High Grade Gold in Trenching at Echbara, Chad

RNS Number : 3355V

IronRidge Resources Limited

02 November 2017

 

2 November 2017

Echbara Project Trenching and Soil Sample Results

Multiple Gold Intersections in Trenching

Soil Anomalies Defined, Chad, Central Africa

IronRidge Resources Limited (AIM: IRR, 'IronRidge' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce that trenching and soil sampling results have been received for the Echbara Project in Chad, Central Africa.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Ø Multiple gold intersections^* returned in 'fresh rock' trenches, including:

o  12m @ 2.71g/t gold

o  12m @ 0.94g/t gold

o  22m @ 0.74g/t gold

o  52m @ 0.35g/t gold

Ø 500m strike length of >15 gram metre (grade x interval) intersections with up to 1.2km strike length of 10 - 15 gram metre intersections in trenching.

Ø Multiple gold in-soil sampling anomalies identified including a 4km x 2km gold anomalous zone along strike from Echbara; highlighting additional exploration upside.

Ø Additional coincident tellurium, antimony, tin, arsenic and cadmium anomalies in multi-element geochemistry.

^*0.2 g/t gold cut-off with maximum 2m of internal waste

Commenting on the Company's latest progress, Len Kolff, IronRidge Chief Geologist said:

"These first pass trenching results over significant widths within the Echbara target demonstrate good continuity over a 1.2km strike length with a higher-grade core zone over 500m strike and up to 2.71g/t gold.

"The Echbara mineralisation is now well constrained within trenching for future work programmes. Further exploration upside is evident in regional soil sampling where multiple and significant gold anomalies have been defined, including a 4km x 500m anomalous zone along strike from Echbara.

"The 100% owned Echbara prospect is only 25km from the Company's 100% owned Dorothe prospect, providing good operational synergies during exploration work and potentially beyond. The Company is finalising field programmes for the pending dry season and we look forward to providing the market with updates, once the new season field activities have commenced."

Reference to figures and tables relate to the version of this release on the Company's website (www.ironridgeresources.com.au) or visible in PDF format by clicking the link below:

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/3355V_-2017-11-2.pdf

Echbara Trenching Results

A total of 5,448m of trenching was completed at the Echbara target utilising a track mounted 30 tonne excavator for a total of 9 trenches.  The trenching programme was primarily designed to assess the extent and surface grade of the 2km long >100parts per billion ("ppb") soil anomaly, as well as to understand potential controls on mineralisation therein.  Trench samples were collected on 2m intervals as a cut channel into the trench wall or floor and submitted for gold analysis at ALS laboratories by fire assay.

The Echbara license is located within 25km of the Dorothe license and is prospective for gold and potential intrusion related gold style mineralisation.

Trenching intersected multiple anomalous gold intervals at a 0.2g/t gold cut-off and maximum 2m of continuous internal waste in 'fresh rock', including narrower high-grade intervals (12m @ 2.71g/t gold) and broader lower grade intervals (50m @ 0.35g/t gold).

Trenching defined anomalous gold mineralisation at greater than 10 gram metres (which is calculated as grade x interval width) over a 1.2km strike and average 20m width; broadly coincident with the >100ppb gold soil anomaly defined by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) during the 1990's.

Within this broader mineralised zone, a higher-grade core over 500m strike at greater than 15 gram metres occurs with an individual trench intersection of 12m @ 2.71g/t gold; broadly coincident with the UNDP >300ppb soil anomaly contour.    

All trench intersections are reported in Table 1.   

Echbara Soil Sampling Results

The Echbara soil sampling programme was designed to test the majority of the 200km² Echbara license at approximately 800m to 400m x 50m sample spacing.  Samples were submitted for gold analysis by fire assay and multi-element geochemical analysis at ALS laboratories.  Three additional anomalous gold zones have been identified within wide spaced soil sampling lines at the Echbara license:

·      Approximately 4km long by 2km wide 5 to 130ppb anomalous gold zone with weakly coincident tellurium and antimony geochemistry in 800m spaced sample lines to the north-east of Echbara.

·      Narrow 2.5km long 20-85ppb gold anomaly with coincident arsenic-cadmium anomaly over a 5km x 1km area.

·      Approximately 5km x 1km anomalous 5-85ppb gold zone with weakly coincident barium, cadmium and tin anomalism.

Next Steps

The Company is finalising field programmes for the pending dry season. Field teams have already mobilised to Country in preparation for field activities commencing. Field programmes will focus on infill and extensional trenching at the Dorothe prospect, detailed structural mapping at the Dorothe and Am Ouchar prospects and soil sampling and mapping over the Dorothe and Echbara licenses.

Infill soil sampling and mapping will be completed along selected target areas defined in soils at Echbara to date as well as broader infill sampling along the south-east margin of the Echbara license.

The Board is very pleased with the progress that the Company has made in 2017 and looks forward to keeping shareholders updated as further news becomes available.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For any further information please contact:

IronRidge Resources Limited
Vincent Mascolo (Chief Executive Officer)	Tel: [phone]
Nicholas Mather (Executive Chairman)	Tel: [phone]
SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP	Tel: [phone]
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Jeff Keating Charlie Bouverat Yellow Jersey PR Limited Charles Goodwin Harriet Jackson	Tel: [phone]

Competent Person Statement:

Information in this report relating to the exploration results is based on data reviewed by Mr Nicholas Mather (B.Sc. Hons Geol.), the Executive Chairman of the Company.  Mr Mather is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy who has in excess of 25 years' experience in mineral exploration and is a Qualified Person under the AIM Rules.  Mr Mather consents to the inclusion of the information in the form and context in which it appears.

Notes to Editors:

IronRidge Resources is an AIM listed mineral exploration company with frontier assets in both Australia and West Africa, with two province scale projects in Gabon, and promising and advanced titanium and bauxite projects in Queensland Australia.  IronRidge's corporate strategy is to create and sustain shareholder value through the discovery of world-class and globally demanded commodities.

Australia

Monogorilby is prospective for province scale titanium and bauxite with an initial maiden resource of 54.9MT of premium DSO bauxite Monogorilby is located in central Queensland, within a short trucking distance of the rail system leading north to the Port of Bundaberg.  It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

May Queen is located in Central Queensland within IRRs wholly owned Monogorilby license package and is highly prospective for gold.  Historic drilling completed during the 1980s intersected multiple high-grade gold intervals including 2m @ 73.4 g/t Au (including 1m at 145g/t), 4m @ 38.8g/t Au (at end of hole) and 3m @ 18.9g/t Au, over an approximate 100m strike hosting numerous parallel vein systems, open to the north-west and south-east.

Wholly owned Quaggy contains highly anomalous platinum, palladium, nickel, cobalt and copper exploration targets and is located in Central Queensland within a short trucking distance of the dormant rail system to the Port of Bundaberg.  It is also located within close proximity of the active Queensland Rail network heading south towards the Port of Brisbane.

Gabon

Tchibanga is located in south-western Gabon, in the Nyanga Province, within 10-60km of the Atlantic coastline.  This project comprises two exploration licenses, Tchibanga and Tchibanga Nord, which cover a combined area of 3,396km² and include over 90km of prospective lithologies and the historic Mont Pele iron occurrence.

Belinga Sud is Located in the north east of Gabon in the Ogooue-Ivindo Province, approximately 400km east of the capital city of Libreville.  IRR's licence lies between the main Belinga Iron Ore Deposit, believed to be one of the world's largest untapped reserves of iron ore with an estimated 1bt of iron ore at a grade >60% Fe, and the route of the Trans Gabonese railway, which currently carries manganese ore and timber from Franceville to the Port of Owendo in Libreville.

Chad

The Company entered into an agreement with Tekton Minerals Pte Ltd of Singapore concerning its portfolio covering 1,000km² of highly prospective gold and other mineral projects in Chad, Central Africa.  IronRidge acquired 100% of Tekton including its projects and team to advance the Dorothe, Echbara, Am Ouchar, Nabagay and Ade licenses, which host multiple, large scale gold projects. Initial trenching results at Dorothe, including 14.12g/t Au over 4m, 34.1g/t over 2m and 63.2g/t over 1m, have defined significant gold mineralised quartz veining over a confirmed 1km strike at an average of 2m and up to 5m true width across multiple stacked vein zones over a 250m wide zone with new hard-rock artisanal workings potentially extending strike to >3km.

Ghana

The Company entered into conditional joint venture arrangements with Obotan Minerals Limited, Merlink Resources Limited and Barari Developments Limited of Ghana, West Africa, securing the first access rights to acquire the historical Egyasimanku Hill spodumene rich lithium resource, estimated to be in the order of 1.48Mt at 1.67% Li₂O and surrounding tenements.  

The portfolio covers some 314km² with a further identified 20km strike of pegmatite vein swarms, tenure package is also highly prospective for tin, tantalum, niobium and gold which occur as accessory minerals within the pegmatites and host formations.

Ivory Coast

The Company entered into conditional joint venture arrangements in Ivory Coast, West Africa; securing access rights to highly prospective gold mineralised structures and pegmatite occurrences covering a combined 3,110km² and 400km² area respectively.  The projects are well located within access of an extensive bitumen road network and along strike from multi-million ounce gold projects and mines.

Corporate

IronRidge made its AIM debut in February 2015, successfully securing strategic alliances with three international companies; Assore Limited of South Africa, Sumitomo Corporation of Japan and DGR Global Limited of Australia.  Assore is a high- grade iron, chrome and manganese mining specialist.  Sumitomo Corporation is a global resources, mining marketing and trading conglomerate.  DGR Global is a project generation and exploration specialist.

 

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