Brazil - Update
June 26 2007 - 3:01AM
UK Regulatory
Brazil - Update
26 June 2007
Angus & Ross plc
(AIM: AGU)
BRAZIL - UPDATE
* Encouraging preliminary results from testing programme of gravels
at Santa D�bora.
Visible gold in pits and assays confirming consistent grade
Large resource currently being defined
Drilling of primary resource now being considered
* Trial mining to commence at Santa Elena in July
* Private placing underway
Angus & Ross plc ("A&R" or "the Company"), the AIM quoted mining
exploration company with interests in Greenland, Brazil and
Australia, is pleased to announce the latest news from its Brazilian
projects operated by its 90% owned subsidiary St Andrews Mining
Limited ("SAM").
Santa D�bora
The original 16 km2 Santa D�bora licence, acquired in mid 2006, has
now been increased to 91 km2. Located centrally on the Salinas-Praia
Grande gold belt, some 70km southwest of state capital Cuiab�, the
prospect lies between a privately owned operating mine (Salinas) to
the southwest and properties to the northeast that are being explored
by Australian quoted company Ashburton. The property is highly
prospective for shallow secondary potentially gold-bearing gravels
that are now being tested and which overlay the primary gold
mineralisation.
After several delays occasioned both by a heavier than normal rainy
season and competing demand for assay facilities, SAM has now
completed over 200 large pits and a sampling programme on a 50m by
100m grid laid over the first 150 hectare block, where 6 million
tonnes of shallow gold bearing gravels have been defined. Coarse
grained gold has been consistently visible. 2.5 tonnes bulk
samples are currently being treated in a bulk testing plant, and 575
of these have been sent to "AcmeLabs" in Brazil for assaying. The
first results received continue to support the thesis that the
average historic grade of the gravels in the Salinas area are
reported to be around 0.8 g/tonne. When all the assays are complete
an estimate of the total resource will be commissioned from Sao Paulo
based consultants, Multigeo Minera��o, which will also develop a
pre-feasibility study by late summer. Sampling of the second, 80
hectare block is under way, and further blocks will be sampled
thereafter.
As further evidence of the prospectivity of the Salinas-Praia Grande
gold belt, a limited auger sampling programme on a 1.5 million tonne
tailings dam located on two of the newly acquired licence blocks
returned an average grade of 0.46 g/t (71 auger holes were drilled to
2 metres). As this material overlays the secondary gravels, it will
be a useful addition to the resource base. Further sampling is being
carried out prior to reporting this material within the resource
estimate.
In addition to the known underlying gold bearing quartz veins
prevalent within the trend, the sampling programme has discovered a
new iron-rich phylite zone of at least 1 km along the strike. This
zone is similar to those being exploited at several large open-pit
gold mines in Brazil. Drilling of the potential primary resource
will be carried out as soon as possible.
Santa Elena
Last December the company reported that it had signed a contract to
acquire the rights to the Santa Elena mine in northern Mato Grosso,
on which according to a Rio Tinto Brazil report written in 1996 there
is a resource of 1 million tonnes at 2.51 g/t (this work was not done
to current international standards). A 12 hole confirmatory diamond
drill programme has been completed and results from these holes are
given below. For comparison the results from the RioTinto drill
programme are also given. Hence, with the re-assayed Rio Tinto drill
cores the Company can report a 'measured plus indicated' resource of
0.5 million tonnes at a grade of 3.15 g/tonne, plus an 'inferred'
0.55 million tonnes at 2.58 g/tonne (This resource estimate has been
calculated to current Brazilian reporting standards).
Metallurgical testing and the subsequent Multigeo Minera��o
prefeasibility study both confirmed the robustness of the project,
presuming a reasonable proportion of the inferred resource can be
re-categorised as measured or indicated. Consequently, a second
drill programme is under way with the intention of upgrading the
confidence in the resource and hence its classification.
In addition, the presence of a parallel lode has been confirmed with
four drill holes; analyses are awaited prior to reporting any
additional resources. The original agreement, including the payment
of $1 million due this December, is currently being renegotiated with
the owner.
Environmental and trial mining licenses (permitting 50,000 tonnes to
be mined) have now been received. Mining of open-pittable resource
and the processing at 200 tonnes per day will commence within four
weeks.
Summary of Drilling and Assays of St Elena Gold Project.
Hole
Id Location (UTM) Depth Interval (m) Dip True Au
From
East North m To degrees Thickness(m) ppm
ST.ANDREWS
SED01 698040 8802525 93.79 75.7 - 87.9 50 8.96 6.15
SED02 698110 8802660 78.3 60.3 - 65.0 50 3.98 4.29
SED05 698050 8802616 98.75 90.0 - 96.4 50 4.89 2.14
SED07 698014 8802489 87.74 64.2 - 73.0 50 6.74 3.13
SED08 698049 8802506 65.99 47.4 - 52.5 50 3.9 2.17
SED09 698071 8802557 65.54 42.2 - 48.3 45 4.99 1.02
SED10 698096 8802604 61.3 58.5 - 60.5 45 1.11 0.08
SED11 698110 8802674 69.62 43.8 - 50.3 50 4.9 2.21
RIO TINTO
FTN01 698021 8802468 81.17 60.6 - 68.4 60 5 3.24
FTN02 698042 8802496 90 68.3 - 80.0 65 6.56 1.51
FTN03 698042 8802497 120 90.8 - 109.8 78 7.15 2.55
FTN04 698076 8802534 65 46.2 - 58.6 60 8 2.58
FTN05 698076 8802535 123.67 87.3 - 96.6 80 3.11 3.4
FTN06 698060 8802544 129.77 95.3 - 101.7 75 2.71 2.8
FTN06 698060 8802544 129.77 105.5 - 112.2 75 2.84 2.73
FTN07 698092 8802583 145 108.4 - 127.2 83 5.4 4.5
FTN08 698091 8802613 98.42 79.2 - 80.0 60 0.51 1.5
FTN09 698102 8802635 117.52 88.2 - 94.8 70 3.5 7.88
FTN10 698120 8802683 99.62 95.05 - 96.03 81 0.37 0.39
FTN11 698139 8802729 84.52 55.2 - 73.8 71 8.8 3.24
FTN12 698167 8802782 90 45.4 - 54.8 65 4.03 2.6
SED - St Andrews drill programme; FTN - RTZ drill
programme
Holes SED3 and SED06 tested possible northern and southern extensions
to the zone, and hole SED04 was abandoned due to rig problems. SED12
located a mineralized sub-parallel zone which is not being included
in the current resource estimate.
Fil�o do Fabinho
The Company is also pleased to announce that a contract has recently
been signed and the first stage payment made, to acquire the
exploration rights and title to the historic but abandoned Fil�o do
Fabihno garimpo underground mine, close to the Santa Cec�lia
prospect. Due to the nature of garimpo operations, no resource
estimate had been developed; however reported grades were
consistently of the order of 20 g/t.
Rehabilitation of two of the three shafts has been completed, and the
old workings dewatered and geologically mapped. Based upon this, and
the surface expression of the orebody, the occurrence is estimated by
management to be in the order of � million tonnes. A 2,500 metre
drill programme will commence shortly to test this hypothesis.
Santa Cecilia
At Santa Cecilia a short, five hole drill programme has been
completed. While hole SCD49 returned a 0.25m intersection grading 50
g/t, the other holes, although intersecting the mineralized
structure, did not return encouraging grades or widths. A decision
on further work will be made in the near future.
Private Placing and Financing Plans
Based upon these encouraging developments, SAM, with the guidance of
its financial Advisors CFS Partners is currently undertaking a
Private Placing of 10 million shares, at 7.5p per share, the
equivalent to 15% of the company. A further Private Placing will be
made subsequent to Multigeo's report, reflecting an updated valuation
of the company. The board of SAM is planning for an initial public
offering in early 2008 in order to finance development of Santa
D�bora and other projects.
Angus & Ross Chairman, Robin Andrews commented:
"After four years of work in Brazil Angus & Ross can now be confident
that management's efforts and shareholders' patience are close to
being rewarded. There are now three projects, any one of which could
be a "company maker". In particular the Santa Deborah project is
beginning to show its potential and trial mining at Santa Elena is
likely to start next month. It remains the objective of Angus & Ross
to seek separate finance for St Andrews Mining and eventually a
listing for this company.
For further information contact:
Angus & Ross Plc
Robin Andrews, Chairman 01751 430988
Paul Williams, Finance Director 01606 855022
Bishopsgate Communications 020 7562 3350
Nick Rome
Fran Read
This release has been approved by the Company's technical staff who
include Dr Jayme Leite M.Sc., B.Sc.and Dr Tom Elder BSc., MIMM, in
accordance with the Guidance Note for oil and mining companies issued
by the London Stock Exchange in relation to AIM Companies, which
outlines standards of disclosure for mineral projects.
NOTE TO EDITORS
Sampling and Assaying Procedures
Drill cores for assaying were cut at one metre intervals or at any
visual mineralogical interface and sawn in half with a diamond saw,
with one half of the core placed in sealed bags. Samples have been
prepared by "AcmeLab" in Goias, Brazil and then sent to Acme in
Santiago Chile for fire assay. The total sample is dried, to a core
temperature of 110�C, jaw crushed to a nominal 2 mm, riffle split to
1 kg, then milled to a nominal 95% passing 75mm. An analytical pulp
of approximately 200g is sub-sampled. A 50g sub-sample is analysed
to internationally standard fire assay techniques, with repeat
analyses carried out on all samples returning grades greater than
10g/tonne.
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