EL 1614 – Garaina

The Garaina tenement (EL1614) is 110km southeast of Lae and 50km southeast of Wau Town. 

Garaina tenement showing prospect locations and existing access routes

PNL discovered significant outcropping surface mineralisation at the Kusi Prospect in January 2011. Since that time, PNL has rapidly advanced field activities with initial drilling programs now underway.

Importantly, the Kusi deposit is well located in terms of future intensive exploration, and mining logistics. A road already exists between Wau Town and Kasangari, which is only 3 kilometres from Kusi. While the road is not currently in service, works to bring the road back to a trafficable condition are relatively minor, and are planned to be undertaken upon receival of positive drilling results, in order to facilitate exploration logistics and to reduce operating costs by removing the need for helicopter support. Further, large areas of flat land exist in the Garaina Valley, approximately 12 kilometres east of Kusi. There is currently an operating airstrip in the area being used for transport of personnel, and consumables where possible. This large expanse of flat land will provide the ideal platform for mine infrastructure in the event that the deposit is developed.

Initial field campaigns have identified mineralisation and alteration signatures similar to those seen at the Kusi Prospect as far north as the Sim Prospect. While the immediate focus is on better defining mineralisation at Kusi, regional teams continue grass roots exploration work to further expand the currently defined mineralised envelope.

Kusi Gold/Silver Prospect

The prospect is defined by a highly anomalous polymetallic anomaly.  Elevated gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc results exist in outcrop, coincidential with distinct magnetic anomalies in broad scale airborne and closer spaced ground geophysical surveys.  PNR believes these are typical of those often seen with large scale porphyry copper/gold and epithermal gold/silver deposits.

Detailed costean sampling and ground mapping suggests that the gold and base metal mineralisation at Kusi prospect is structurally controlled.  Mineralisation appears within structurally bounded stock work and schistosity parallel sheeted quartz-pyrite-carbonate-base metal veins. Endoskarn mineralisation is also widespread occurring in discrete lenses. Surface geological mapping, and ground magnetic surveys have confirmed mineralisation over an area of approximately 2 km by 0.8 km with ongoing results demonstrating that mineralisation continues to the north for a currently unknown distance.  PNR believes that the mineralisation is consistent with a large scale epithermal gold-silver system with similarity to the nearby Hidden Valley-Hamata systems.

The better runs of continuous assay results from manual costean sampling since discovery include:

Table Showing significant trench results since discovery

Epithermal Gold/Silver mineralisation at Kusi remains open in all directions. First pass 200m-spaced ground based magnetic traverses completed during the quarter identified the intense magnetic high (also evident from wide-spaced areomagnetics) and an intensive zone of magnetic destruction (magnetic low) which appears to coincide with the epithermal style mineralisation which has been identified to date at Kusi.

Further to the magnetic lows identified, a circular magnetic high feature was identified in the southern portion of the prospect area and continuous rock chip sampling of outcropping veins in this zone returned impressive gold and copper values.

Magnetic Intensity diagram completed using ground based magnetic surveys at Kusi.

All four samples were continuous rock chip samples taken over  a 1 metre interval.

•   SN 15152:    1m @ 36.7 g/t Au, 22.4 g/t Ag, 3.04 % Cu & 10.1 % Zn

•   SN: 15150:   1m @ 19.1 g/t Au, 19.7 g/t Ag, 3.92 % Cu & 1.95 % Zn

•   SN 15149:    1m @ 11.9 g/t Au, 15 g/t Ag, 1.3 % Cu & 9.75 % Zn

•   SN 15151:    1m @ 3.75 g/t Au, 0.84 % Cu & 4.07 % Zn

Continuous advancement of the Kusi program will be the prime exploration focus for the company in the ensuing period. PNM is very excited by both the geological observations, and early assay results from the Garaina prospect, and rapid advancement of this prospect will remain the primary exploration focus for the company for the foreseeable future.

 

Trench sampling at the Kusi Prospect

Completed trench at Kusi

                                      
                                     Field Office at Kusi