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Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. announced that it has completed its first phase of the exploration program at the Company’s Steenkampskraal rare earth property in South Africa.
These investigations have two primary goals; firstly, to provide information in support of a fully compliant National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate report and secondly, to focus on a possible expansion of the resource at Steenkampskraal through testing the down-dip extension of the main structure. The program included 39 diamond drillholes totaling 3,780 meters. This included 17 holes for resource delineation (1,932 meters) and 22 holes dedicated to metallurgical sampling (1,848 meters). Within the resource evaluation component of the drill program, 17 HQ drillholes were completed. Four holes did not intercept obvious mineralization, likely due to the pinch and swell of the vein system. 125 of 143 samples of monazite and mineralized host rock have been shipped to SGS Lakefield in Canada for assay. Additionally, 133 of 173 underground channel samples of monazite and mineralized host rock collected from throughout the three levels of the mine, undertaken as a verification of Anglo American’s work prior to the mine closure with the same survey control points, have been sent to SGS for assay. 353 representative samples collected from throughout the historical tailings dams and 78 representative samples from throughout the historical lower grade rock dumps were also shipped to SGS for assay. Within the metallurgical mini-bulk sampling component of the program, 22 HQ drillholes were completed in 2011 providing 172 kilograms of monazite. An additional 534 kilograms of monazite were recently collected from underground in-situ mineralization through channel sampling in the historic mine workings. The combined 706 kilograms of representative material was shipped to Mintek of Johannesburg, South Africa for metallurgical characterization as of today. As well, 350 kilograms of representative vein ore and host rock that was collected from underground sites will be shipped to Mintek today for XRF recognition trials. Previously, 2,087 kilograms of tailings dam and rock dump material had been sent to Mintek for metallurgical characterization in November 2011. |
