Aussie miner speeds up gold drilling in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines - Australian miner Red Mountain Mining yesterday announced that it has accelerated the drilling program in the West Drift high grade resource within the Lobo prospect of its Batangas gold project.

In a disclosure to the Australian bourse, the company said new assays continue to give “very encouraging results” on the gold resource.

The West Drift resource is the second high grade gold system discovered within the Lobo prospect. The resource is expected to significantly increase the gold inventory at Lobo because it is at least four times larger than the existing South West Breccia resource.   

In December, the company announced that the first hole of a planned 10-hole diamond drilling program at the West Drift has confirmed the presence of high grade gold in the area.

The company said new assays from a drillhole showed an intersection of gold. “The drilling program at West Drift has now been accelerated with the deployment of an additional diamond drill rig which arrived this week,” the company said. 

“The result from the second hole in Red Mountain Mining’s initial drilling program at Lobo is very encouraging,” said Red Mountain executive chairman Neil Warburton.

“The first two holes drilled in this program confirm the interpretation of increasing gold grade with depth. With the addition of the second drill rig and deeper drilling planned below 100 verical meters from surface, further gold intercepts are anticipated. Drilling will continue unabated for the coming month as the company continues to focus on growing its gold resource inventory at Batangas,” he added

In late October 2012, Mindoro Resources Limited announced the completion of the sale of its 100 percentdirect and indirect assets in its Batangas gold project (which includes the Lobo property) and its 75 percent direct and indirect interest in the Tapian San Francisco copper-gold project located in Surigao to Red Mountain Mining.

As consideration for the sale, Red Mountain has issued Mindoro with 100 million fully paid ordinary shares, with full voting rights, to be held in escrow for 12 months together with 50 million performance shares.

The Red Mountain shares issued to Mindoro are valued at around A$10 million. Mindoro Resources now holds a 55.8- percent interest in Red Mountain on an undiluted basis.