Xanadu Mines drills 4 metres of 7.34% copper at Red Mountain, Mongolia
Xanadu Mines Ltd. [XAM-TSX, ASX; XANAF-OTC] provided an exploration update for the Red Mountain copper-gold porphyry district, a joint venture with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC). Red Mountain is located within the Dornogovi Province of southern Mongolia, approximately 420 km southeast of Ulaanbaatar and 70 km west of the provincial centre of Sainshand.
Highlights included a 3,000-metre diamond drilling program with targeting focussed on near surface high-grade bornite mineralisation at Stairy and nearby larger-scale porphyry IP targets. Assays returned for 1,865 metres, with silver-rich, high-grade copper results in several drill holes, including hole OUDDH115 that returned 4 metres of 7.34% copper, 29.3 g/t silver from 60 metres, including 1 metre 28.9% copper, 114 g/t silver from 62 metres.
Hole OUDDH119 returned 8 metres of 1.31% copper, 7.00 g/t silver from 94 metres. Hole OUDDH112 returned 4 metres of 1.98% copper and 9.15 g/t silver from 40 metres.
Mineralised zones primarily comprised of massive bornite and bornite, along with trace chalcocite. Structural modelling underway to understand orientation for targeting additional high-grade bornite. Assays pending for remaining 1,135 metres expected within the next two weeks.
Xanadu’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Andrew Stewart, said, “We are very excited to see shallow, high-grade bornite mineralization that is comparable to our Stairy drilling results from earlier this year 1. This confirms the presence of sub-vertical mineralized structures up to 24 metres wide that potentially extend beyond a kilometre. Importantly, our latest geological interpretation suggests these may be linked to a large-scale porphyry system at depth. Red Mountain district, particularly Stairy, continues to improve, laying a strong foundation for future exploration.”
The next stage of Red Mountain exploration will be developed by Xanadu and its partner JOGMEC using results reported in this announcement and assays pending. This follow-up targeting program will be announced in due course.
The Stairy prospect consists of a 1.5km by 1km zone of sheeted mineralised structures hosted within the Stairy Intrusive in central eastern portion of Red Mountain Mining Lease.
Copper mineralisation at Stairy consists of bornite and chalcopyrite sulphide with quartz carbonate fill. Current geological interpretations suggest these sheeted structures may be linked to a large-scale porphyry system at depth.
JOGMEC may earn up to 51% beneficial interest in the project by sole funding up to $US7.2 million in exploration expenditure over 4 years, commencing April 2020.
Red Mountain covers approximately 57 km2 in a frontier terrane with significant mineral endowment, and it has a granted 30-year mining licence.