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Business |
Emperor upbeat on copper-gold
prospect
By BRIAN GOMEZ in Sydney
EMPEROR Mines, which
is planning to divest its stake in its fully owned Tolukuma gold
mine, has announced plans for accelerated exploration in a
3,000sqkm area in Central province.
Emperor currently holds 5,200sqkm, including tenements
surrounding Tolukuma that will be taken over by any new owner of
the struggling mine, where gold production costs have soared
over the past year.
In a presentation to analysts and brokers on plans for Emperor
to merge with Intrepid Mines, the company said following the
merger, exploration would be accelerated at properties held in
Argentina, Mexico and Papua New Guinea with an anticipated A$4
million (K10.74 million) spent in these areas in the next 12
months.
The Emperor leases, which are understood to extend into Gulf and
Oro provinces, form part of a “Tolukuma Corridor” which the
company describes as being “a highly prospective belt”.
Analysts were told the corridor extends for at least 15km and is
4km wide.
Although Emperor and its parent company, DRDGold, owned the mine
and these exploration areas for several years on, preliminary
work had been done to date.
However, Emperor said the Saki deposit about 3km from Tolukuma
had ore grade intercepts from previous drilling and was now
ready for further drilling.
“The target is another Tolukuma system,” it said.
It said several copper-gold porphyry systems exist in the area
with recent exploration at the Ipi River had returned rock chip
samples of up to 3.75g per tonne of gold and 10.14% copper from
sulphide bearing veins in a large porphyry system.
“The porphyry system was anomalous in copper, gold and
molybdenum,” it said.
“Emperor’ PNG exploration portfolio represents a large
exploration package in one of the world’s most mineral endowed
regions.”
 
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