MONGOLIA – Drilling starts at Solenker

Xanadu Mines has started exploration drilling at the highly prospective Elgen-Zost-Suug epithermal gold and silver joint venture, known as the Solenker Epithermal Gold Project. A multi-purpose drill has been contracted and is currently on site.

The Elgen-Zost-Suug licences are in the Dornogovi province of southern Mongolia, about 750km south-southeast of Ulaanbaatar and less than 50km from the Chinese border. Under the terms of the agreement, Xanadu, which has a 51% interest, can earn up to 80% of the exploration licences by meeting various spending commitments. It has retained a 100% interest in any other commodities that may be found on the licences.

The five large exploration licences that make up the Solenker project, covering more than 400sqkm, lie along the southern border with China and host the three low sulphidation epithermal precious metal targets at Suug, Zost Uul and Elgen Uul. All prospects are interpreted to represent the upper levels of a low sulphidation epithermal system enriched in gold.

With moderate reliefs of about 50 metres at Suug, Zost Uul and Elgen Uul the epithermal alteration systems are reasonably well exposed.

A comprehensive geophysics program of ground magnetics and dipole-dipole induced polarization has been recently complete at Suug and Zost and numerous additional drill targets have been generated.

Xanadu’s chairman Brian Thornton says, “It represents one of the standout advanced gold exploration opportunities in southern Mongolia where previous explorers had encountered extensive anomalism in shallow drilling but had been discouraged by the windfall profits tax on gold at the time.

“Xanadu was fortunate to acquire this highly prospective ground and has subsequently defined three potentially high grade low sulphidation epithermal targets. The 2000 metre diamond drilling program planned will run until the onset of winter.”

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