Xanadu Mines is kicking off a new exploration campaign at the company’s highly prospective Red Mountain project in the South Gobi region of Mongolia targeting shallow high-grade gold, silver and copper.
A previous diamond and RC drill program at the site uncovered some impressive results at the site’s Bavuu and Diorite deposits with a number of hits from surface.
Highlights at the Bavuu target include a 6m hit going 21.57 grams per tonne gold from surface whilst one hole at Diorite recorded a 9.5m section at 21.06 g/t gold from surface including 3m reading an impressive 47 g/t gold from 2m.
A second hole at Diorite discovered a 6m intersect at 15.43 g/t gold from the surface, including 1.2m going 21.34 g/t from 3.3m.
The previous drill campaign also recorded strong copper and silver results at Red Mountain’s Stairy target with a 4m section going 7.34 per cent copper and 29.3 g/t silver from 60m including 1m reading a massive 28.9 per cent copper and 114 g/t silver from 62m.
The ground exploration program is now underway, including surface mapping and trenching activities.
Xanadu says surface trenching has proven to be rapid and economic target definition approach before diamond drilling at Red Mountain.
Trenching involves using heavy equipment to remove the surface soil and expose the bedrock before trenches are excavated to expose mineralised zones for sampling and testing.
The company says its latest exploration program will include extensive trenching over several new gold, silver and copper surface targets with drilling to begin in the September quarter.
Xanadu Mines Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Colin Moorhead said: “With a renewed focus on multiple near-surface targets, we are now ready to ramp exploration back-up at Red Mountain. This will include extensive trenching to define targets for the forthcoming drill program. By following a systematic program, we will be able to characterise the nature and mineral potential of Red Mountain and we look forward to sharing results as this very exciting program progresses.
Xanadu has a 100 per cent share in its Red Mountain project in southern Mongolia, where early exploration has defined broad zones of strong quartz stockwork veining and associated high-grade gold mineralisation.
The project has a 30-year mining licence and comprises an underexplored porphyry district covering about 57 square kilometres.
Just this week Xanadu received Australian Foreign Investment Review Board approval for Chinese mining giant Zijin to acquire shares in the company to develop its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia.
Whilst the deal still requires approval from the Chinese Government and Xanadu shareholders in order to be formalised, the company says it remains on track for the final approvals to be completed in the December quarter.
Kharmagtai has a mineral resource estimate identified at a massive 1.1 billion tonnes for 3 million tonnes of contained copper and 8 million ounces of gold.
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By Matt Birney
