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Papua New Guinea is ranked as the eleventh largest gold producer in the world and is also a large copper producer.

The region hosts several multi-million ounce gold deposits including Barrick Gold Corporation’s (NYSE: ABX, TSE: ABX) Porgera and Newcrest Mining’s (ASX: NCM) Lihir, along with the OK Tedi copper mine.


Rossel Island Project

The first exploration licence is about 512 square kilometres and covers all of Rossel Island in the Milne Bay Province.

Previous pan concentrate sampling indicates widespread gold in drainages across the island. Impressive samples of up to 94.6 grams per tonne (g/t) and 56g/t gold were returned.

A single drainage channel on the central north coast returned several samples of above 15g/t gold, while a distinct copper anomaly over the eastern end of the island has been outlined with associated zinc.

Copper and zinc were the main pathfinder elements for gold mineralisation on the adjacent Misima and Sudest Islands, where epithermal gold and silver mineralisation was the dominant style.

The Misima mine, which is now closed, produced 3.7 million ounces of gold and 18 million ounces of silver over its 14 year life.


Garaina Project

The Garaina Project, which covers 697 square kilometres, is located within the eastern Morobe Province.

The project area is believed to be prospective for a range of precious metals, including gold and platinum, and for base metals, copper, zinc and nickel.

In Garaina a compilation of public domain data indicates the presence of an extensive fault zone, which is expected to be a conduit for mineralisation within the project area.

Siburan expects the joint venture to be granted this licence in the latter half of this year.


Rigo Project

The final exploration licence, known as the Rigo project, covers 1,355 square kilometres, 70 kilometres to the southeast of Port Moresby.

Previous exploration has outlined anomalous copper zones which are prospective for porphyry style copper deposits.


Siburan-RH Resources JV

Under the joint venture partnership, RH Resources holds the majority 70% stake while Siburan holds the remaining 30%.

RH Resources is associated with Malaysia's Rimbunan Hijau Group, one of Malaysia’s largest multi-industry companies.

It has established a successful presence in Papua New Guinea for 22 years. The group was established in 1975 and has an estimated annual turnover of more than US$1 billion, according to the Malaysia-China Business Council.

RH Resources is a major shareholder in Siburan with a 12.01% share after taking a placement of 10 million shares as part of a capital raising.

The following is an extract from the report.

Investment Review

Siburans’ priority is the Kirwans tungsten project, located on the South Island of New Zealand. The tenements are still under licence application however it is anticipated a formal granting of the exploration licences will occur before the end of March 2012.

Previous early stage exploration at Kirwans identified scheelite bearing quartz veins from trench samples which assayed up to 76m @ 0.17% WO3 and 35m @ 0.34% WO3.

Further interpretation of soil samples indicate this mineralisation could extend 1,400m along strike by up to 600m wide. Once the exploration licenses are granted, Siburan will conduct a drill campaign aimed at testing the strike and depth extensions of this prospect.

Should a meaningful resource be defined, this would likely have a significant effect on the company valuation.

The Mt Pleasant gold project hosts 10 identified prospects located along four structural trends. A recent RAB drilling program further identified two mineralised structural ‘corridors’ and may represent the ‘halo’ or ‘signature’ of a an ore body at depth.

Siburan will continue with RAB drilling programs targeting the north of the ‘Central Corridor’ where mineralisation remains open along strike.

Siburan expect to commence deeper RC and diamond drill campaigns one the structural controls of the anomalous mineralisation are better understood.

Siburan also has large tenure around Lake Marmion which is prospective for uranium mineralisation. Ongoing geophysical work and shallow aircore drilling is targeting palaeochannel/sedimentary type uranium deposits similar to the nearby Mulga Rocks deposit (10.8Mt @ 1,400ppm U3O8.).

The newly acquired Gascoyne project is located in the Gascoyne province, north east WA. The project comprises of 3 exploration licences, prospective for lead, zinc and copper, with a total land holding of 78km2. Exploration work is at an early stage however a recent soil sample program has highlighted anomalous base metal path finder values.

Siburan intend to conduct an airborne geophysical survey over the tenure to better understand the geology.

Research house view

The reliability of future supplies of tungsten minerals is of concern to many nations.

China’s dominance in the tungsten market and its moves to restrict exports and increase imports of tungsten concentrates sends a clear signal to the research house of a tightening market with the likely effect of strong APT prices.

Tungsten is a ‘strategic’ and ‘critical’ raw material and with worldwide demand increasing and with few mines coming on line outside of China. The research house is confident the tungsten price will remain robust for the foreseeable future.

The preliminary review phase also includes discussions with local strategic partners seeking to form a joint venture with a Papua New Guinea focus.

Noel Ong, managing director, said “with the experience of our team and a well-funded exploration budget, we are confident of establishing a presence in PNG.”

Siburan has targeted a range of minerals, but the recent developments of Harmony Gold Mining’s (NYSE: HMY, JNB: HAR) interests in the Hidden Valley and Wafi – Golpu gold deposits highlight the country’s untapped potential gold resources.

Indochine Mining’s (ASX: IDC) recent acquisition of the developing Mt Kare project, which hosts a non – JORC resource of 1.7 million ounces gold, is also located in Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea has been ranked as the eleventh largest gold producer in the world and is famous for multi-million ounce gold deposits such as Porgera and Lihir, but is also significant copper producer.

Adding to the prospectivity of the area is the recently discovered rotary air blast intersection of 4 metres at 3.93 g/t gold.

Importantly, the immediate area to the company's 15 prospecting licences has historically produced 6 million ounces of gold.

The latest anomalous zone identified is 130 metres by 80 metres, with the exploration program focused on extending the strike length.

Siburan said this mineralisation may be associated with the north-eastern extension of the Central Corridor which holds the historically defined Fidelatas prospect.

Noel Ong, managing director, said “The soil geochemistry gold anomaly outlined to the north-east of Fidelatas supports Siburan Resources viewpoint that the Mt Pleasant project remains highly prospective.

"This newly outlined gold anomalous zone possibly represents the northerly extension of the Central Corridor with historical drilling returning gold intercepts of 6 metres at 16.32g/t gold, 1 metre at 27.45g/t gold and 2 metres at 3.45g/t gold.

"I believe that a new systematic project wide soil auger geochemical sampling will outline additional gold anomalies which have the potential for a new significant gold deposit discovery."

The Mt Pleasant project is strategically located near infrastructure being just 40 kilometres from Kalgoorlie, and within the Broad Arrow Mineral Field.

Siburan continues to push the project forward at pace, by completing wide soil auger geochemical drilling by the end of this month.

Rotary air blast drilling programs will also test the Central Corridor to the north-east of Fideltas, with infill and extension drilling at the Southern Corridor.

Auger drilling has also identified uranium mineralisation over a 9 kilometre stretch.

The extensive area is highly prospective given the high grade historical values of up to 5430 ppm U3O8 in one of the shallow pits, and 3024 ppm U3O8 in a drill hole.

Lake Marmion which covers 1,700 square kilometres has similarities to the palaeochannel/sedimentary type uranium deposit, found at the Mulga Rocks deposit owned by Energy and Minerals Australia (ASX: EMA) of; 10.8 million tonnes at 1,400ppm U3O8, and Mega Uranium's (TSX:MGA)  Lake Maitland deposit of 32.7 million tonnes at 300ppm U3O8, located 400 kilometres north of Lake Marmion.

Importantly, Lake Marmion is well situated for infrastructure and around 10 kilometres from the bitumen road of the Goldfields Highway and 110 kilometres from Kalgoorlie, plus the Goldfields gas pipeline runs through the middle of the project.

Significant areas of Lake Marmion have historically been covered by ground and airborne gravity surveys, including the extensive helicopter-borne gravity survey completed by Daishat comprising 1096 stations on a pattern of 1000m x 500m, which covered 55,000 hectares.

Noel Ong, managing director, said "These factors are why we believe that our Lake Marmion uranium project is ripe for the discovery of a very significant uranium deposit.

"We will be on the ground exploring during this quarter to start the process of finding a world class uranium deposit.”

On-ground exploration has commenced with reconnaissance through the project area to establish the state of gravel roads and tracks. A radiation management plan is being put together and baseline surveys planned.

An aircore drilling program to test the "very significant historical uranium intercepts" is planned, as well as drilling of the newly identified palaeochannel areas.