An undercover bedrock drilling program at Xanadu Mines Kharmagtai copper-gold district in Mongolia’s South Gobi region has delivered immediate success with new mineralised porphyry centres identified. Copper and gold mineralisation has been revealed under shallow cover in at least seven new targets.
The drill program consisted of 259 holes for approximately 11,140 metres of drilling designed to systematically test district-scale anomalies buried under shallow cover identified through 2015 and 2016, and new conceptual structural targets not previously tested by drilling.
New top of basement results confirm continuity of mineralisation under shallow cover of 20 to 50 metres with drilling intersecting anomalous bedrock copper and gold mineralisation over a widespread area of about 25sqkm.
At least seven new targets were identified with 38 drill holes returning gold grades greater than 0.1 g/t gold and 12 holes more than 0.1% copper over two metre intervals.
The drilling also provided important information on depth of cover gravels, which typically ranged from 20 to 50 metres. The shallow depths significantly enhance the prospectivity for further open pit resources within the Kharmagtai district.
Xanadu’s managing director and CEO Dr Andrew Stewart said “The results of this targeted bedrock drilling program have proved very exciting. We set out to test several high potential copper-gold and gold targets that occur under shallow cover, looking for both high-grade gold-rich stockwork mineralisation and tourmaline breccia mineralisation.
“The identification of the high density stockwork copper-gold mineralisation in at least three of the new targets associated with copper over 0.3% and gold over 3 g/t is an outstanding result, and is validation of our belief that there are undiscovered porphyry centres at Kharmagtai under only 20 to 50 metres of cover.
“Drill testing is expected to start immediately and we are looking forward to what we might learn from the next program of RC drilling.”
At Kharmagtai most previous exploration has focused on the three outcropping porphyry deposits – Altan Tolgoi, Tsagaan Sudal and Zesen Uul – where Xanadu has defined more than 1.5 million pounds of copper and more than 2 million ounces of gold resource. Away from these three deposits the prospective rocks of the Kharmagtai Igneous Complex are covered by either younger unconsolidated gravels or are obscured by younger volcanic rocks.
Drilling activities are fully funded from Xanadu’s existing cash reserves of $9.8 million.
Xanadu Mines