08:39 AEST Sept 19, 2011 ABN Newswire (C) 2004-2011 Asia Business News PL. All Rights Reserved.
Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Aspire Mining Limited (ASX:AKM) is pleased to announce it has identified a new coal seam formation, located around four kilometers from the resource area at the Company's Ovoot Coking Coal Project ('Ovoot') in Northern Mongolia.
Four drilling rigs are currently underway to determine the resource potential of the area.
Aspire has completed 5,000 metres of exploration drilling as part of its 2011 program, in addition to infill, geotechnical and hydrological drilling. A further 5,000 metres of exploration drilling is expected by the end of calendar year 2011.
Aspire Managing Director David Paull said: 'The exploration team has now intersected coal in three holes approximately four kilometres to the north east of the existing resource area. The coal was logged as hard, bright or sugary coal and we now need to understand the extent of this coal seam.'
'We have pre-collared a number of the holes to start core drilling to get coal quality data and determine the extent and orientation of the mineralisation. This will indicate whether the coal shallows and thickens as we head further south towards the resource area.' Mr Paull said.
Results from the three holes - which are 1.7 kilometres apart - are as follows,
- DH276: total of 2.8m of coal from 261 metres
- DH283: total of 3.1m of coal from 366 metres
- DH291: total of 3.1m of coal from 338 metres
Hole DH291 has yet to be completed into basement and is presently in a potential coal bearing sequence.
Also note that hole DH244 in Figure 1 (see link at the bottom of the release), which was completed at the end of the 2010 exploration program, intersected three metres of coal from 240 metres. This hole has yet to be followed up.
Aspire's exploration strategy is to target mapped Jurassic age sediments where the depth of potential coal is relatively shallow and to trace the base of the Jurassic sediments into deeper sections of the basin where thicker coal accumulations are expected.
A magnetics program is planned to determine the structure and shape of the Ovoot Basin and to aid in the identification of possible shallower coal seams.
David Paull said: 'With this view of the coal being closer to the base of the Jurassic sediments, it is now evident that potential coal is still open to the north east and east of the existing resource area. We are currently exploring this area as part of the extensions to the Ovoot Resource area and to further determine the potential resource'.
'Currently four drilling rigs from two drilling companies are on site at Ovoot with a fifth large capacity rig expected later in October. It is expected that all rigs will be available to continue drilling through the winter.' he said.
A larger Coretech 1800 rig has recently arrived on site, and the holes required to be deepend can now be completed to test for the potential coal seam extensions. A change to the fleet of drill rigs at site is also being made for added flexibility in exploration drilling.
Geophysics
During 2010, the Company proceeded with a comprehensive seismic program to help determine the Ovoot Basin structure. Interpretations of this data suffered from excessive 'noise' from seasonal wind gusts causing vibration as well as the large amount of alluvial cover which led to difficulty in accurately resolving coal seams and faulting.
Consequently, Aspire will commence a close spaced magnetics program as a supplement to the existing seismic data and to help guide interpretations. Ground versus airborne options are currently being considered to address the whole Ovoot Basin, which will provide Aspire with an effective exploration targeting tool going forward.
For the complete Aspire Mining Limited announcement including figures, please view
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-AKM-557587.pdf
About Aspire Mining Limited:
Aspire Mining Limited (ASX:AKM) owns 100% of the Ovoot Coking Coal Project in northern Mongolia which, in 2010, announced a maiden 330 million tonne resource (93.3mt Measured, 182.4mt Indicated, and 55.0mt Inferred). Aspire is currently targeting resource upgrades at Ovoot, as well as progressing development of key infrastructure including access to rail.
Source:
Aspire Mining Limited
Contact:
David Paull
Managing Director
Aspire Mining Limited
Tel: +61-8-9381-1995
