Wednesday, September 9, 2009

HIGH GRADE NICKEL INTERSECTIONS HIGHLIGHT NEW POTENTIAL AT CARNILYA HILL


Intersections including 1.4 metres at 5.6% nickel 320 metres beyond Resource Boundary
Australian nickel mining company Mincor Resources NL (ASX: MCR) has upgraded the potential of its operating Carnilya Hill mine, today announcing high-grade nickel sulphide intersections some 320 metres beyond the end of the current mineral resource.
The new results are part of a still-ongoing and carefully planned series of drill traverses targeting the down-plunge potential at Carnilya Hill – and is itself the result of Mincor’s post-March ramp-up in exploration, which has already led to the discovery of the high-grade N10 ore body at the Company’s Mariners Mine.
Surface diamond hole CMD38 was planned as the parent hole to a number of wedges intended to define a complete section across the interpreted westward extension of the Carnilya Hill ore system. This approach was necessitated by the great degree of uncertainty as to the location of the ore system, due to its apparent disruption by a fault structure not far beyond the boundary of the current mineral resource.
CMD38 intersected a weakly mineralised basal contact some 137 metres along plunge from an earlier Mincor drill hole (CMD26: 3.11 metres @ 3.66% nickel). However, a down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) survey indicated an anomaly in the down-dip direction. A wedge off the parent hole was aimed at this anomaly and intersected high-grade mineralisation:
CMD38W1: 1.44 metres @ 5.58% nickel (true width estimate 1.35 metres); from 744.53 metres down-hole The intersection is hosted within a wedge of sheared ultramafics in the footwall basalt, some 23 metres down-dip of the parent hole. The mineralisation is likely to represent remobilised sulphides and comprises stringer and semi-massive nickel sulphides, with an ore tenor of up to 16.4% nickel.
A new DHEM survey in the wedge hole identified a significant conductor centred down-dip and east of the intersection. A second wedge off the parent hole was completed, targeting this new DHEM anomaly, and produced another high-grade intersection approximately 17 metres down-dip of the intersection in CMD38W1: CMD38W2: 1.09 metres @ 5.90% nickel (true width estimate 1.02 metres); from 748.38 metres down-hole A DHEM survey of the the second wedge has identified a further significant conductor centred down-dip and east of the intersection, and possibly extending back towards the mineralisation intersected in the earlier CMD26.
The information obtained from this drilling so far supports an interpreted flattening dip of the stratigraphy at Carnilya Hill, to an estimated 15 degrees in the current drill area. As a result these intersections are best shown in plan view, as per the attached diagram. As can be seen, there is marked step to the south in the interpreted location of the ore system.

“This is an early and welcome indication that there may be substantially more nickel to be had at
Carnilya Hill”, said managing director David Moore, “while we cannot build too much based on these intersections alone, it is a certain indication that the mineralised system remains active a long way beyond our current mineral resource”.
Mincor has now commenced a second drill-section, targeting the ore system a further 120 metres west of the intersections reported above.

Carnilya Hill is operated as a joint venture between Mincor and View Resources Ltd. Mincor holds a 70% interest in the joint venture, and is the operator.

Mincor is a leading Australian nickel producer. The Company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and forms part of the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index. Mincor operates two mining centres in the world class Kambalda Nickel District of Western Australia, and has been in successful production since 2001.

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