Asia Gold fights Gobi ninjas; prepares for drilling
2006-02-16 09:29 ET - News Release
Mr. David Owens reports
ASIA GOLD TO DRILL TEST HIGH-GRADE GOLD VEINS AT NARAN BULAG, MONGOLIA; 'NINJA' SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINERS CLOSED DOWN
Asia Gold Corp.'s first drilling program to test the Naran Bulag high-grade gold quartz vein system is scheduled to begin in March. The Naran Bulag exploration licence is owned 100 per cent by Asia Gold. The veins were discovered by Asia Gold in August, 2005, and a seven-kilometre trenching and rock-channel sampling program was completed in November, 2005 (see news release in Stockwatch dated Jan. 23, 2006).
Naran Bulag is in the Gobi region of southern Mongolia, approximately 350 kilometres west of Ivanhoe Mines' giant Oyu Tolgoi porphyry copper-gold deposit and 60 kilometres southwest of Asia Gold's Khongor porphyry copper-gold discovery.
The first stage Naran Bulag drilling program will include approximately 2,500 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 1,000 metres of core drilling to test high-grade gold that was previously sampled at surface in the A-C, B and D quartz veins. A Universal 650 drill operated by Major Drilling will be used for both the RC and core drilling. A close-spaced RC drill hole grid pattern and an RC hole diameter of 133 millimetres will be used to optimize the sampling of the coarse-grained gold in the quartz veins downdip of the surface outcrop. Diamond drill holes will test for structural continuity and tonnage potential of the vein system.
Asia Gold also will continue exploration of two new veins discovered during the trenching program on the main veins in October, 2005, and November, 2005. Three representative three-kilogram rock grab samples from the South vein, located about 500 metres south of veins A-C and D, have assayed 20.0 grams per tonne (g/t), 6.5 g/t and 1.2 g/t gold. The White Hill vein, located about two kilometres west-northwest of the main Naran Bulag vein system, contains visible gold and two one-metre rock chip samples across the vein graded 5.2 g/t gold and 6.9 g/t gold.
Ninja gold miners
The discovery announcement of gold veins at Naran Bulag attracted unauthorized artisanal mining activity from small-scale ninja gold miners. Up to 400 ninjas were reported to be mining the B and C veins following the temporary winter shutdown of Asia Gold's exploration program in November, 2005.
Acting on the advice of local, provincial and state government officials, and with the support of the local police in Noyon soum and West Gobi province, Asia Gold has now established a full-time presence at Naran Bulag to discourage this artisanal mining activity which is unregulated and often carried out in unsafe and environmentally unfriendly conditions. Ninja mining activity has now ceased on the main Naran Bulag gold veins and there is no impediment to the resumption of exploration by Asia Gold in March.
It has been reported that a number of the ninjas that were active on the main Naran Bulag veins have moved on to a quartz vein system about five kilometres to the northeast on ground held by Asia Gold. This discovery will be explored in further in March. Should Asia Gold be successful in establishing conventional mining operations at Naran Bulag, training and employment opportunities will be made available within a local community that has clearly demonstrated an affinity for mining.
Sampling and analytical procedures
All rock samples were prepared and analyzed by SGS Mongolia LLC of Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. Samples were crushed and totally pulverized to 90 per cent passing 75 microns and all preparation equipment was flushed by barren material after each sample was processed. Gold was determined by AAS following assay of a 30-gram charge. Samples that reported over 13,300 parts per billion (ppb) gold were reassayed by the same method but using different calibration ranges.
Asia Gold conducts a quality assurance-quality control (QA-QC) program that is independent from the analytical laboratory by inserting blind standards, blanks and duplicate samples into all batches of samples for analysis. SGS Mongolia operates an ISO accredited laboratory and is an international subsidiary of SGS SA.
David C. Owens, president, and Richard Gosse, vice-president exploration, both qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.
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