RNS Number : 7465S
Orogen Gold PLC
05 December 2012
5 December 2012
Orogen Gold Plc ("Orogen" or the "Company")
New gold discovery cutting exceptional gold grades - three metres averaging 29.6 g/t gold in trench at the Gindusa West Prospect in Serbia
Orogen, the AIM listed mineral exploration company focused on gold exploration and development in Eastern Europe, is pleased to announce that it has received the remaining gold assay data from its recently completed exploration diamond drilling and trenching programme at Deli Jovan in Serbia.
Results include assays from the last three drill holes on the Gindusa main zone, four drill holes at the Gindusa West Prospect, four drill holes to test possible proximal strike extensions to the old Rusman gold mine and a trenching programme to test soil anomalies discovered in the Gindusa and Gindusa West areas.
Highlights
-- New zone of gold mineralisation in a trench at Gindusa West prospect 1.5km northwest of the historic mine, cutting eight metres averaging 12.3g/t gold including a three metre zone averaging almost 1 oz of gold (29.6g/t) [http://www.orogengold.com/projects/deli-jovan-project/maps/]
-- Drilling at the Gindusa West prospect intersects previously unmapped underground workings and cuts several previously undiscovered mineralised veins.
-- Drill holes at the Gindusa mine area confirm continuity of the main mineralised lodes (previously reported in News Release on August 28, 2012).
Orogen CEO, Ed Slowey, commented "We are strongly encouraged by the exploration results from the Gindusa West area, where our initial work programme has discovered several new 'blind' gold-bearing quartz veins which are not apparent at surface. We are particularly excited by the new discovery in the west of the prospect where a shallow, high grade gold shear/vein zone was cut in an exploration trench testing a gold-in-soil anomaly. This lode was not previously found by the old miners and opens up the potential for a completely new vein system. Our first drilling and trenching at the prospect shows that there are important new discoveries to be made here."
Further Details
The continuation of the drilling programme at Deli Jovan comprised 15 holes at several targets along the Deli Jovan Shear Belt, including completion of three infill drill holes at the Gindusa mine area, where results from the first fifteen holes of the programme were previously reported (see News Release dated August 28, 2012). Four holes were drilled at Gindusa West, 1.5km northwest of the Gindusa mine, with additional holes testing the Rusman zone and a number of outlying targets. In addition, a trenching programme was completed to test soil anomalies in the Gindusa and Gindusa West areas, with a view to identifying further targets for drill testing in 2013 [http://www.orogengold.com/projects/deli-jovan-project/maps/]
At Gindusa West, four holes were drilled to test the extension of a strongly mineralised gold vein, dipping at 50 degrees to the north, previously mapped and sampled by our JV partners, Reservoir Minerals, in an old shallow exploration adit. Soil anomalies in the area suggested that the vein system at Gindusa West might be more extensive than apparent underground. Three holes (DE-GEA1, 2 & 4) were drilled on a single profile to establish the depth continuity of the vein. DE-GEA2 had to be terminated early as it encountered previously unrecorded workings at 75.5m depth. The drilling demonstrated that the mineralised vein zone continues down dip for approximately 100m, maintaining a width of about one metre, and remains open to depth. Historic gold grades from underground channel sampling ranged from 0.5 to 48.9g/t Au, while drill grades of up to 3.28 g/t Au over 0.5m width from 64.0-64.5m depth were encountered in Orogen hole DE-GEA1. Of particular interest was the discovery of two parallel 'blind' quartz-pyrite veins beneath the previously known vein. One of these veins intersected in DE-GEA1 yielded 6.75g/t Au over a 0.95m intercept from 90.65-91.6m. These new veins are open to depth and along strike, and additional 'blind' veins may remain to be discovered in the area.
Further evidence of previously unrecorded gold-bearing quartz veining at Gindusa West was obtained from trench TAG2, which was sited about 250m to the west of the drill profile to test a gold anomaly located by soil sampling. This encountered a wide zone of alteration and shearing of the host gabbro which contained partially oxidised pyrite mineralisation and quartz veining. Assays of continuous chip/channel samples through this zone returned strong gold values, including a 3.0m zone assaying 29.55g/t Au within a wider 8.0m interval averaging 12.28g/t Au. Follow-up of this zone will be a priority for Orogen and several other soil geochemical anomalies also remain to be tested in this area.
The additional infill holes at the Gindusa mine, DE-16, DE-17 and DE-18, were located within the northern part of the approximately 300-metre strike length segment of the shear zone tested in this first phase of the drilling programme. These confirmed internal continuity of the shear/alteration/mineralised zones seen in the earlier holes, with values up to 2.91g/t over 0.5m from 240.35m to 240.85m in DE-18. When viewed in the context of previously reported drill intersections on adjoining sections, this shows the grade variability that is to be expected within a mesothermal lode gold deposit.
A detailed overview of the Gindusa mineralised zones based on mapping and core logging was carried out by Dr Dave Coller, a structural geological specialist. He commented in his preliminary but detailed report that "the mineralised shear zone at the Gindusa Mine area comprises multiple quartz lenses and is likely to be steep plunging, with overall depth continuity, possibly to considerable depth". It was further concluded that "while it is possible to develop extensive shear zones laterally and vertically, gold grade will vary considerably when intersected in core." Further work on modelling continuity of the vein system is ongoing.
Preliminary drilling at the old Rusman mine has confirmed the conclusions from earlier underground mapping and sampling and has down-graded this prospect. Given the strong encouragement obtained on the northern segment of the shear belt at the Gindusa Mine Zone and Gindusa West, including the new trench discovery, Orogen will focus its activities on this sector of the belt.
There has been a relatively small amount of drilling at this stage on both the Gindusa Mine and Gindusa West targets. The main objective of this first phase of drilling at Gindusa was to drill for structure and to test whether the lodes continued at depth beneath the old workings. The Company has been very pleased with the outcome and the bonus of intersecting 'blind' mineralised structures beneath the lodes exploited by the old miners at both areas. The next phase of drilling will help us to build a structural model of the vein system to understand the controls on location and orientation of probable high-grade shoots for detailed drill testing.
Following the recent share placing and the arrangement of a finance facility through Darwin Strategic, Orogen is very strongly placed to follow through with a work programme to further test and define the gold potential at Deli Jovan.
Sampling, Assaying, and Quality Assurance / Quality Control
Orogen's drill core splitting and sampling conforms to industry-wide good practice, with chain of custody being observed for all samples. Gold analysis is undertaken by ALS Chemex at its laboratory in Romania and the Company maintains QA/QC on all analytical work via the use of certified reference materials and blank samples in addition to monitoring of internal laboratory check-analyses.
Ed Slowey, CEO of Orogen is a Competent Person as defined by various international instruments and takes responsibility for the release of this information.