Three of four follow-up diamond core holes intersected and ended in good gold values at the Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration-Anatolia Minerals Development Limited Copler Joint Venture prospect in central Turkey.
Holes CDD-54A, CDD-65 and CDD-66 expanded the mineralization at depth and beyond previously assumed boundaries of the +4 million ounce inferred resource, and bottomed in interesting gold values. CDD-67 was a 'wildcat' step-out.
This follows the previously reported program that confirmed and delineated shallow, direct-leachable gold in the Main and Marble zones and extended gold zones along the intrusive/marble contact and northwest of the Main Zone.
Anatolia's President Richard Moores said, "These encouraging results should increase the size of gold zone, particularly in the Marble and Main Zones. The Joint Venture is currently focused on completing resource modeling and planning the next phase of evaluation. Potentially important progress is being made in improving metallurgical recoveries for the refractory portion of the resource. A progress report is anticipated soon."
A number of those holes stopped in +2 gram per ton sulfide gold, indicating a good potential to increase the overall resource. To date the deposit has been estimated to contain an inferred resource of 4.1 million ounces gold at an average grade of 3.1 grams gold per ton.
Hole CDD-54A—85 meters (at) 1.5 grams gold per ton—indicates potentially economic gold values may extend nearly 300 meters north of the boundary used for the Main Zone resource estimate.
Holes CDD-65—47.3 meters (at) 4.2 grams gold per ton—and CDD-66—99 meters (at) 3.0 grams gold per ton—expand Manganese Mine gold mineralization to the south and at depth. CDD-67, a 'wildcat' hole drilled over 300 meters southwest of the Main Zone, did not intersect any potentially economic gold values.
Rio Tinto has earmarked $2.4 million for the overall 2003 Anatolia/Rio Tinto JV Turkish program. This includes funding for grassroots exploration as well as for those projects within which Rio Tinto is seeking to earn an interest.
In April 2000, Anatolia and Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration formed a four-year strategic alliance to seek base and precious metal deposits in Turkey. To date, Rio Tinto has funded over eight million dollars for JV exploration, with additional funding in 2003.
Rio Tinto is currently earning into three prospects in Turkey, each requiring expenditures of $10.5 million and payments of $1.5 million for a 65 percent interest. Assays are performed by OMAC Laboratories, Ireland, with quality control of sampling, preparation and assaying overseen jointly by Rio Tinto and Anatolia.
Anatolia has 30.9 million shares issued and outstanding, 38.6 million fully diluted. Anatolia trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, and Rio Tinto plc trades on the London and Australian Stock Exchanges and on the New York Stock Exchange. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
