Perth, Feb 17, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Allied Gold Limited (ASX: ALD) says it is confident of extending mineralisation at its main gold project in Papua New Guinea after encountering new high grade intercepts from drilling last month around the main pit area.
The Company announced today that drilling to the west of the main Sorowar oxide gold deposit at its Simberi Island project, 60 kilometres north of Lihir Island, had encountered:
- 16m at 18.9g/t gold from 73m including 10m at 29.9g/t gold from 73m in RC 1186.
Other gold intercepts included
- 7m at 2.38g/t gold from 48m in RC1185.
- 2m at 7.33g/t gold from 61m in RC1187.
The high grade gold intersections closely follow Allied Gold's announcement this week that it had raised A$41.7 million in the United Kingdom in oversubscribed offers to fund development work enabling Simberi's Sorowar deposit to be mined from later this year.
Results announced today are from the first three of eight new holes drilled at the Sorowar West Camp Area, which lies outside of the main Sorowar pit resource.
"Our drilling programs at this location are continuing, and at Sorowar East, to follow up oxide gold intersections encountered late last year during sterilisation drilling," Allied Gold's Managing Director, Mr Jeff Moore, said today.
"Results from the first three holes (tabulated below) are highly encouraging," Mr Moore said.
"Although results are yet to be received from the remaining five holes, it is considered likely that additional oxide mineralisation will be identified that will extend the proposed Sorowar oxide pit."
The main Sorowar pit, currently scheduled for first mining, hosts defined reserves and resources within the designed pit of 13.5 million tonnes at 1.22 g/t gold for 530,000 ounces.
Allied Gold's currently identified total gold resources on Simberi Island comprise 46.8 million tonnes at 1.51 g/t gold for 2.27 million ounces.
SOROWAR CAMP REGION - OXIDE TARGETS
Drill Northing(mN) Easting(mN) Dip/Azimuth From To Interval Grade Mineral-hole (mN) (mN) (Deg) (m) (m) (m) g/t Au) isation TypeRC1185 10,100 8,924 -60Deg/063Deg 0 100 100 0.47 Ox, Tr, Su 48 55 7 2.38 Ox 80 89 9 1.64 Ox, Tr, Su incl. 81 85 4 2.93 Tr 92 94 2 0.68 OxRC1186 10,044 9,018 -60Deg/342Deg 0 126 126 2.79 Ox, Tr, Su 0 9 9 1.41 Ox 40 52 12 0.66 Ox 56 60 4 0.99 Ox, Tr 73 89 16 18.9 Ox incl. 73 83 10 29.9 Ox with 73 75 2 20.4 Ox and 77 79 2 119 OxRC1187 10,075 9,050 -60Deg/327Deg 0 115 115 0.35 Ox, Tr, Su 1 14 13 0.90 Ox incl. 1 6 5 1.24 Ox 21 23 2 0.58 Ox 61 63 2 7.33 Ox
Note:
Assaying for gold by fire assay (50gm) with AAS finish (ALS Chemex Laboratories - Townsville)
Sorowar mineralisation types are:
Ox = oxide material - extremely weathered (average cyanide leach recovery 92%)
Tr = transitional material - distinctly weathered (average cyanide leach recovery 72%)
Su = sulphide material - slightly weathered to fresh (average cyanide leach recovery 66%)
Intercept interval cut-off 0.5g/t Au, "including" cut-off 1.0g/t Au, "with" cut-off 10.0g/t Au.
Previous results from the Sorowar Camp area include RC1161 which was drilled in November 2005 to sterilise ground to the west of the proposed Sorowar pit.
Significant results from RC 1161 using a 0.5g/t gold cut-off include;
- 13m at 4.55g/t gold from 64m,
- 1m at 6.70g/t gold from 211m,
- 15m at 1.17g/t gold from 215m.
Results are currently awaited on holes drilled in recent weeks at strategic locations to further test oxide mineralisation at Sorowar East.
"Current drilling will further test sulphide mineralisation at Pigiput, an IP anomaly at Pigicow, and extensions to oxide mineralisation and IP anomalies in the Samat and Bekou areas.
Directors outline gold re-optimisation program
Directors also today announced a re-optimisation of Allied Gold's current resource and gold inventory to better reflect world gold prices.
"Our current resource and gold inventory has been calculated at US$440 per ounce and the re-optimisation is expected to add further significant mineable resources," Mr Moore said.
"We are also assessing the various options to increase throughput in the proposed mine which in turn would result in a significant lift in production forecasts in the current mine plan," he said.
"The Board is confident that the project economics can be further enhanced by efficiencies resulting from such increased throughput, reduced initial capital expenditure and improved gold selling price."
Contact
Jeff Moore
Allied Gold Limited
TEL: +61 8 9353 3638
TEL: +61 400 927 202
Kevin Skinner
Senior Consultant
FIELD PUBLIC RELATIONS
231 South Road
MILE END SA 5031
Tel: (08) 8234 9555
Fax: (08) 8234 9566
Mob: 0414 822 631
kevin@fieldpr.com.au
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