Update re: Brazil
December 18 2006 - 5:30AM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:0911O
Angus & Ross PLC
18 December 2006
18th December 2006
Angus & Ross plc
BRAZIL - UPDATE
- Recruitment of senior management
- Encouraging drill results at Sta Cecilia prospect including 1.9 metres
intersection of 37.2 g/t gold
- New gold properties acquired and under option, with targeted resources of over
700,000 ounces
- Gold production estimated to start in 2007
- 250 hole auger drilling programme commencing at Sta Debora, and applications
submitted for additional licences
Angus & Ross ("A&R" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of
Dr Jayme Leite, PhD., as Director of Operations of St Andrews Mining Limited
("SAM"), the Company's 90% owned subsidiary formed to look after its Brazilian
interests.
Dr Leite obtained his PhD at the University of Western Australia and the Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and has been a professor of geology
for the last 25 years at the Federal University of Mato Grosso State. He is a
well respected figure in the Brazilian mining industry and since 2000 has been
advising several major national and international companies. He will bring to
SAM his extensive practical and theoretical knowledge of Brazilian geology and
mineral deposits.
In addition Mr Adrian Mackenzie, FCA has been appointed Finance Director of the
local subsidiary, Angus & Ross do Brazil. Mr Mackenzie is based in Sao Paulo
and was for thirty years Financial Controller of the Bunge Corporation.
At Sta Cecilia, in northern Mato Grosso state, an ongoing shallow diamond drill
programme totalling 3000 metres has confirmed the presence of three main sets
of essentially parallel sub-vertical gold bearing shear zones, two of which -
Otta and Tata - have a surface expression exceeding 500 metres. On the Otta
shear zone, assays are available on three out of eight drill holes, with one 2.5
metres intersection grading 8.94 g/t gold. Two of the three holes on the Tata
shear zone show intersections of 0.7-1.0 metre with grades of 10.6 and 6.7 g/t
gold respectively. (See Table below). The drilling programme continues to check
mineralization extensions and ore grades.
However, the first drill hole to intersect the third shear zone, Rato, is
especially encouraging, with assay returns over a 1.9 metres intersection of
37.2 g/t gold. A second drill hole, crossing the first one 40 metres below,
returned a 20 metre intersection of intensely veined material with visible gold,
chalcopyrite and pyrite. Assay results are expected by mid January 2007. It is
here that the Company is now concentrating its exploration at Sta Cecilia.
Sta Debora, the recently optioned gold prospect, is located near Cuiaba, the
capital city of Mato Grosso. To date US$80,000 of the total purchase
consideration of US$200,000, due by July 2008, has already been paid. The nearly
10,000ha prospect has a highly prospective location at the southwest end of the
known Salinas-Praia Grande gold trend from which an estimated 1 million ounces
of gold have been mined since the early eighties. The main gold mine along this
trend is the Salinas mine, situated close to the Sta Debora prospect area. The
extension of the Salinas mineralized structure into the Sta Debora prospect is
strongly suggested by geologic, structural, metalogenetic and remote sensing
data. Work on a sampling grid is under way with some 10,000 metres of lines
already completed. Auger drilling of 250 holes to follow up the sampling work
will start this month. Samples will be processed in a newly acquired bulk
testing plant now on site and a resource estimate should be available in the
first quarter of 2007.
In order to strengthen our position at Sta. Debora, licences over two small
additional contiguous areas are in the process of being registered in the name
of A&R do Brazil.
At Sta Elena in northern Mato Grosso, a contract has recently been signed and
the first stage payment made, to acquire the exploration rights and title to a
project with an "indicated" resource (not JORC compliant)* to 100 metres depth
of 1 million tonnes at 0.1 oz/t. containing up to 100,000 ounces of gold. This
Resource is based on work carried out by Rio Tinto Brasil and Companhia
Centro-Oeste in the 1980s. A diamond drilling programme of 1,000 metres to
confirm the initial resource calculation and to extend mineralization down to
250 metres, as well as additional surface sampling work, commenced in the first
week of December. In addition the majority of the old drill cores from the Rio
Tinto drilling are available and are being re-examined. An independent
pre-feasibility study of the existing and potential "resource" is being
contracted for completion prior to 1st March 2007. If these results are
positive, it is expected that gold production will start in the last quarter of
2007.
Presuming the pre-feasibility study is positive, the purchase price of the
project will be a total of a $3.2 million payable over eight years with the
first $1 million due at the end of 2007.
SAM Executive Director and A&R do Brasil Chairman Richard Stevens, OBE commented
"We continue to be highly committed to our interests in Brazil and the
appointments of Dr Jayme Leite and Mr Adrian Mackenzie strengthen the existing
management team. Near term gold production will continue to be the company's
focus as well as building a substantial resource base. Exploration and
confirmation drilling are taking place on three of the company's projects and
further results are eagerly awaited."
For further information contact:
Robin Andrews, Chairman 01751 430988
Paul Williams, Finance Director 01606 855022
- ENDS -
Table:
Hole No. Northing Westing Dip From Intercept Grade Au
degrees m True width (m) g/t
Otta zone (8 holes drilled to date, analyses received on 3)
SCD14 567493 8848770 45 31.24 0.4 2.27
SCD15 567465 8848779 60 40.71 2.5 8.94
(including 1.0 19.7)
SCD16 567514 8848773 50 16.22 0.7 3.85
76.98 1.3 2.89
Tata zone (3 holes drilled and analysed to date)
SCD20 569094 8847140 45 24.06 0.7 10.60
SCD21 569152 8846970 45 25.15 2.3 2.70
SCD22 569094 8847140 60 31.45 4.5 1.91
(including 1.0 6.73)
Rato zone (2 holes intersected mineralisation to date)
SCD27 567301 8847379 60 51.06 1.9 37.2
(including 0.5 82.9
NB: This release has been approved by the Company's technical staff who include
Dr Leite and Mr Robert Morrow, Chief Geologist, Brazil, who holds a BSc from
University of New England at Armidale, NSW, in accordance with the recent
Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies issued by the London Stock
Exchange in respect of AIM companies, which outlines standards of disclosure for
mineral projects.
* This resource estimate on Sta Elena predates and is non-compliant with JORC:
as such, the Company is not treating it as current mineral resources. However,
the Company believes that this historic estimate provides a conceptual
indication of the potential of the occurrence and is relevant to ongoing
exploration.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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