Platinum Group Metals Ltd. completed 71,000 m of vertical core drilling at the Waterberg Joint Venture and Waterberg Extension projects on the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa between June and late October. Intercepts included hole WB123 on the Waterberg Joint Venture property, which returned 80 m of 4.80 g/mt 3E (1.41 g/mt platinum, 3.18 g/mt palladium, 0.21 g/mt gold, 0.10% copper, and 0.23% nickel) from 370 to 450 m down the hole. The true thickness of this intercept is estimated at 63 m.
There are approximately 6,000 assays outstanding from the ongoing Waterberg drilling program. A prefeasibility study is targeted for completion in the second quarter of 2015.
Coeur Mining has reported high-grade drill results from ongoing exploration at its Kensington gold mine and the nearby Jualin zone in southeast Alaska.
At the mine, drilling has encountered high-grade gold in the Kensington South zone immediately beneath current production areas and 100 to 200 ft away from current mine development. Several holes have returned grades greater than 1 oz/st gold. Grade and thickness of mineralization are improving at depth and to the southern portion of the ore body. The mineralization is open in all directions.
At the Jualin zone, drilling on Jualin Veins 4 and 5 has encountered several multi-ounce gold intercepts. Coeur sees the discovery as having the potential to significantly boost production grades, reduce unit costs, and increase free cash flow at Kensington operations. Underground development at Jualin is planned for 2015, and production from Vein 4 is expected to begin in 2017.
Coeur expects to spend a total of $9.1 million for exploration at Kensington in 2014, including $1.7 million in capitalized drilling.
Iamgold and Calibre Mining have expanded the Phase 1 drilling program on their Eastern Borosi gold-silver exploration project in northeast Nicaragua from 3,400 m in 31 drill holes to 5,000 m in 45 drill holes. The Eastern Borosi project hosts gold-silver resources in two deposits and a series of well-defined, low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver targets.
The gold-silver vein systems are hosted within porphyritic andesite and consist of structurally controlled, high-energy quartz-carbonate vein breccias, vein-stockworks, and discrete smoky quartz veins containing fine-grained sulphide minerals. The expanded 2014 drilling program is designed to test approximately 4 km of strike length of previously identified gold/silver-bearing structures.
Iamgold and Calibre entered into an option agreement on May 26 whereby Iamgold can earn a 51% interest in the Eastern Borosi project by incurring $5 million in exploration expenditures and making $450,000 in payments to Calibre over three years. The total potential investment by Iamgold to earn a 70% interest in the project is $10.9 million.
Focus Ventures Ltd. and Daewoo International have signed a joint-venture agreement whereby Daewoo can earn a 65% interest in Focus’s Aurora porphyry copper-molybdenum exploration project in Peru. Focus is a Canadian junior company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Daewoo International is Korea’s largest trading/investment company and a subsidiary of Korean steelmaker, POSCO.
Aurora is an advanced-stage exploration project located approximately 65 km north of the city of Cusco, at elevations ranging from 2,600 to 2,900 m above sea level. It is currently being permitted for a major drill program.
Under the terms of the agreement, Focus and Daewoo will establish a joint-venture company to develop and operate the Aurora project. Upon issuance of a drill permit, Daewoo International will acquire 49% of the shares of the joint-venture company for a purchase price of $3 million. These funds will be used for an initial exploration program anticipated to include 10,000 m of drilling.
Daewoo has the option to earn up to a 65% interest in the joint-venture company by making additional investments contingent on the results of the further drilling.
