer in the world, WMN said.
A maiden JORC resource is being compiled and will be finalised after all assays are received from the remaining holes, it added.
WMN has completed the transaction to acquire option to purchase up to 75 percent of PT Mekongga Sejahtera and 90 percent interest in PT Eagle Rich Nusantara, giving WMN access to 98.04 Ha of Mekongga's graphite Tenement in Tamboli as well the potential graphite beneficiation and industrial estate establishments.
Additionally, in the Persada Tenement, which is located northeast of Palu in Central Sulawesi, WMN completed infill soil sampling auger and additional rock sampling. 58 infill soil auger samples were collected in addition to 144 points of previous soil auger.
All soil and mineralised rock samples were analysed at the laboratory of PT. Intertek Utama Services, Jakarta.
The company said it received the laboratory results during the quarter. It showed significant anomalies up to 0.45ppm at 130m from previous soil auger sample with content of 0.58g/t Au in weathering of diorite. Previous rock float sampling obtained during grid mapping indicated high gold content of 2.5g/t Au. Two rock samples obtained from trenching yielded Au have contents of 0.03g/t and 0.15g/t. In addition, WMN has identified five potential core drilling locations.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak