Ord River Resources (ASX: ORD) will commence an initial exploration program in June to locate intrusive related gold (IRG) at its 100% owned West Wyalong Gold Project in New South Wales.
In addition, the company's exploration team has completed the field mapping and sampling trip at its Suplejack Gold Project in the Northern Territory.
At the West Wyalong Gold Project 350 kilometres south of Sydney, the 210 square kilometres tenement encompasses the historic Hiawatha Goldfield which previously had 17 small scale gold mines where gold was produced from fracture-fill quartz veins.
The project is located in a well established gold resource and producing region and is 15km south west of Barrick Gold’s (TSE, NYSE: ABX) producing Cowal Gold Mine.
In 2010 Cowal produced 298,000 ounces of gold at total cash costs of $581 per ounce and has proven and probable mineral reserves as of 2.5 million ounces.
One of the key drivers for the initial exploration program include is the gold price at a record high of US$1,500/ounce.
The tenement is inside the Lachlan Fold Belt which hosts numerous profitable gold mines including the world-class Cadia Gold Mine, North Parkes Copper- Gold Mine, and Lake Cowal Gold Mine. The Cobar field is also a significant gold producer.
Ord's licence area is prospective for discovery of intrusive related gold and gold-copper mineralisation and orogenic quartz and quartz-carbonate hosted gold and gold-silver mineralisation.
The company is planning a field study and in-house analysis in June comprising discussions with landholders for access agreements and rock chip sampling.
Ord has reviewed previous soil sampling and drilling conducted over the tenement area. The company plans to merge data from the field study with previous airborne geophysics to determine gold prospective drill targets.
At Suplejack the exploration team covered the existing resource area of Tregony and the new target areas in the western half of the tenement including PhD North and Five Mile.
The team carried out rock chip sampling, field checking of drill hole locations, and on-site evaluation of geochemical sampling.
The company will be evaluating the mapping and sample information with the intention of planning drill targets as similarities exist between Tregoney and the new target areas.
The existing JORC Resource at Suplejack (55,000 ounces) is located in a well established major gold region.
Tanami Gold (ASX: TAM) has produced in excess of 85 tonnes of gold and has an in-situ gold resource inventory exceeding 166 tonnes.
Suplejack is located 30 km north of Tanami’s operating Groundrush Gold Mine and 10km North of ABM Resources’ (ASX: ABU) Hyperion Gold Project.
On May 3 Ord River and China Non-Ferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd (NFC) announced that they are looking to IPO their Lao Bauxite/Alumina Project, which could rank it second to Alumina Ltd (ASX: AWC) in size in Australia.
The potential equity raising involved could be as high as $180-200 million via an initial public offering on the ASX timed for the end of 2011 to early 2012.
The news caused Ord's share price to jump 81% to $0.105. Ord River is currently trading at 0.073 per share.