Erdene Resource Development Corp. is pleased to announce it has commenced its Q3-Q4 2016 drilling campaign at its 100%-owned high-grade gold projects in southwest Mongolia.
Drilling commenced on September 5, 2016 at the Company’ Bayan Khundii Gold Project, and will be followed by drilling at the Company’s Altan Nar Gold-Polymetallic Project, 19 kilometres to the northwest of Bayan Khundii.
The first phase of Erdene’s Q3-Q4 campaign will consist of approximately 5,000 metres of drilling designed to test the boundaries and build confidence in the continuity of the high-grade gold zones within the main mineralized trend at Bayan Khundii. Initial assay results from the first phase are expected in early Q4.
The size and design of the second phase of Erdene’s Q3-Q4 drilling campaign will be determined following the Company’s in-depth analysis of new data collected from an extensive technical evaluation completed in August 2016 at Bayan Khundii and Altan Nar. The independent geological evaluation, which was conducted by renowned consultants with expertise in epithermal and porphyry mineral deposit systems, has given Erdene valuable insights into the geology and mineralizing processes that led to the formation of the Bayan Khundii prospect and the Altan Nar deposit. It is expected that the second phase of the new drilling campaign will focus on the largely untested and highly prospective region within the 1.7 kilometre Bayan Khundii trend, and also resource expansion and scout drilling at the 5.6 kilometre Altan Nar trend.
“We are very pleased with the results of the independent expert evaluations. They provided key insights leading to the generation of new exploration targets, and further enhanced our understanding of the nature and significant exploration upside of our two flagship gold projects,” said Peter Akerley, Erdene’s President and CEO. “Our ongoing drill program has been designed to test these targets and better define the limits of the main mineralized zones. We anticipate the first batch of results to start arriving in early October, with results continuing throughout the fourth quarter of 2016.”
At Bayan Khundii, geological, structural, petrographic, clay spectral and fluid inclusion data observations point to two separate thermal events that post-date the deposition of a thick sequence of volcanic tuffs. The first thermal event was a high-temperature metasomatic event that resulted in a widespread potassic and localized advanced argillic alteration. This was presumably associated with the emplacement of a granitic intrusion, possibly at depth below Bayan Khundii. The second, later thermal event led to the deposition of low sulphidation epithermal mineralization, with associated widespread alteration of host tuffs and the deposition of quartz-adularia-sericite gold-silver veins and breccias. Mineralization included both very high concentrations of gold and wide intervals of low to moderate concentrations of gold.
The tuffaceous units at Bayan Khundii are predominantly covered by a younger sequence of Cretaceous age sandstone-conglomerate sedimentary rocks and overlying amygdaloidal basalts. The identification of green illite-altered tuffs, exposed in erosional zones over a 750 metre by 1.5 kilometre area, coupled with strong induced polarization resistivity response at depth beneath the Cretaceous units, indicates that Bayan Khundii’s epithermal system may be more widespread than the main exposed areas at surface, where much of the exploration has focused to date. Information generated in regards to potential tilting of the mineralized zone, vein intersection symmetry and structural offsets has been factored into the current drilling to test targets under Cretaceous cover and at depth below the extent of drilling in the main Bayan Khundii mineralized zone.
At Altan Nar, recent geological, structural and clay spectral observations have confirmed that the deposit is an intermediate sulphidation, base metal-carbonate, gold-silver-lead-zinc epithermal deposit. Mineralization is hosted in angular, matrix-supported hydrothermal breccias and quartz-manganese carbonate veins, with associated white mica alteration envelopes within altered andesite flows. Mineralized and hydrothermally altered vein-breccia zones are structurally controlled. Textural, mineralogical and geochemical evidence indicates that multiple mineralizing events were focused along structures.
source: juniorminingnetwork.com
