macmin 1998 drilling @ cratermt results!!!

Hey Guys

Just found this announcement by MACMIN a previous tenement owner of Crater Mt in PNG. Its before be before BHP took over the tenement when MACMIN couldnt afford to keep it. At the time these drilling results were released the price of gold fell to $250-280 per ounce!

Now it has cracked $1406 and heading north!

Have a read. Looks like MACMIN didnt persue Crater Mt because they had already progressed with other gold exploration projects and needed to raise cash to continue drilling. Very fortunate for GOA that this area has been so remote and hard to access under the volcanic ash!

These handfull of drill holes all found a sizeable amount of gold, all GOA need to do is replicate similar numbers 200-350m of ave 0.8-1% Au and we should see a nice JORC compliant resource which they can grow! No wonder BHP pounced on the tenement once MACMIN couldnt afford the tenement payments to the PNG Govt! And Fortunate for GOA that BHP caused havoc in PNG with their OK Tedi mine disaster and had to relinquish this tenement! :)

Its now up to Mr McNabb and his team @ GOA to make the dream a reality!




Macmin (27 April 1999)
QUARTERLY TECHNICAL REPORT - APRIL 1999 - SUMMARY AND COMMENTS

* Excellent drill results were received from the Crater Mountain Project, Papua New Guinea; 24m at 6.55g/t Au including 2m at 52.6g/t Au and 2m at 19.01g/t Au; 14m at 1.66g/t Au; 8m at 1.5g/t Au including 4m at 2.17g/t Au; 4 m at 4.25g/t Au; 6m at 2.22g/t Au. A previous drill hole had intersected 115m at 1.83g/t Au including 3m at 14.16g/t Au. MACMIN is very encouraged by these results as they appear to indicate that most holes have intersected the envelope or upper parts of a major gold bearing hydrothermal system and the narrow gold zones may indicate "leakage" along structures from a major gold orebody at depth.

Very limited trenching gave results of: 35m at 3.1g/t Au; 15m at 1.45g/t Au and 20m at 1.1g/t Au. Previous surface sampling by an earlier explorer had given 30m at 1.95g/t Au. Most prospective areas have not yet been trenched.

Re-evaluation of previous soil and stream geochemistry has defined three new prospect areas in the general Nevera area at Crater Mountain. The Nevera South Prospect (2 to 3 kms south of Nevera) has visible gold in two pan concentrates samples, which assayed 256g/t Au and 86.3g/t Au. At Nevera Southwest, rock samples contain up to 33% Zn and 453 g/t Ag, and at Nevera West, a 3km long zone west of Nevera, gold in soils of 46g/t Au and 15g/t Au have been recorded in addition to many anomalous arsenic values to 860ppm.

The entire Nevera area is known to cover at least 12 sq kms and is thought to extend even further to the south. The drilling, trenching and geochemical results indicate the hydrothermal system is very large, has widespread gold mineralisation as indicated by soil and drill holes and probably hosts a number of separate or semi-separate gold mineralised bodies which could be of economic grades. A comparison of early stage exploration at Crater Mountain, Porgera and Mt Kare (see Section 2.5 for full comparison) shows similar results for each property. In view of this comparison MACMIN considers exploration progress to date at Crater Mountain is extremely encouraging.

The program has been temporarily suspended to allow a review of all results and to determine how the next phase of exploration should be financed.

* A wide intercept of encouraging epithermal gold mineralisation has now been confirmed at Kabang Northeast Prospect, Feni Project, Papua New Guinea. MAD hole 1, previously reported to have intersected 52m at 1.65g/t Au in its upper part, was extended to 256.5m and returned approximately 1 g/t Au over the entire extension, including 6m at 4.11 g/t Au and 38m at 1.27g/t Au. The hole terminated in gold mineralisation. It is 300m NE of the last drill hole at Kabang; and this hole, together with geophysical and geochemical evidence suggests the gold system at Kabang/Kabang northeast is a minimum of 600m long by 200/400m wide. It may be much larger and the potential to define an economic gold deposit is excellent. Additional drilling is on hold until J/V partner New Guinea Gold raises additional funding.

* At Texas Project in southeast Queensland, excellent column leach test results were achieved which suggest in excess of 70% of the silver and 60% of the gold can be recovered by heap leach processing using cyanide alone. Further testing is proceeding to determine optimum crushing size for leach purposes using existing RC drill samples. Diamond core holes to provide additional mineralogical, assay and metallurgical samples will be undertaken in the near future, possibly followed by laboratory or on site bulk testing. Site investigations are underway. A major engineering company is undertaking a scoping study to determine the probable economics of the project and a critical path to development.

* Cyprus Amax have commenced on site exploration at Mt Nakru Papua New Guinea, using bulldozer trenching, sampling and mapping and will commence on site exploration at Whiteman Range and Simuku in the near future.

* MACMINs strategy at present is as follows:
o conserve existing funds by limiting work mainly to the Texas development, which has the capacity to yield a significant cash flow to the company within 18 months. The capital cost of a heap leach development would be relatively low and substantially less than a CIP/CIL operation.
o Seek joint venture partners for most Papua New Guinea projects or some form of strategic alliance with a cashed up company so that MACMIN is not obliged to use its own funds in Papua New Guinea in the near future.
o Discuss joint venture of Crater Mountain with interested parties but not accept opportunistic offers which do not reflect its value.
o Sell some assets to raise additional cash (plus $1.0M)

* Implementation of the above strategy is well underway with significantly reduced company overhead and operating costs; preparation of summary reports on 6 projects to assist in seeking joint venture partners (copies available to shareholders on request); initial metallurgical testing at Texas completed with excellent results; financing/joint venture discussions in progress with several companies; discussions in progress with interested parties re possible sale of MACMIN's 100,000t/annum gold plant; mobile plant equipment in Papua New Guinea; and MACMIN's 1-megawatt power station.

http://www.miningandexploration.com.au/ExplorationNews/JantoJun99.html