News & Analysis » UK

Chaarat Gold, Ferrex PLC, Kalimantan Gold Corp, SolGold PLC, Touchstone Gold news briefs

Contributed by Fox-Davies Capital

Chaarat Gold has announced it has been awarded two additional mining licences at its operations in in the Kyrgyz Republic.

In this news:
- Award of mining licence for the Kiziltash area of the Chaarat project
- Entire Chaarat project now licenced to move to production
- Award of mining licence for the Mironovskoye deposit.

FD Comment:
This is a very positive step for the Company as the Kiziltash area contains 90% of the current resources at Chaarat, albeit the sulphide component. This would be brought into production after the easier Tulubash open pit starts producing later this year. The Mironovskoye project however is a polymetallic project at an earlier stage (C1 and C2 resources of 1.58mt 3.31%CuEq) and the Company will have to look at how best to develop the project.

Ferrex PLC announced initial field work has confirmed the presence of a high grade iron ore DSO mineralisation at its recently granted 309km2 "Ngama" exploration licence area in west Gabon which covers the Mebaga iron ore deposit. Direct Shipping Ore ('DSO') values up to 67.9% iron ('Fe') reported by a Niton XRF Analyzer on rock samples collected from Mebaga. The Company has also successfully located the majority of historic BRGM pits dug in and around the main zone of high grade iron ore mineralisation - historic assay results for these pits include: 27m at 58.4% Fe (mineralisation still open at bottom of pit), 18.5m at 57.5% Fe (mineralisation still open at bottom of pit) and 10.5m at 61.4% Fe (mineralisation still open at bottom of pit).

Geological mapping has identified intermittent outcrop of lateritised detrital iron ore mineralisation over a total strike length of about 2km with detrital blocks comprising a combination of the iron ore mineralshematite (in the form of martite and kenomagnetite) and goethite. A 3,000m drill programme has been planned to test the main zone of mineralisation with field locations scouted and discussions with potential drilling contractors have commenced. The exploration target is for 20Mt grading 60% Fe and a larger, lower grade target of 50Mt grading 47% Fe. There is excellent infrastructure in the area, the exploration site being only 30km from a sealed highway and 100km north of the Trans-Gabon railway.

Kalimantan Gold Corp. Ltd announced results from its ongoing delineation and scout drilling programmes at its KSK Copper Project in Kalimantan, Indonesia together with plans for a substantial drilling and exploration programme at the project in 2013 which is budgeted up to $16.2M. Definition drilling continues to intersect broad intervals of significant copper mineralization at the Beruang Kanan Prospect, including: BK034-01: 60.1m at 1.03% Cu, from 171.6m and BK038-01: 67.5m at 0.63% Cu, from 66.8m. A preliminary resource estimate for Beruang Kanan is expected in the second quarter of 2013. Deep drilling at Beruang Tengah intersected a 170m down hole intersection of porphyry-related quartz veining, with low to moderate grade copper-gold and molybdenum mineralization, results from drill hole BTD06-01 included: BTD06-01: 3m at 25.0g/t Au from 48m and BTD06-01: 170m at 0.22% Cu, 0.14g/t Au and 114ppm Mo (0.32% CuEq), from 231m. Field mapping at eastern Beruang Tengah has identified strong sulphide mineralization in outcrop, measuring 250 by 250 meters, located 1km east of Beruang Tengah Prospect proper. Preliminary fire assays returned up to 9.6g/t Au from rock chip samples.

SolGold PLC announced that an agreement has been reached with Cornerstone in respect of re-negotiated terms to acquire a majority interest in the promising Cascabel copper gold porphyry a 20% direct interest in ENSA, an Ecuadorian subsidiary of Cornerstone holding the Cascabel and La Encrucijada projects. This provides SolGold with an immediate direct interest in ENSA as a registered shareholder. By 24 March 2013 SolGold may acquire a further 10% interest giving it a direct 30% interest in ENSA by subscribing for a further C$250,000 to Cornerstone shares at the higher of 5 cents a share or the 7 day VWAP. Part of these funds will be used to renew tenure at ENSA's secondary project, La Encrucijada situated in southern central Ecuador. SolGold may then elect to undertake a placement in Cornerstone of C$500,000 at the higher of 5 cents or the 7 day VWAP upon the issuance of the environmental and any other licences to allow drilling at Cascabel. Should SolGold elect to undertake this placement, it will receive a further 20% interest project in Northern Ecuador. The re-negotiation provides for SolGold to be immediately registered as a shareholder in ENSA, the Cornerstone subsidiary that holds the exploration licence at Cascabel, provides upside from La Encrucijada as well, and affords SolGold the right to 85% of the project (up from 65%) for a reduced expenditure of C$2.5M on the project (down from C$7.8M). Under the new agreement SolGold will immediately subscribe for Cornerstone shares at the higher of 5 cents a share or the 7 day Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP) for a subscription amount of C$200,000 and be issued in ENSA taking SolGold's shareholding to 50% in ENSA at that point. SolGold may increase its interest in ENSA to 85% by: completing a 2,500m drilling programme capped at C$2.5M including expenditure to date by SolGold; and subscribing C$250,000 at the higher of 5 cents or 7 day VWAP to shares in Cornerstone and issuing Cornerstone with C$500,000 in SolGold shares priced at the 7 day VWAP.

Touchstone Gold has announced the start of its Stage 4 Drilling Programme and the Identification of a New Target Zone at the Segovia Gold Project in Colombia.

In this news:
- Initial 5,000m Stage 4 Drill Programme underway focussed on 1141 Zone, Tagual Zone and Bern Zone
- Bern Zone: geophysics and geochemical sampling identified new target zone with depth potential southeast of 1141 zone
- First assays from drill Programme expected in April 2013.

FD Comment:
Following the Phase 3 programme this is a step-out programme along strike and down dip to increase the size of the known mineralised footprint. As well as the original 1141 Zone, which had results of up to 8.75g/t over 28.25, the two rigs is a programme which is targeting the Tagual zone to the east and the new Bern zone to the south of 1141. Still early stage, but we should see the results quite quickly.