Cue Diamond Project - Update

RNS Number : 9448Z

Sunrise Resources Plc

13 February 2014

 



                                                                                SUNRISE RESOURCES PLC 

13 February 2014

CUE DIAMOND PROJECT - UPDATE

Sunrise Resources plc, the AIM traded diversified minerals exploration and development company,  is pleased to announce the start of its 2014 exploration programme at the Cue Diamond Project in Western Australia.

Key Points:

·           Preparatory ground geophysical programme completed in December 2013.

·           Aboriginal Heritage Survey to start this month.

·           Drill testing provisionally scheduled for March 2014 with 4 separate areas targeted.

·           Targets include:

Ø  Target 5 where 280 diamonds were recovered from 251kg of surface float in 2013.

Ø  Diamondiferous Soapy Bore kimberlites.

The Company is pleased to announce that it has recently received work programme approval from the Department of Mines & Petroleum of Western Australia for a drill programme to test various diamond targets at the Cue Diamond Project in Western Australia.

The Company has this week also signed a contract for an Aboriginal Heritage Survey in order to access various drill targets in the licence area. The heritage survey is expected to start on or around 26^th February. Drilling is planned to start in March.

Commenting today, Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham said: "2013 was a very quiet year for the Company as we sought to preserve funds in a very difficult market environment. With the outlook improved for 2014, I am pleased to report that we are now moving forward with our exploration programmes and anticipate a much higher level of project activity in 2014, both in Australia and elsewhere, with a number of new project acquisitions in the pipeline. We look forward to keeping shareholders updated as we progress."

Further information:

Sunrise Resources plc Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman	Tel:	[phone]
Northland Capital Partners Limited Gavin Burnell/Edward Hutton Alice Lane/Mark Simpson (Broking)	Tel:	[phone]
Yellow Jersey PR Limited Dominic Barretto/Kelsey Traynor	Tel:	[phone]

PROJECT UPDATE - CUE DIAMOND PROJECT

The 100% owned Cue Diamond Project is located in the Murchison Mining District 80km northwest of the town of Cue in Western Australia. The area was explored in the 1990s by De Beers who located kimberlites in two areas within the Company's licence area just prior to a decision to quit all diamond exploration in Australia. The two known in-situ kimberlite occurrences are at Cue1 and Soapy Bore  

To date, exploration by Sunrise, including drilling of the Cue 1 kimberlite, has confirmed the high diamond prospectivity of the licence area and resulted in the discovery of new occurrences of diamondiferous kimberlite on surface as well as defining several other targets for follow up.

During December 2013 the Company carried out a programme of ground magnetic surveying in a number of separate areas in order to enhance drill targeting.

Following the completion of the Aboriginal Heritage Survey later this month, and assuming no further impediments to drilling are found by the survey and provided that sufficient funds are available, drilling is planned to start in March in the following areas:

Target 5

Target 5 is an area of kimberlite float which was sampled in 2013. Two samples totalling 251kg yielded 280 diamonds and grade modelling of the stone size distribution has suggested commercial potential (see news release dated 30 September 2013). The quality of the diamonds recovered was high; 71% were white or colourless and 98% were transparent.

Target 5 was the main focus of the ground geophysical programme carried out in December 2013 and a number of drill traverses are planned to test for the in-situ source of the kimberlite float which is considered to be local.

This target area was cleared in a previous Aboriginal Heritage Survey and so drilling is not contingent on the results of the new survey.

Area 1a

Area 1a is located in the central part of the licence and within an area where De Beers located numerous stream sediment and soil samples containing kimberlitic indicator minerals. Within the catchment of these anomalous samples an airborne geophysical survey located a circular electromagnetic anomaly which DeBeers targeted as a possible weathered kimberlite.

De Beers attempted a drill hole to test this target but the drill became stuck and the hole was abandoned in a swelling clay zone. Kimberlite indicator minerals were recovered by De Beers from this hole.

Sunrise will retest this anomaly and attempt to drill deeper to provide a more comprehensive test of this anomaly.

The Area 1a was also cleared for drilling in a previous heritage survey.

Area 6

Area 6 is located 1.6km southeast of Area 1a and covers a northwest trending aeromagnetic anomaly 2.5km along strike from the northwest trending Cue1 kimberlite.

The Area 6 anomaly was ground located during the Company's December 2013 magnetic survey and will be tested by a traverse of drill holes subject to obtaining Aboriginal heritage clearance.

Soapy Bore

The Soapy Bore kimberlite swarm is a prime target for further exploration.

A limited number of holes were drilled by De Beers and three close-spaced kimberlite dykes were discovered. De Beers reported the recovery of 13 diamonds weighing 0.0037 carats from a 64 kilo drill sample. This is a good result from a small sample but important size distribution data was not reported.

Sunrise Resources included the Soapy Bore area in a previous heritage survey. A number of Aboriginal artefacts were discovered but the survey was not completed due to time and cost constraints.

The new planned heritage survey at Soapy Bore will look to clear only specific drill traverses in order that drilling can collect further kimberlite samples for diamond extraction and evaluation.

The Company is currently obtaining drill quotes with a plan to start drilling in March. A further announcement will be made once the heritage survey is completed and a start date for drilling is fixed.

A map showing the location of the various drill target areas for the Cue Diamond Project will shortly be available on the company's website at http://www.sunriseresourcesplc.com/projects/cue-diamond-project

About Sunrise Resources plc

Sunrise Resources plc is a diversified mineral exploration and development company.

The Company has diamond exploration interests in Western Australia and Finland and is evaluating a production opportunity for white barite in South-West Ireland.

The Company holds applications for two gold exploration projects in Western Australia and has an active project programme to generate new exploration projects.

Shares in the Company trade on AIM. EPIC: "SRES"   www.sunriseresourcesplc.com

 

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