These conferences are always a great for scouting out opportunities. And, as you can image, much of our day-to-day business is conducted either on the internet over the phone. So it's nice to get out of the office once in a while.
Later this week, we will be publishing a short report from PDAC 2008 in Gold World to discuss some of the companies we talked with. So keep your eye on your inbox for that. In the meantime, here's this week's issue of The Drill Rig.
Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG, TSX: G) began a 3,000-meter drill campaign on it's 60%-owned Sidace Lake gold property in Red Lake, Ontario. The new program will focus initially on an area south of the Main Discovery Zone where results from a 2006-2007 drill program returned values as high as 23.00 meters of 24.60 g/t gold. Drilling will then move to target the eastern extension of the Upper Duck Zone where previous results returned assays as high as 3.6 meters of 36.46 g/t gold. Planet Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: PXI) owns the remaining 40% of the 12,439-hectare Sidace Lake property.
IGC Resources Inc. (TSX-V: IGC) commenced a 5,000-meter reverse circulation drill program on it's 100%-owned Blackburn gold project near Perth in southwestern Australia. The Blackburn gold project currently hosts a NI 43-101 complaint: measured resource of 51,300 tonnes grading 5.92 g/t gold (9,800 ounces); indicated resources of 328,900 tonnes grading 1.47 g/t gold (19,900 ounces); and inferred resource of 6,244,600 tonnes grading 1.06 g/t gold (212,200 ounces). The new drill program is intended to follow up on the anomalous gold identified in previous drilling, build the resource inventory, and develop a new resource model.
Yukon Gold Corporation Inc. (TSX: YK, OTC BB: YGDC) signed a contract for 4,000 meters of surface drilling at its 100%-owned Marg property in the central/eastern Yukon Territory. The Marg property has a historic resource estimate (not NI 43-101 complaint) that was calculated in 1997 of 5,527,000 tonnes grading 0.98 g/t gold, 62.7g/t silver, 1.76% copper, 2.46% lead, and 4.60% zinc based on 135 drill intercepts from 76 holes. Drilling at the 8,403-hectare Marg property is expected to be initiated in mid-June. The program will include approximately 2,000 meters of metallurgical drilling and 2,000 meters of exploratory drilling. Metallurgical drilling will be used in planned scoping study while exploration drilling will target the westerly extension of the Marg deposit.
Viking Gold Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: VGC) has kicked off a 12-hole, 2,500-meter drill program at the company's joint-ventured Viking Yellowknife project, owned 60/40 by Viking Gold and Viking Yellowknife Gold Mines, a 78.8%-owned subsidiary of Lakota Resources Inc. (TSX-V: LAK). The new program follows-up two previous drill campaigns successfully carried out by Viking Gold in 2005 (18 holes totaling 2,848.0 meters) and 2007 (13 holes totaling 1,324.4 meters) in and around the Viking Zone, site of the original gold discovery. The joint-venture is hoping to gain enough data to produce a resource estimate in the area.
Freegold Ventures Ltd. (TSX: ITF, OTC BB: FGOVF) will soon break ground with a Phase II 40,000-foot reverse circulation drill campaign on the company's 93%-owned Golden Summit project, near Fairbanks, Alaska. This program will follow-up on the previous Phase I program that drilled 674 shallow, closed spaced vertical holes totaling 40,093 feet. The Phase I program recovered intercepts including 9 feet grading 28.5 g/t gold and 9 feet grading 25.3 g/t gold from the Beistline area. Freegold hopes to further delineate and extend new, open-ended mineralized zones on the 7,500-acre Golden Summit project with the Phase II program.
StrataGold Corp. (TSX: SGV) has signed a contract for 8,500-meters of exploration drilling at its 100%-owned Dublin Gulch property in the Yukon Territory. The Dublin Gulch property currently has an NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource of 66,540,000 tonnes grading 0.916 g/t gold (1,960,000 ounces) and inferred resource of 14,390,000 tonnes grading 0.803 g/t gold (371,000 ounces) at a 0.50 g/t gold cut-off on the Eagle Zone. Drilling is scheduled to commence mid- to late-May 2008 and will focus on defining additional gold resources at the Eagle Zone. Previous drilling confirmed that the Eagle Zone remains open to the east, west, south and at depth.
Constitution Mining Corp. (OTC BB: CMIN) commenced a Phase I exploration drill program on the 14,222-hectare Cerro Amarillo gold-porphyry project in Mendoza, Argentina. Previous core sampling recovered from the property including values ranging up to 0.98 g/t gold, 1.47% copper, and 550 parts per million molybdenum.The program, designed to further identify trench and drill targets, comprises detailed mapping and sampling together with ground magnetic surveying.
Rocmec Mining Inc. (TSX-V: RMI) began a 1,000-meter diamond drill campaign on the 1,700-hectare Puma property in Peru. The Puma property contains 6 narrow vein gold concessions. One of the concessions is currently in operation using small-scale traditional mining methods, producing about 10 tonnes of very high grade ore daily. The new drill program will follow sampling from the Main Vein, which included 15 centimeters of 14.41 g/t gold, and Ramal Vein, which included 12 centimeters of 47.43 g/t gold. Another vein on the Puma property sampled 45 centimeters of 1.66 g/t gold. This campaign constitutes the final phase of the company's due diligence process. The program will take approximately 8 weeks and once completed, will enable Rocmec to produce a NI 43-101 resource calculation report.
Adventure Gold Inc. (TSX-V: AGE) will soon initiate a 3,000-meter drill program on its Beaufor West, Beaufor North, and Lapaska properties in the Val d'Or region of Quebec. The Beaufor West and North properties are located adjacent to the Beaufor Mine, which has produced a total of approximately 1 million ounces of gold from ore grading between 5.0 g/t gold and 10 g/t gold, owned by Richmont Mines Inc. (AMEX: RIC, TSX: RIC). On the Beaufor West property previous drilling intersected 1 meter of 9.4 g/t gold and 1.4 meters of 4.8 g/t gold. On the Beaufor North property, the western border is located approximately 500 meters from the Resenor gold deposit, which has a resource of 181,000 tons grading 8.6 g/t gold. The 333-hecatre Lapaska property covers the past producing gold deposits Sigma II to the east (150,000 ounces from ore grading 2.5 g/t gold: Placer Dome, 1997) and Simkar to the west (50,000 ounces from ore grading 4.5 g/t gold and 8.6 g/t gold: MRNF-Sigeom). Previous drilling at Lapaska intersected 4.7 meters grading 9.4 g/t gold and 2.5 meters grading 6.2 g/t gold. Drilling is anticipated to commence in March 2008. A second drill program of 5,000 meters is also planned in this area for the fall of 2008.
Brigadier Gold Ltd. (TSX-V: BRG) announced its exploration program for 2008. The program will focus on two projects; the Larder Lake project and Matachewan project. Drilling at the Larder Lake project will be concentrated on theM-Island Gold Zone and Albert Kokotow Zone , where 8.3 meters grading 2.79 g/t gold and 32.5 meters grading 0.675 g/t was recovered in 2007. Drilling at Larder Lake is planned to begin around May. On the 780-hectare Matachewan project drilling will follow-up on two diamond drill holes completed by Brigadier in 2004: hole CD04-11, which intersected 13.0 meters grading 1.75 g/t gold and hole CD04-12, which cut 7.5 meters grading 1.24 g/t gold.
Temex Resources Corp. (TSX-V: TME) has begun a Phase II 2,000 meter diamond drill program on its 5,520-acre Juby gold project in northeastern Ontario, which is subject to the terms of a 60:40 joint venture agreement with Goldeye Explorations Ltd. (TSX-V: GGY). The Juby Main Zone currently has an indicated resource of 8.61 million tonnes grading 1.73 g/t gold (479,000 ounces of gold) and an inferred resource of 3.51 million tonnes grading1.65 g/t gold (186,000 ounces of gold) at a 1.00 g/t cutoff. The program is testing the strike and depth extensions of several new gold zones discovered in the previous two drill programs, as well as several new, untested IP and soil geochemical anomalies. The drill campaign completed in October 2007 yielded the highest grade gold intersection discovered to date on the property, 2.15 meters of 15.0 g/t gold including 0.94 meters grading 33.74 g/t gold. The drill program will also test for the depth extension of gold mineralization intersected by the partners in several holes on a gold zone located on the main gold bearing structure in the area known as the Tyrrell Structural Zone. To date, this zone has been tested over a 50 meter strike length and to a vertical depth of 120 meters where it remains open at depth. Previous results include: hole JU 07-92 intersected 3.23 g/t gold over 9.37 meters; hole JU 07-93 intersected 3.31 g/t gold over 6.76 meters including 7.46 g/t gold over 2.52 meters; hole JU 04-57 intersected 4.77 g/t gold over 4.91 meters within a broader gold bearing zone that averaged 1.19 g/t gold over a core length of 29.53 meters.
Andina Minerals Inc. (TSX-V: ADM)
Volcan Gold project, Chile
| Drilhole ID Number | Intersection | Gold Grade | Comments |
| DOA-697 | 863 meters | 0.64 g/t | amazingly wide intercept |
| including | 254 meters | 1.19 g/t | n/a |
Gold Belt Resources Ltd. (TSX: GLD)
Kari Nord license, Burkina Faso
| Drilhole ID Number | Intersection | Gold Grade | Comments |
| KNRC014 | 47 meters | 6.05 g/t | n/a |
| including | 23 meters | 10.51 g/t | n/a |
Merit Mining Corp. (TSX-V: MEM)
Golden Crown, Canada
| Drilhole ID Number | Intersection | Gold Grade | Comments |
| GCD07-03 | 61.0 meters | 50.62 g/t | also included 0.84% Cu |
Entrée Gold Inc. (TSX: ETG, AMEX: EGI) and Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX: IVN, NYSE: IVN)
Javhlant licence, Mongolia
| Drilhole ID Number | Intersection | Gold Grade | Comments |
| EDJ008A | 622.0 meters | 0.59 g/t | also included 0.34% Cu and 102 ppm Mo |
| EDJ0024 | 362.0 meters | 1.59 g/t | also included 0.41% Cu and 40 ppm Mo |
| EDJ0027 | 528 meters | 0.49 g/t | also incleded 0.64% Cu and 218 ppm Mo |
Lihir Gold Ltd. (NASDAQ: LIHR, TSX: LGG, ASX: LGL)
Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea
| Drilhole ID Number | Intersection | Gold Grade | Comments |
| DDHL1512 | 86 meters | 3.96 g/t | n/a |
| DDHL1509 | 210 meters | 3.40 g/t | one of the best holes of the week |
| DDHL1507 | 101 meters | 2.99 g/t | n/a |
| DDHL1504 | 94 meters | 3.02 g/t | n/a |
| DDHL1510 | 186 meters | 2.84 g/t | n/a |
| DDHL1508 | 138 meters | 2.60 g/t | n/a |
Did we miss a new exploration program or set of drill results that you think are noteworthy? Tell us by making a comment below.
There were some very promising drilling results from the Masbate Gold Project in the Philippines,which enhances this new developement due to come on stream early next year.
Thank You,
Leonard
Subscriber
not carried by yourselves
thanks