Georgian Mining Corp (LON:GEO) has today announced results from the program to expand the gold oxide resource at Kvemo Bolnisi East (‘KB’). Target development work and follow up drilling have been focused on three targets, two of which (Gold Zone 1 and Gold Zone 2) have gold oxide resource potential.
Channel rock sampling over a distance of 2,050 metres, followed by shallow, small diameter core drilling at Gold Zone 2 has defined additional gold targets with gold mineralisation open in all directions. Drill results to date justify a step up in diamond drilling and channel sampling to better establish the extent of Gold Zone 2 along with the drill program on Copper Zone 1. This is widening the program at KB with the focused objective of delineating a copper-gold sulphide resource and a gold oxide resource, both suitable for near-term production from one future open pit footprint.
Highlights
· The initial 14 vertical small diameter core drill holes drilled to a maximum 20m depth have been completed to test channel rock sample gold anomalies on Gold Zone 2, located immediately north of the Copper Zone and to the West of Gold Zone 1
· Peak gold (‘Au’) drill intercepts from the first seven 20m deep holes include:
o TGD007 – 20m @ 2.2g/t Au from 0.0m to 20.0m
o TGD002 – 14.2m @ 2.00g/t Au from 5.0m to 19.2m
o TGD003 – 12m @ 1.29g/t Au from 8.0m to 20.0m
o TGD006 – 20m @ 0.74g/t Au from 0.0m to 20.0m
· Peak grades from individual drill samples include 82.1g/t Au (0.25m sample), 7.31g/t Au (1.0m sample), 7.12g/t Au (1.5m sample), and 6.61g/t Au (1.0m sample) which confirm the presence of high-grade gold- bearing structures as part of the overall gold mineralized zone
· The increase in drill sampling has been triggered by channel sampling of outcropping rock that have returned peak intervals including:
o 23.95m @ 3.19g/t Au
o 98.75m @ 1.19g/t Au
o 96.8m @ 0.80g/t Au
o 114m @ 0.49g/t Au
o 52m @ 1.04g/t Au
o 22m @ 1.50g/t Au
o 4m @ 15.63g/t Au
· Further announcements will be made as additional batches of gold assay results are received from the external laboratory over the next four weeks
Georgian Mining Corp Managing Director Greg Kuenzel said, “Our exploration team has made rapid progress in advancing the Gold Zone 2 resource development program. Excellent channel sample results warranted a quick follow up of shallow drilling and each of the initial seven small diameter core drill holes has confirmed gold mineralisation near surface. We are stepping up the drill program with a large diameter core drill rig to test the extension of gold mineralisation at depths below 20m to determine the size of the gold resource. The drill programs at Gold Zone 2 and on the Copper Zone immediately to the south will proceed in tandem to further develop both gold oxide and copper-gold sulphide Mineral Resources with the concept of bringing both into one open-pit mining plan. We will regularly report progress on copper-gold sulphide Mineral Resources and the gold oxide Mineral Resources.
Further Information
The current drill program at KB is focused on three adjacent targets within the project area:
Copper Zone 1 – Copper-Gold
AuOx Zone 1 – Gold Oxide
AuOx Zone 2 – Gold Oxide
Image 1: Kvemo Bolnisi East Project
The drill results and channel samples for Gold Zone 2 announced today relate to gold-oxide mineralisation that could be extracted and hauled to the nearby heap leach plants of the Company’s partner for processing.
Assays have been received for the first seven small diameter core holes with assays from a further seven holes expected within the next two weeks. It is important to note that the small diameter core drill rig is limited to drilling maximum 20m deep holes and consequently a number of the shallow holes ended in gold mineralisation that may continue at depth. Channel and grab rock sampling has identified a broad area with elevated gold grades associated with two or more generations of quartz veining. To better understand the channel sample results and to best optimize a follow up resource development drill program, the Company opted to first drill only shallow holes to a maximum depth of 20 metres using a very low cost, small diameter core drill rig.
Forthcoming Work Program at Gold Zone 2:
Drill-testing for extensions of gold mineralization at depth below the currently outlined shallow gold zone using a larger diameter diamond drill rig has now commenced with two sets of scissor diamond drillholes to depths of 200m to 300m. Oriented drill core will be used to determine the structural control of gold mineralisation so that a follow up delineation drill program can best test gold mineralisation at depth and build resource tonnage.
An additional 20 vertical (20m deep) small diameter core drillholes have been immediately commissioned to test other positive rock channel sample results.
Image 2: Drill hole location and detailed gold channel sampling at KB Gold Zone 2
These new channel and grab rock sample results also justify an additional 1,000m of track excavation and follow up channel sampling which have also been commissioned. The objective is to quickly provide higher density rock sample coverage across surface and at shallow depth and to expand the area of investigation, to best design follow up resource development diamond drilling. Additional track excavation and channel sampling is expected to generate further drill targets to test for further strike extensions. The small diameter core drilling results has demonstrated the channel sampling to be a reliable indicator of gold in bedrock to depths to 20 metres; additional results will be announced over the next three to six weeks.
