Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ) said its partner in the Manus Island joint venture in Papua New Guinea is preparing to diamond-drill the first of a number of priority targets.
Newcrest PNG Exploration Ltd, a subsidiary of Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM), plans to start drilling of the first 3,000 metres at the Kisi epithermal gold prospect and the Arie copper-gold porphyry prospect in early January 2012.
The targets were identified recently in a helicopter-borne geophysical survey over the entire tenement area of 676 square kilometres.
At the Kisi prospect, the Newcrest field programmes have confirmed the previously identified broad gold-in-soil anomaly and have defined a more coherent +500 parts per billion gold-in-soil anomaly in a 1.4 kilometres by 200 metres wide zone.
At the Arie copper-gold porphyry prospect, historical drilling in the 1970s by Anglo American established a non-JORC compliant resource of 164 million tonnes of 0.32 percent copper to 200 metres drilled depth.
The recent heli-mag work identified a strong magnetic high more than 500 metres from the known Arie resource, which will be drill-tesated for gold and copper.
TPJs exploration director Bill Howell saID: "The heli-mag survey, together with associated surface sampling and mapping, has defined a significant number of priority targets in the Joint Venture area. We are most encouraged by this and by the results coming out of Kisi and Arie, which will be the first two prospects to be drilled.
“Both targets are indicating early potential for size and type of mineralization to achieve the threshholds that major companies like Newcrest aim for in new discoveries, namely at least 5 million ounces of gold or gold equivalent for porphyry type deposits and 3 millin ounces for higher grade gold in epithermal vein or replacement type deposits," he added.
TPJ announced only last week that it expects to deliver drilling results from three of its projects over the coming months as it confirmed in its interim results that the firm is fully funded through to August 2012.