The precious metals miner said that hole NB-12-138, which is outside the current in-pit resource as reported in the preliminary economic assessment in February, is the fifth core hole to be drilled in the Yellow Jacket Zone that encountered high-grade gold mineralization.

This latest intersection returned three separate high-grade intervals, with the best being 16.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 1,218 g/t silver over 5.4 metres, including 2.1 metres of 33.0 g/t gold and 2,870 g/t silver within "quartz veined hydrothermal breccia", the company said.

Corvus also said the high grade intervals found also have elevated selenium and tellurium values - similar to those reported in the silver-rich, gold mineralization found at the historic Bullfrog Mine, which is roughly 10 kilometres to the south of the North Bullfrog project.

The results continue to show the continuity of the structurally controlled, high-grade gold mineralization previously reported from this area in March, the gold and silver miner said.

"The high-grade gold and silver mineralization encountered in NB-12-138 continues to confirm our covered, feeder zone target concept, opening up significant potential for expanding this very attractive zone of mineralization," affirmed CEO Jeff Pontius.

"This style of high-grade mineralization has produced exceptional deposits throughout Nevada and we are excited about further defining its potential on the North Bullfrog project."

The Yellow Jacket target is in the northern part of the district, currently outside existing pit perimeters.

Five diamond drill holes along the Yellow Jacket structural corridor have hit what the company calls "an extensive" structural zone with multiple styles of gold mineralization, including both quartz veining and pyrite replacement of iron-rich lithologies.

The company said that the style of quartz veining found in the latest hole NB-12-138 is different from that found in the other holes, and represents "a more dynamic and productive part" of the Yellow Jacket feeder zone system.

This is because the new veins are associated with multi-stage hydrothermal breccias, with the highest grades associated with visible gold and acanthite, a high-grade silver mineral.

Prior to the latest intersection, most of the observed quartz veining that hosted high-grade gold has been relatively uniform textured milky grey quartz with pyrite, the company added.

"This current high-grade zone displays evidence of very active boiling at depth and bodes well for discovery of more elevation controlled high-grade mineralization at depth along this broad, +2 kilometre long structural target," Corvus said in a statement Wednesday.

The North Bullfrog project covers approximately 43 square kilometres in southern Nevada just north of the historic Bullfrog gold mine formerly operated by Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX).

The property package, which is adjacent to a major highway and power corridor, is made up of a number of leased patented federal mining claims and 461 federal unpatented mining claims.

The current drill program at North Bullfrog is focused on infill drilling, and advancing metallurgical work as well as environmental baseline characterization studies, with the aim of completing a feasibility study by early 2013 on the Mayflower deposit.

In February, the company released a PEA on the property, which produced an economic analysis for a conceptual, low capex, heap leach project that generates average annual gold production of 57,700 ounces over 12.8 years.

This indicated a pre-tax, pre-royalty net present value of $118.3 million and an internal rate of return of 28.8 percent at a $1,300 per ounce gold price and a five percent discount rate.

The PEA also showed the project has a considerable leverage to gold price, with a pre-tax, pre-royalty net present value of $338 million and an internal rate of return of  a whopping 70 percent at a $1,700 per ounce gold price.

Total initial capital expenditure was estimated at $68.8 million with a 2.6-year payback period.
North Bullfrog currently includes several prospective gold targets with four - Mayflower, Sierra Blanca, Jolly Jane and Connection - containing an NI 43-101 compliant estimated indicated resource of 24 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.29 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 224,400 ounces of gold.

These same four targets hold an additional inferred resource of 468 million tonnes at 0.19 g/t gold for 2.84 million ounces of gold  (both at a 0.1 g/t cut-off), with appreciable silver credits.

Last week, Corvus closed a $5.5 million non-brokered private placement financing, providing the company with financing to rapidly advance mine development of North Bullfrog, as well as to continually explore the new high-grade Nevada gold discovery, it said.

The explorer sold 8.25 million common shares at a price of 67 cents, with over 50 percent of the placement taken up by management and insiders, with CEO Jeff Pontius purchasing one million shares - a major show of confidence for the company.

In late March, the company reported initial results from the Yellow Jacket higher grade feeder zone as part of a phase one feeder zone exploration program. The Yellow Jacket target is one of several in the North Bullfrog District that the company will be exploring this year.

These initial higher grade intervals were from holes about 400 metres to the northeast of the proposed Sierra Blanca pit and resource, the company noted at the time.

Highlights from the diamond drilling at Yellow Jacket in March included 11.4 metres at 4.0 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 6.97 g/t silver in hole NB-12-126  and 13.5 metres of 2.2 g/t gold in hole NB-12-127.

The campaign will test new targets identified adjacent to, below and outside the current initial resource estimate for the Calandria Sur deposit as well as two outlier targets at the Nido Este and Pichones prospects.

According to the company, the information from this drilling programme will be “fundamental in the design of a more extensive drill campaign to be carried out in the second half of the year.

“This next campaign follows very encouraging target definition work over the last four months which has defined a mix of both high grade and bulk tonnage style targets,” said chairman of Mariana John Horsburgh.

The Las Calandrias project is estimated to have a preliminary resource of 519,000 ounces of gold equivalent.

The company had previously told investors that the re-sampling of drill holes at Calandria Sur indicated expansion potential with the company awaiting results from another 25 holes.

Drill target definition, ground magnetics, trenching and rock chip sampling are nearing completion at the deposit.

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Taparko is held in a joint venture between Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) and High River Gold Mines (TSE: HRG).

Predictive Discovery is continuing reverse circulation drilling on the Laterite Hill Grid, along with a power auger program testing 15 kilometres of greenstone strike to the southwest of the grid.

The company is planning preliminary metallurgical studies on representative samples of gold mineralisation.

The Laterite Hill Grid is part of a joint venture between Predictive Discovery and El Dore Mining Corporation (ASX: EDM), in which Predictive Discovery holds a 72.1% interest.



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Completion of the budgeted 5,000 metre drill program, which began in March, is expected to resume once the additional submitted samples have been received and the ground work completed.

Asante Gold is a Vancouver-based gold exploration company, exploring the Fahiakoba concession, a 22.07 square kilometre prospecting license located on strike with and between Perseus Mining's 4.32 million ounce Edikan Mine and AngloGold Ashanti's (NYSE:AU) 60 million ounce Obuasi mine.

Asante said the latter mine is the longest producing, highest grade and largest gold resource in West Africa.

Asante Gold holds a 100 percent interest in the Fahiakoba gold concession through an option agreement with Goknet Mining Company Limited of Accra, which holds the prospecting license. The deal is subject to a five percent government and a three percent underlying net smelter royalty interest.

The Fahiakoba property covers a part of the former Dunkwa Continental Mining Lease, where large scale gold dredging activities were active from 1930 for nearly 70 years on the Ofin River and its tributaries.

The highlight from the Arzu North and South veins in the Kiziltepe sector of the Red Rabbit Project was a 12.1 metre section at 13.1 grams of tonne of gold and 187.6 grams of silver. 

This included 3.2 metres at 38.7 grams of gold and 511 grams of silver and a one metre section at almost 66 grams of gold and 760 grams of silver.

Other intercepts included 34 metres at 1.04 grams of gold equivalent, 7.6 metres at 7.6 grams and 5.8 metres at 5.71 grams.

The City broker Fairfax said: “This is good news for Ariana who are proving up further mineralisation at the Kiziltepe deposit. 

“These high grade drilling results underscore the resource potential at the Red Rabbit project with scope for the JORC resource to expand from the current 448,000 ounces. 

“The company will now be focusing on identifying optimal drilling positions before forestry permits are obtained for a deeper drilling programme in the area.”

The best intercept was from 65-77 metres depth and sits “within a structural jog along the mineralised fault”, Fairfax added. 

The ore shoot has a moderate plunge which would be helpful for open cast mining, it also pointed out.

Managing director Dr Kerim Sener described today’s data as “truly exceptional”.

“The scale of the project continues to grow with further zones being identified that will only improve the economics of the project which we are advancing towards production,” he said.

"The fact that these results derive from an area of cover along a strong geophysical anomaly corridor suggests that there is significant potential in this zone.  

“We will now look to advance our exploration on the project with drilling focused on identifying mineralisation that could be accessed by underground development originating from either the bottom of the Arzu South or the Arzu North pits."  

Yeun Low, mining analyst at Shore Capital, described today’s results as “highly encouraging”, though he tempered this by adding: “More work will be required to properly understand the structure.”

The stock was changing hands at 3.25 pence, up 0.75 pence.

Stratex International’s (LON:STI) Pandora gold vein in Djibouti could be a game-changer if drilling results show it continues at depth and along strike, according to brokers.

Stratex today said the chip sampling programme at Pandora had produced the best results so far seen in the Afar region in the East African country. 

David Hall, executive director for East Africa, said the latest samples confirmed the potential for a high grade gold discovery in the region.

"These extremely exciting results are now the best surface sampling results of any discovery to date in the Afar epithermal province,” he added.

Multi-gramme gold grades showed continuity over more than 1,000 metres of strike, together with well-defined high-grade portions within the structure, he said.

A number of samples returned over 10g/t gold, including a best of 20.35 g/t over 1.9 metres and 12.17g/t over 2.07 metres.

Mineralisation included 13.9 metres at 5.35 g/t, 23.28 metres at 1.52 g/t and 18.31 metres at 1.43g/t.

Stratex is exploring the Afar province with its strategic partner Thani Ashanti, a joint venture between Anglogold Ashanti and Dubai –based Thani.

Broker Northland said these were the third good rock chip results from the Pandora vein.

The latest results follow up previous rock-chip sampling and channel-chip results published in April and May.

The programme comprises channel-chip sampling at 25 metre-intervals along the strike of the vein.

Previously reported assays from the initial 43 rock-chip samples showed six at greater than 9 g/t gold.

Pandora occurs within a larger structure that is at least 5km long and if Stratex with and partner Thani-Ashanti can prove these high grades also occur at depth they would have a significant deposit, the broker added.

The Pandora vein is up to 2.5 metres wide at surface and can be traced north-westwards for approximately 1.5 kilometres, Stratex said.

It added that the channel-chip sampling is now complete and a substantial drill programme is expected to start by the end of 2012.

“The next key milestone is to commence drilling before the end of the year, and investigate the potential for continuity of these grades at depth," David Hall said.

“We are reviewing all data in terms of geological setting, structure, geochemistry, and epithermal textures, to assist in defining the controls of the gold distribution in these systems so as to advance our understanding and vectoring at Blackrock and Megenta, as well as our numerous other discoveries in the Afar," he added.

Northland has a price target of 17.1p largely founded on the group’s Turkish development assets. Only a small proportion of the valuation is assigned to the significant blue sky potential of Stratex’s exploration projects, it added.

Shares rose 5 per cent to 6.45 pence.

Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) this morning said the latest drilling programme in western Turkey returned “truly exceptional” gold and silver grades.

The highlight from the Arzu North and South veins in the Kiziltepe sector of the Red Rabbit Project was a 12.1 metre section at 13.1 grams of tonne of gold and 187.6 grams of silver. 

This included 3.2 metres at 38.7 grams of gold and 511 grams of silver and a one metre section at almost 66 grams of gold and 760 grams of silver.

Other intercepts include 34 metres at 1.04 grams of gold equivalent, 7.6 metres at 7.6 grams and 5.81 at 5.71 grams.

Managing director Dr Kerim Sener said: "These are truly exceptional drilling results and underline the potential of our Red Rabbit Gold Project.  

“The grades and width of mineralisation reported are greater than anything we have seen in the seven years that we have been exploring this deposit and importantly prove the high grade vein system extends under cover between the Arzu South and Arzu North structures.  

“The scale of the project continues to grow with further zones being identified that will only improve the economics of the project which we are advancing towards production.

"The fact that these results derive from an area of cover along a strong geophysical anomaly corridor suggests that there is significant potential in this zone.  

“We will now look to advance our exploration on the project with drilling focused on identifying mineralisation that could be accessed by underground development originating from either the bottom of the Arzu South or the Arzu North pits."  

Paxton purchased the shares at 47 pence each for a transaction cost of £18,800, it said in a statement.

He now holds 175,000 shares in the gold mining company, or 0.18 per cent of the share capital.

Paxton also holds options over 1 million shares, or around 1.03 per cent of the capital.

Meanwhile, finance director Kiran Morzaria also today bought 6,340 shares at 47 pence each for £2,979.80.

Morzaria now holds 47,280 shares in the firm - or around 0.05 per cent of the share capital.

He also holds options over 700,000 Vatukoula shares, representing around 0.72 per cent of the issued share capital.

It produced gold at a "significantly" higher rate in the six months to February 29 this year, than in the second half last year, although production was "in line" with the comparable period in 2011. 

Vatukoula unearthed 242,769 tonnes of ore and waste - a 24 per cent increase from 195,832 tonnes in the comparable period last year.

And it produced 29,999 ounces of gold compared to 30,000 ounces in the comparative period.

Revenues for the half year stood at £30.4 million -  21 per cent higher than in the same period in 2011, when it stood at £25.2 mln.

The firm also benefitted from the increases in gold prices, with the average realised gold price at US$1,678 in the period compared to US$1,328 per ounce in 2011.

That offset increases in mining, processing and overheads, and led to a gross profit for the period of £4.9 million, compared to £4.2 mln in 2011, the company said.

Vatukoula chief executive David Paxton told investors: "We continued to exceed our mine development targets for the half year. 

"Achieving these development targets will enable us, in the longer term, to mine higher tonnages and at higher grades and will result in a lower cash cost per ounce of gold."

However, he did note the heavy rainfall in Fiji in January and April this year had affected access to and from the mine area. 

"However, I am pleased to report that the mine itself remained secure and protected, albeit with some water ingress which caused temporary disruptions in production and will reflect in third quarter gold sales being lower than planned."

The firm's focus remained on building long-term cost effective sustainable gold production, at 100,000 ounces per year, he said.

Operationally, highlights of the period saw an inferred resource figure of 142,000 ounces defined and a new high mineralised system discovered during exploration drilling.

Paxton concluded by saying that although the mine suffered production hurdles during and after the reporting period, every effort was being made to ensure that "there will be no materially adverse effect" on the company's guidance of 65,000 ounces for the year ending August 31 this year.

Tom Elder, at broker WH Ireland, said today's results provided little new information on operational progress from the Q2 results announced on March 19.

He highlighted that it would be the Q3 results which would be "pivotal" in assessing the firm's operational turnaround, "not so much from an ounces produced perspective but from a profitability per ounce perspective".

"The Vatukoula Gold mine is a significant gold mine with a long operating history and a substantial resource base. These latest results may well mark the nadir of subdued operating performances and we therefore reiterate our 'BUY' recommendation," he said, targeting a price of 122 pence a share.

As at 10.49am, shares in the firm were trading up 2.41 per cent, at 45.5 pence each.

Mutiny Gold (ASX: MYG) continues to unleash the potential of the Deflector Gold Deposit in Western Australia, with the latest positive news flow bonanza grade gold strikes - which are from the drilling program completed in March.

The importance of the discoveries is not just the high grade, but the fact Deflector has been extended down-dip, along with the confirmation of mineralisation in both West and Central Lodes.

This leads to the outcome of providing confidence in the resource targets allowing the Mutiny team to accelerate exploration planning.

New discovery highlights from the Central Lode at Deflector include:

- 2 metres at 57.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 0.2% copper from 92 metres;
- 5 metres at 41.8g/t gold and 0.3% copper from 218 metres;
- 4 metres at 30.7g/t gold and 0.9% copper from 146 metres;
- 5 metres at 23.9g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 162 metres; and
- 2 metres at 22.7g/t gold and 1.0% copper from 104 metres.

The results will be incorporated into the revised resource estimation, which will be released in the September quarter of 2012.

John Greeve, managing director, said that the continued discovery of high-grade gold and copper is increasing the company's confidence in the asset.

"We look forward to releasing a new resource model and hence a new LOM production profile.

"The distribution of the gold ounces-plus results across the entire length of Deflector shows that we really have one of the best undeveloped orebodies in Australia."

Adding to the future development potential of the deposit, are results with elevated copper levels from diamond drilling to the north of the Deflector Fault at West Lode, with new discoveries including:

- 2 metres at 38.8g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 211 metres;
- 2 metres at 20.6g/t gold and 2.2% copper from 201 metres;
- 5 metres at 10.3g/t gold and 1.1% copper from 209 metres; and
- 2 metres at 13.0g/t gold and 3.1% copper from 163 metres.

These assays and their locations in West Lode have added a potential block of ore 200 metres in length and 100 metres in height to the underground mine shape, and considering the grades ranging up to an over 1 ounce per tonne, it would be expected that Mutiny will deliver a substantial upgrade in the upcoming resources and reserves.

Not to be forgotten were the very impressive discoveries from earlier in the year, such as:

- 3.3 metres at 79g/t gold and 10.5% copper from 62 metres; and
- 2 metres at 24g/t gold and 2.4% copper from 234 metres.


Repetition of mineralised intersections

Worthy of note is the repetition of mineralised intersections in some holes, delineating a number of parallel lodes present at depth within the deposit.

This will add flexibility in the mining sequence and has the potential to add tonnes per vertical metre to the deposit.


Deflector - on the road to development

Mutiny has developed the timeline to commence mine development in the second half of 2012 leading to an open pit mining operation at Deflector, followed by underground mining after two years.

Deflector has a resource of 3.4 million tonnes at 4.9g/t gold for 530,000 gold ounces, 0.85% copper for 29,000 tonnes and 5.7g/t silver for 620,000 ounces.

Measured and Indicated accounts for; 2.1 million tonnes at 5.2g/t gold for 350,000 ounces, 1.1% copper for 22,000 tonnes and 7.3g/t silver for 490,000 ounces. Inferred is 1.3 million tonnes at 4.5g/t gold for 180,000 ounces, 0.5% copper for 6,000 tonnes and 6.2g/t silver for 130,000 ounces.

Mutiny has a target at Deflector 2.5 million ounces of gold (ranging from 1.65 million to 2.5 million gold ounces), and 40,000 to 80,000 tonnes copper.

On the milestone news front, a maiden gold Reserve is pencilled in for May, with the Definitive Feasibility Study in the first half of 2012, along with the completion of project financing around mid-2012.

The first gold pour to be from White Well will be in the second half of 2012, with the mine development at Deflector in late 2012.


Existing infrastructure provides key production component

Mutiny is a near term gold producer, and to further highlight the potential of Deflector, existing infrastructure includes a 300,000 tonnes per annum mill which has the capacity to be upgraded to 620,000 tonnes per annum - along with accommodation and offices, power plant, water, haul roads and tailings dam.

The additional infrastructure required includes a ball mill, crusher, floatation circuit, additional accommodation for up to 150 and an upgraded power plant.

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It produced gold at a "significantly" higher rate in the six months to February 29 this year, than in the second half last year, although production was "in line" with the comparable period in 2011. 

Vatukoula unearthed 242,769 tonnes of ore and waste - a 24 per cent increase from 195,832 tonnes in the comparable period last year.

Revenues for the half year stood at £30.4 million -  21 per cent higher than in the same period in 2011, when it stood at £25.2 mln.

The firm also benefitted from the increases in gold prices, with the average realised gold price at US$1,678 in the period compared to US$1,328 per ounce in 2011.

That offset increases in mining, processing and overheads, and led to a gross profit for the period of £4.9 million, compared to £4.2 mln in 2011, the company said.

Vatukoula chief executive David Paxton told investors: "We continued to exceed our mine development targets for the half year. 

"Achieving these development targets will enable us, in the longer term, to mine higher tonnages and at higher grades and will result in a lower cash cost per ounce of gold."

However, he did note the heavy rainfall in Fiji in January and April this year had affected access to and from the mine area. 

"However, I am pleased to report that the mine itself remained secure and protected, albeit with some water ingress which caused temporary disruptions in production and will reflect in third quarter gold sales being lower than planned."

The firm's focus remained on building long-term cost effective sustainable gold production, at 100,000 ounces per year, he said.

Operationally, highlights of the period saw an inferred resource figure of 142,000 ounces defined and a new high mineralised system discovered during exploration drilling.

Paxton concluded by saying that although the mine suffered production hurdles during and after the reporting period, every effort was being made to ensure that "there will be no materially adverse effect" on the company's guidance of 65,000 ounces for the year ending August 31 this year.

David Hall, executive director for East Africa, said the latest samples confirmed the potential for a high grade gold discovery in the region.

"These extremely exciting results are now the best surface sampling results of any discovery to date in the Afar epithermal province,” he added.

Multi-gramme gold grades showed continuity over more than 1,000 metres of strike, together with well-defined high-grade portions within the structure, he said.

A number of samples returned over 10g/t gold, including a best of 20.35 g/t over 1.9 metres and 12.17g/t over 2.07 metres.

Mineralisation widths included 13.9 metres at 5.35 g/t, 23.28 metres at 1.52 g/t and 18.31 metres at 1.43g/t.

Stratex is exploring the Afar province with its strategic partner Thani Ashanti, a joint venture between Anglogold Ashanti and Dubai –based Thani.

The latest results follow up previous rock-chip sampling and channel-chip results published in April and May.

The programme comprises channel-chip sampling at 25 metre-intervals along the strike of the vein. 

These previously reported assays from the initial 43 rock-chip samples showed six at greater than 9 g/t gold. The Pandora vein is up to 2.5 metres wide at surface and can be traced north-westwards for approximately 1.5 kilometres, Stratex said.

It added that the channel-chip sampling is now complete and a substantial drill programme is now expected to start by the end of 2012.

“The next key milestone is to commence drilling before the end of the year, and investigate the potential for continuity of these grades at depth," Hall said.

“ We are reviewing all data in terms of geological setting, structure, geochemistry, and epithermal textures, to assist in defining the controls of the gold distribution in these systems so as to advance our understanding and vectoring at Blackrock and Megenta, as well as our numerous other discoveries in the Afar."

The highlight find was 3.9 metres with 11.6 g/t (grammes per tonne) gold, including 0.2 metres at 109.1 g/t of the precious metal.

Further drilling is now merited at the project to better define the mineralisation, with a view to producing a first resource estimate.

"The mineralisation remains open along strike and down dip," said the firm's managing director Patrick Harford.

"In light of the structural and geological complexity of the El Abra mineralisation and in order to obtain maximum value from future drilling the company intends to complete a detailed structural study along with additional surface geochemical sampling before planning a second drilling programme. 

"This work will enable a better understanding of the style and orientation of the mineralisation at El Abra ahead of further drilling.”

 In total, 1,112 metres was drilled in the programme and the first results from El Abra, within the company's wholly-owned Sierras de las Minas project were unveiled last month.

In those findings, significant gold mineralisation was confirmed in five holes, while no significant gold mineralisation was intersected in two holes.

Today, the company said that of the total 13 holes sunk, three hit "very high grade" gold mineralisation, while four more hit gold mineralisation with grades of more than 1 g/t of the yellow metal.

Last week, ECR revealed it had issued and allotted shares to a UK-based investment fund to raise capital for its gold exploration activities in Argentina.

YA Global SPV will gain 13,500,168 shares at a price of 0.667 pence per share totalling £90,000.

ECR is a mineral development company with interests in Argentina, the US, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia.

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The project is aiming to define a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for one or more of the Melville Bugt iron ore target areas by gathering up to between five and six thousand metres of diamond drill core.

It will also continue the detailed reconnaissance mapping it started during its maiden field season last year.

“The promising mapping, assay and geophysical survey results obtained by Red Rock Resources at Melville Bugt during 2011 indicate the potential for economic quantities of both magnetite and haematite iron ore mineralisation,” it said.

The field season will run from late May until early October with drilling expected to proceed from early June and end in September.

Twenty-four hour daylight begins in late April but sea ice limits boat access until June, so Red Rock will initially set up an air-mobilised base camp, with two heli-portable diamond drill rigs for exploration drilling.

Once the sea ice subsides in late June, it will be able to carry over a larger drill rig by charter vessel to commence a larger-scale drill programme.

It said is funding the 2012 Greenland exploration programme with resources received from the royalty sale transaction with Anglo Pacific, as well as from other liquid assets and facilities. 

Red Rock, which also has a Colombian gold-producing mine and a Kenyan gold and copper project, has an earn-in agreement with North Atlantic Mining Associates (NAMA) under which it has already earned 25 per cent in Melville Bugt.

It has the right to increase this percentage by 60 per cent by funding 2012 exploration and declaring a JORC or NI 43-101 resource.

The share price rose 11 per cent to 1.94 pence.

Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) told investors today that it is funded for the work programmes planned at its key projects for this year.

Following a £600,000 fundraising in February, Sunrise had £1.02 million in the bank at the end of March, which it said ensured that it can continue to advance the Derryginagh and Cue projects through 2012.

At Derryginagh, which is in Ireland, the company is currently evaluating potential for a modest scale mning operating producing high-value white barite for use as industrial filler.

The results from the first drill programme at the project confirmed that high-grade extensions to the barite vein system exist well below the old mine workings.

It has been estimated that there is sufficient tonnage potential to support an annual production of at least 50,000 tonnes of barite for several years as mineralisation remains open at depth.

At the Cue diamond project in Western Australia, drill sites have been laid out and a surface sample of the Cue 1 kimberlites has been collected for further evaluation.

An Aboriginal Heritage Survey is required before drilling can begin and this is now in progress, said Sunrise. The drill programme aims to collect samples for a preliminary evaluation of diamond content and quality.

The company completed 24 reverse circulation holes on the Gibraltar Trend. The best results included a 13 metre section at 2.87 grams of the precious metal per tonne and 3 metres at 6.82 grams.

A total of five holes have so far been drilled on the Geko project, returning 2.02 grams and 2.21 grams from two separate intercepts of 14 metres.

The group has also carried out 2,659 metres of scout drilling.

Managing director Brett Lambert said: "We are very pleased with the grades delivered from Gibraltar and Geko and the potential for further resource growth that has been identified by the latest drilling. 

“Both projects are now being evaluated for possible inclusion in Bullabulling Gold Project pre-feasibility study that is currently underway."

Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ) has agreed a US$7.5 million loan for the initial part of a leaching plant upgrade at its flagship gold mine in Azerbaijan.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has agreed to lend the money, which will be used on the early stages of construction at the plant.

Chief executive Reza Vazari said last week that a new agitation leach plant is a natural development for the mine and would ultimately provide the best return for shareholders.

The new plant for the Gedabek mine will be designed to treat 100 tonnes of ore per hour and will improve gold recoveries.

It is expected to cost US$52 million.

The first equipment is expected to arrive in the third quarter and the plan is to commission in the second half of 2013.

The loan will carry an annual interest rate of 12 per cent.

Anglo Asian said that the current Gedabek operation is on track to produce 54,000 ounces of gold this year.

Anglo is also currently in discussions regarding additonal debt funding.

Richard Chan was appointed director in mid-April after the first tranche of shares was issued.

Hill End plans to use the $5 million funding raised to support its exploration to increase mineral resources from 557,000 ounces to over 1 million ounces at its Hargraves and Hill End Gold Projects.

At Hargraves, the company plans to increase the mineable resource with targeted drilling and infill assaying.

Earlier this year Hill End began a new drilling program targeting an extension to the gold resource already defined at the Big Nugget Hill prospect.

In just the first drill hole of the current program at the North Big Nugget Hill Prospect, visible gold has been observed by the company in the core at four separate intervals – which include 54.7 metres, 70.1 metres, 75 metres and 76 metres.

Meanwhile, at the Hill End project, the company plans to complete a Scoping Study for an expanded Reward project.

It is targeting resource re-estimates at both the Reward and Red Hill prospects using a bulk mining approach.


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