PMI announces good Ghana drill results

Canadian miner PMI Ventures has announced further encouraging results from its second drill programme on the package of exploration concessions and applications which comprise its Ashanti II Gold Project, located along a 50 km length of the axis of the Asankrangwa Gold Belt, in southwestern Ghana.

Nine drill holes, totalling 931 m, have been completed in the programme.

All nine drill holes are located in the Fromenda Grid 'B' area, in the northeast part of the exploration area, where four holes were previously completed in the initial drill programme conducted in May.

Drill holes 03FBDDH 5 and 6 were drilled on section 21+00N; hole 7 on section 21+25N; and holes 8 and 9 on section 21+50N.

Drill hole 10 was drilled 300 m to the southwest on section 18+00N, and drill holes 03FBDDH11, 12 and 13 were drilled 25 m under, 25 m northeast, and 25 m southwest, respectively, of an earlier drill hole completed in 1997 that returned 17 g/t gold, over a two metre intercept on section 17+00N.

Holes 03FBDDH 6 and 10 intersected the shear structure, but did not have any significant gold assays. Drill hole 8 was a vertical test of the northern extension of the mineralisation noted in hole 7 – however, it was totally in nonmineralised material.

The company said it is encouraged by these results from the second drill programme, since they continue to demonstrate that the shear structure that hosts the gold mineralisation is laterally continuous and contains near surface mineralised sections, with gold grades of between 1,13 g/t gold and 4,97 g/t gold, over widths ranging from 6,5 m (21,32 feet) to 41 m (134,5 feet), and in the drill holes completed to date the average mineralised intersection is 1,7 g/t gold over 17,9 m (57,74 feet).

The deepest hole completed to date has tested the mineralised zone to a true depth of 72 m (236 feet).

To date, 475 m of strike-length of the gold mineralised zone have been partially tested by limited drilling reported to date in the 2003 programme.

Gold mineralisation in the Fromenda Grid 'B' area has been shown, by earlier soil sampling, geophysical surveys and reconnaissance drill programmes, to have a potential strike length of over 1,5 km.

Two target types have been outlined – steeply dipping shear hosted auriferous quartz reefs of the Ashanti Obuasi type; and gently dipping replacement/stockwork type gold mineralisation in favourable sediments adjacent to or overlying the quartz reefs.

This mineralised zone will be explored by a much larger drill programme comprising approximately 80 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes, totalling 6 000 metres. This drill programme is expected to begin in mid-October.

An additional 2 000 m of RC drilling will also be completed during that programme to test four other high potential targets outlined in the Fromenda Grid 'A' and Fromenda School Zones located four kilometres north and three kilometres northeast, respectively, from the Grid 'B' area; in the L34N IP anomaly, located eight kilometres to the west-southwest; and in the Nugget zone, eight kilometres to the west of Fromenda Grid 'B'.

Each of these targets is situated on or proximal to major gold mineralised structures and have not been previously drill-tested.

Initial work programmes have also commenced on the Goknet 1 concession – which has just been granted to Goknet Mining Company by the government of Ghana and is included in the option agreement with PMI.

Areas with active Galamsey (native mining) activities, covering an area of two by three kilometres, will be covered with a detailed IP survey and anomalous zones tested with a subsequent drill programme.