Extension drilling at the Copper Hill deposit of Xanadu Mines’ Kharmagtai Copper-Gold Project in southern Mongolia has returned broad zones of high-grade mineralisation at shallow depths. The deposit is also showing growth potential below the current resources.
The drilling program is targeting near-surface porphyry copper-gold deposits and the continuity of mineralisation below the current resources within this largely under-explored porphyry copper-gold district.
Best results are 180 metres from surface @ 0.95% copper and 1.84 g/t gold, including 30 metres from 66 metres @ 1.93% copper and 4.14 g/t gold; and 30 metres from 104 metres @ 1.55% copper and 3.45 g/t gold.
Xanadu says the mineralisation identified within the resource shell is better than, or similar, to the current resource estimate.
A new geological model highlights a high-grade target at depth under the Copper Hill resource. Detailed paragenetic and structural work is defining critical controlling structures.
Drilling continues to target additional high-grade off-sets with further results expected later this month.
Xanadu’s managing director and CEO Dr Andrew Stewart said, “We are very encouraged by these results. The company has spent a considerable amount of time and resources building an extremely comprehensive geological, geochemical and geophysical dataset in three dimensions. Painstaking as this base data gathering was, the early results are bearing fruit.
“We completed property-wide drilling through shallow cover to gather core samples for geology and geochemistry and on top of our high resolution magnetic survey have recently completed a very close spaced gravity survey. These techniques have provided us with many excellent shallow targets to drill and a much better understanding of previous high grade areas where we are now targeting extensions.”
“We have three rigs drilling at present to test shallow targets for the discovery of new porphyry centres and to extend high grade areas. These early results provide us with confidence in the fact that we spent the time to collect and interpret the extensive datasets to refine our targeting.”
Xanadu Mines