Exploration Update
31 January 2011
Solomon Gold Plc
("Solomon Gold" or the "Company")
Exploration Update: Strong progress made on Fauro Island, Solomon Islands and Rannes, Queensland Exploration projects
Solomon Gold (AIM Code: SOLG), the gold and copper explorer in Solomon Islands and Australia, is pleased to announce encouraging mineralisation in the first drill hole on its 100% owned Fauro Island Project in Solomon Islands and further encouraging drill assay results on its 100% owned Rannes Project in Queensland.
KEY POINTS
Fauro Island, Solomon Islands (100% Solomon Gold)
· Diamond drilling continues on the Meriguna Prospect.FDDH001, currently at 480m depth down hole entered magnetite bearing potassic alteration and mineralisation at 450m, consistent with the strong magnetic anomalies and porphyry target modelled.
· FDDH001 is also targeting gold rich quartz veining encountered in surface trenches previously announced.
Rannes, Central Queensland Projects (100% Solomon Gold)
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Drilling continues at the Rannes Project, on the Kauffmans, Homestead, Crunchie and Brother Prospects.
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Encouraging assay results have been recorded from Kauffmans and Homestead.
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Kauffmans remains open to the north and at depth where the best intersections have been recorded.
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Bulk style mineralisation in a potential rhyolite dome setting indicated in thick intersections in KAU50, 66m at 0.9g/t gold equivalent from 26m and 38m at 1.6g/t gold equivalent from 134m.
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Crunchie drill hole successful in locating high grade extension to mineralisation, 2m at 5g/t gold and 188g/t silver.
General
· The flooding in Queensland has had a minor impact on drilling at Rannes Project.
· Due to the unseasonal bad weather at Mt Perry, the start-up of drilling has been delayed following the Christmas break. Exploration crews are establishing access.
· A further Guadalcanal update from Solomon Gold due shortly.
Commenting on the recent activity from the Fauro Island and Rannes Projects, Nicholas Mather, Chief Executive of Solomon Gold plc said: "Solomon Gold is pleased to report that drilling at the Fauro Project is confirming the potential for a significant mineralised porphyry body at Meriguna and that encouraging gold assay results continue to be received from drilling at the Rannes Project in central Queensland.
The first diamond drill hole at Fauro which commenced on 23 December 2010 is currently at 480m depth down hole and has passed into mineralisation and potassic alteration. Solomon Gold considers that the drill hole is close to a gold bearing target, which was identified from trenching on surface (previously reported). Solomon Gold is encouraged by the alteration and mineralisation in the hole so far.
Drilling at Kauffmans and Homestead has identified economic ore close to surface. The best result was from KAU50, a vertical hole located near the centre of the known mineralisation. The hole intersects two zones of mineralisation: 66m at 0.9g/t gold equivalent from 26m and 38m at 1.69g/t gold mineralisation from 134m.
Importantly the second deeper intersection is the deepest to date at Kauffmans and was mineralised to within 4m of the end of the hole at 176m, including a high grade zone of 4m from 136m at 10.35g/t gold equivalent. This intersection is believed to be continuous with intersections of high grade mineralisation in nearby holes. Solomon Gold believes the deeper intersections indicate potential for bulk style mineralisation at Kauffmans. Kauffmans now shows mineralisation over a 250m by 80m zone, open to the north and at depth below 176m.
Further drilling at Crunchie continues to increase the size of a potential resource, with high grade extensions to mineralisation to the north and at depth.
Drilling at the Brother Prospect 12km to the south indicates gold mineralisation over an area of 250m strike 30m wide with potential to yield additional resources.
The recent unseasonal heavy rains have had limited impact on the drilling at Rannes, but have caused delays in the drilling at Mount Perry. Drilling at Mount Perry should commence shortly, once access has been re-established." he added.
Fauro Island Project
As previously announced, the first diamond drill hole, FDDH001 commenced on the Meriguna Prospect on the 23 December 2010. This is the first hole of the proposed 9,900m diamond drilling program over the Fauro Island Project area, which is planned to continue throughout 2011.
The hole is currently at 480m depth down hole and has passed through phyllic and propylitic alteration zones and entered magnetite bearing potassic alteration with sulphide mineralisation at 450m, which is consistent with the strong magnetic anomalies and target porphyry modelled. FDDH001 is also targeting gold rich quartz veining encountered in surface trenches announced on 23 December2010. Figures 1, 2 and 3 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, show the mineralisation in the drill core from propylitic zone at 426.9m, 455.5m and 465.8m respectively.
Figure 1, in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows altered massive basalts and altered and mineralised fine grained porphyry style host rocks at 426.9m down hole.
Figure 2 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows monzodiorite porphyry host with initial potassic alteration and sulphide and magnetite contents indicating increasing proximity to a porphyry system at 455.5m down hole.
Figure 3 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows altered porphyry host rocks in the potassic alteration zone at 465.8m down hole.
The increasing magnetite content with increasing sulphide mineralisation down hole, supports the Company's strategy of testing magnetic anomalies on Fauro.
The core drilled so far is transported in batches to the Gizo staging camp where it is currently being logged and photographed, before being split, packed and dispatched via Honiara to Brisbane, Australia for assaying.
From the results so far, Solomon Gold believes that the Project represents a gold rich high level variant of a mineral system similar to the giant copper gold mine on Bougainville in neighbouring Papua New Guinea ("PNG"). Management further believes the Fauro Project's best comparison geologically is with the giant 40Moz Lihir Gold Mine deposit, 560km to the north-west in PNG. Lihir and Fauro show similar mineralogy and geological settings. Management believes the Fauro Project has the potential to host a world class gold deposit with geological similarities to Lihir, overlying a Bougainville style porphyry target.
Rannes Project
The drilling program at Rannes has continued at Kauffmans and Homestead, with limited disruption despite the recent exceptional bad weather experienced in Queensland.
Kauffmans
Figure 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows drill hole locations and sections of the drilling at the Kauffmans Prospect.
Deeper drilling under the best part of Kauffmans, to date, has intercepted a high grade zone, 134m below surface of 4m at 10g/t gold in hole KAU50 within a zone of 38m from 134m to 172m at 1.6g/t gold and 5.2g/t silver. This is to be targeted by a second diamond hole to see whether it is part of a coherent body near holes KAU 6, 8,11, 13, 26, 29, 31, 36 and 54 as indicated in Figure 7 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com. KAU6, 8 and 36 also reported high grade intersections as shown below:
Hole Depth from surface (m) Thickness (m) Grade (g/t gold)
KAU6 50 4 6.35
KAU8 26 4 7.04
KAU36 82 14 3.70
Solomon Gold believes the results to date indicate a rhyolite dome target centred underneath the centre of the mineralised holes drilled to date. The higher gold and silver grades in the lower intersections from 134m to 172m in KAU50 are considered to indicate potential for bulk tonnage styles in a rhyolite dome setting.
Figure 8 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, is a photograph of a piece of strongly mineralised core from the recently drilled diamond drill hole, KAUD1, drilled to 149m showing veined breccia at a depth of 35.3m. KAUD1 was drilled as a core twin to KAU13. KAU13 intersected 86m at 1.74g/t gold equivalent (1.5g/t gold and 15.1g/t silver), from a depth of 2m from surface. Assay results for KAUD1 are awaited.
Table 1, in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, summarises the Kauffmans drill hole results. The prospect has variable strikes and dips, and additional holes are planned to be drilled to further define the deposit shape.
KAUD1 results and the percussion drill hole results to date will be used to complete an initial resource statement for Kauffmans planned by the end of February 2011.
Homestead
Results from Homestead are encouraging although the deposit has a complex shape it appears to be largely coherent and remains open to the north and at depth. Figure 9 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows the recent drill hole location for Homestead. Table 2 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, in the Appendix summarises the Homestead drill hole results.
Crunchie
Only one of the two planned deeper holes (CRU67) was completed at the Crunchie Prospect before Christmas because of access difficulties due to heavy unseasonal rain in the region. This hole was successful in that it indicated a potential for underground resources to the north east. The intersection is 4m at 2.75g/t gold and 106g/t silver (4.41g/t gold equivalent), including 2m at 5.0g/t gold and 188g/t silver (7.94g/t gold equivalent), 118m from surface. Figure 10 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows a section through CRU67 with potential for deeper mineralisation and Figure 11 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows a plan of the Crunchie drill hole locations. Table 3, in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, summaries the Homestead drill hole results.
Brother
The results from the recent drilling at Brother have been received (see Table 4, in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com), and have demonstrated the presence of gold mineralisation over a 250m by 30m wide zone, open to the northeast and southeast. Figure 12 in the Appendix to this announcement in the 'Latest News' section on the website, www.solomongold.com, shows a plan of the Brother drill hole locations.
Current drill programs are focussing on north and deep extensions to Kauffmans, Crunchie, Brother, Shilo, Cracklin Rosie and Homestead.
Mount Perry Project
The bad weather at Mt Perry before and after Christmas has delayed work at the Bania Prospect, with limited drilling completed. Crews are establishing access to the site and drilling should commence shortly. The last hole BAN23 intersected 36m at 0.80g/t gold from 114m and includes 12m at 1.57g/t gold (from 114m).
Drilling is continuing at Bania to the east.
Qualified Person
Information in this report relating to the exploration results is based on data reviewed by Mr Nicholas Mather (B.Sc. Hons Geol.), the Chief Executive Officer 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.
By order of the Board
Karl Schlobohm
Company Secretary
Contacts:
Mr Karl Schlobohm Tel: +61 (0)7 3303 0660
Solomon Gold Plc (Company Secretary)
Mr Ewan Leggat Tel: +44 (0)207 598 5368
Fairfax I.S. PLC (Broker)
Mr Stephen Weir Tel: +61 (0)2 9250 0048
RFC Corporate Finance (Nominated Advisor)
Mr Dominic Barretto Tel: +44 (0)208 980 3545
Yellow Jersey PR (PR & IR)
NOTES TO EDITORS
Solomon Gold Plc's original and core gold exploration projects are located on the Solomon Islands and are the major focus of the Company. The discovery in September 2010 of extensive and rich gold mineralisation on Fauro Island, just south east of Bougainville Island in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, presents Solomon Gold with potential for a world class gold and copper-gold-molybdenum discovery on the south west Pacific Rim of Fire. The region is one of the world's most strongly endowed gold and copper provinces, hosting Grasberg, Lihir, Panguna and Ok Tedi, each with in excess of 40Moz gold equivalent metal endowment. The Company also holds a comprehensive and extensive tenement position on the main island of Guadalcanal where its JV partner, NVL Solomon Islands Limited (a subsidiary of NYSE-listed Newmont Mining Corporation) can earn a 51% interest in the project by expending US$6million by 1 April 2012, and may elect to expend a further US$6million (total US$12million) to earn a further 19% to a total 70% by 1 April 2014. The GJV has outlined high priority gold-copper porphyry targets at Chikora, Mbetilonga, and Kuma.
Solomon Gold has also extended its strategy to include becoming an integrated gold explorer, developer and miner with projects in lower risk theatres as well as the Solomon Islands.
Solomon Gold's projects in Queensland include Rannes, Mt Perry and Normanby. At Rannes, the Company has outlined a 22km long prospective zone in a 200km long trend on the eastern edge of Queensland's Bowen Basin in the same geological setting as Newcrest's 100,000 ounce per year Cracow Gold Mine. This extensive exploration licence position hosts three mineralised projects at Cooper, Rannes Central and Police Camp. The exploration area is believed to host mineral systems which are geologically similar to the Carlin trend in Nevada USA. At Rannes Central, the Company has encountered potentially economic mineralisation in five different prospects targeted to yield at least 1 Moz. A maiden 200,000 ounces has been defined to date at the Crunchie Prospect.
At Mt Perry, the Company is investigating an area of approximately 1,500km2 hosting over 50 historic mines and workings near Newcrest's Mt Rawdon Gold Mine. Mt Perry has yielded potentially economic drill intersections on nine of the ten prospects tested to date.
Solomon Gold's Board includes accomplished professionals with strong track records in the areas of exploration, mine development in Australia and Melanesia, investment, finance and law. Board and Management have significantly vested interests in the Company holding approximately 15.91% of its issued share capital following the proposed placing announced on 22 October 2010.
Solomon Gold is based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Company listed on London's Alternative Investment Market in 2006. Further details concerning the Company's key projects and personnel can be found at www.solomongold.com.
This information is provided by RNS
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