Worldwide
On 7 March 2006 the Company announced that it had applied for an Exploration Permit (“EP”) for a property (“Worldwide”) located in the district of Northern Luzon, Philippines, adjoining the historic Santa Nino copper-gold producer.
The EP covers an area of approximately 5,845 hectares and is located about 10 kilometres to the northeast of Baguio City. The property is underlain by quartz diorite and andesite rock types and was previously the subject of extensive exploration for copper-gold-molybdenum porphyry mineralization during the 1970’s.
On 20th June 2006 the Company further announced that certain historical data had been obtained and collated in respect of the application. Between 1974 and 1981, Worldwide Mineral and Industrial Corporation, a Philippine corporation, reputedly completed 44 diamond drill holes for an aggregate total of 12,989 metres over a surface area of 600m x 1,200m.
The data package obtained related to 34 of these holes, drilled on a grid spacing of between 100 and 200 metres, for an aggregate total of 10,407 metres. Worldwide estimated a non-JORC compliant resource of approximately 150Mt at an average grade of 0.3% copper and 0.2 g/t gold. In 1982, Worldwide submitted a small batch of samples (21kg) to the nearby Philex Metallurgical and Assay Laboratory for metallurgical testing. The laboratory reported that “the submitted sample was fast floating and no problem was encountered in producing separate concentrates of copper and molybdenum of marketable grade”.
Given the limited nature of the data collated so far, no assurance or implication is being given, or should be assumed to be being given, by the inclusion of this historical data that the mineralization has been, or will in the future be, deemed to be economic. The Company intends to carry out some confirmatory drilling once the EP application is granted and will then evaluate the results to determine the next phase.