PPM eyes gold at Mt Suckling

PAPUAN Precious Metals (PPM), an aggressive junior metals explorer, began exploration drilling at EL 1424-Mt Suckling’s Urua Creek gold-copper prospect recently.
Urua Creek is located inland from Abau and on the Owen Stanley Ranges between Central and Oro provinces.
 A ground-breaking ceremony at Urua Creek paved the way for PPM president and chief operating officer Dr David Lindley and his exploration team to get their drilling programme underway.
The landowning clan, Ba’u, welcomed the company and its spokesman, Cambridge Bero, praised Dr Lindley for returning to the area after it was abandoned in the early 1990s.
He had then worked for other exploration companies who did some preliminary activities there.
“After the prospecting period was over in 1992, David (Lindley) told us that he will be coming back,” Bero said at the ceremony.
“Unless it is by you and you alone, David. It is by your knowledge, it is by your money and it is by your effort who brought us this far,” Bero told Dr Lindley and team.
“Thank you for prospecting on our virgin land and progressing to the stage of drilling.
“It is a memorable event in life of the Ba’uan tribe, for young and old never dreamt of ground breaking,” an excited Bero stressed.
PPM announced the start of drilling after the ground-breaking ceremony by about 400 villagers who made up the total landowning Ba’u.
The first hole (URD001) was targeting an intense 200m diameter chargeability anomaly which was likely to be completed in 4-5 weeks.
Quest Exploration Drilling (PNG) Ltd of Lae had been contracted to complete the drilling programme of about 2,000 metres.
“It will test a significant chargeability anomaly identified by the recently completed 3D-induced polarisation ground geophysical survey,” PPM said.
“Several surface trenches had been dug and sampled by PPM geologists in the area of high chargeability in 2009. 
“Significantly, Trench 5, located closest to the strongest part of the chargeability anomaly yielded 36m @ 0.72% Cu and 0.97 g/t gold, including 12m @ 1.12% copper and 2.03 g/t gold in phyllic altered breccias.
, while the remaining three trenches identified wide intercepts of low-to- moderate grade porphyry-style gold and copper mineralisation.
The Urua Creek, the company’s flagship prospect in the Mt Suckling area, is also collecting data and sampling the Ioleu, Araboro, Doriri, Dimidi and Duna creeks within the area.
Apart from the Mr Suckling prospect, PPM is also doing exploration work in New Hanover in New Ireland province and in Waria River on the border of Oro and Morobe provinces and in the Bewani Mountain in Sandaun Province.