expectations

Gold find outshines expectations

The Wapolu gold find on Fer gusson Island, PNG, continues to exceed earlier expectations.

The prospecting company re ports that a mining program may be under consideration before the end of the year.

Early results from an exten sive diamond and air core drill ing program on the project have been announced by City and Suburban which holds a 50 per cent interest in the prospect with Esso PNG Inc, Significant gold mineralisa tion was intersected in six of 10 drill holes during the first quar ter of this year, the best in tersections being six metres at 2.34 grams per tonne gold, four at 2.12, four at 1.98 and six at 1.45 Fifty-two reverse circulation air core holes during the same quarter produced significant gold mineralisation in 25, the best intersections being 16 metres at 2.34 grams per tonne (including six metres at 4.83), 10 at 2.26 and 14 at 3.20 (including two at 7.78).

“Most holes were drilled to depths of 20 to 30 metres, some terminating in mineralisa tion,” says the company’s quarterly report to stock ex changes.

“Drilling extended known better grade gold mineralisation from the Newwa zone to the Kweama zone, a horizontal dist ance of approximately one kilometre,” says the report.

“Indications are that this zone will have a higher average grade than that defined in other zones on the prospect, possibly in the range of three grams per tonne gold.”

The company reported that other field during the quarter continued to reflect the exist ence of gold mineralisation in termittently for five kilometres to the west and 10 kilometres to the east of the central resource.

To the west, grid based soil sampling program was com pleted over a two-kilomtre by one-kilometre alluvial area, with grades of up to 0.95 grams per tonne gold in the surface soils.

The joint venture partners have drilled a total of 212 diamond and air core holes on Wapolu since the discovery of

the prospect some 19 months ago.

“It seems that our first esti mates of only 1.4 grams per tonne gold in the surface material were very conservative indeed, considering the better grades below the central re source and mineralisation in a number of other areas on the prospect,” the company’s director Mr John Bailey said.

“Metallurgical testing and pre-feasibility studies have been planned for this quarter and we may well be considering a min ing program before the end of this year.”

The company also reports further high-grade gold in tersections at Wild Dog, on the east coast of New Britain and good results from elsewhere in

Png.