Minres 1:2 5c options

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 16

Minres 1:2 5c options

PA Auckland Mineral Resources NZ, Ltd, will raise about $835,000 through a renounceable rights issue of new options at five cents each. The offer will be made both to holders of ordinary shares and holders of existing listed options. Entitlements are one new option for every two shares held and one new option for each existing option held. They will be calculated on holdings at 5 p.m. on March 31, the expiry time and date of the present listed options. The exercise price to be paid to convert each new option to a fully paid 20c ordinary share will be 60c. The new options will expire if not exercised by March 31, 1988. The exercise price of the present options is 50c. Shareholders will be asked to sanction the new option issue at an extraordinary meeting on March 25. Rights trading in the new options is expected to be from April 1 until the offer closes on April 23. In its quarterly report on exploration and prospecting activities Mineral Resources said yesterday that in the period to December 31 its joint venture partner. Amax, continued to advance the Martha Hill gold and silver deposit in which MR had a 27 per cent interest, through the various stages leading to a Planning Tribunal hearing into the grant of a mining licence for mine development

On the Union Hill gold prospect also at Waihl, and in which Mineral Resources has a 21 per cent carried interest, Amax completed a programme of trenching on the high grade intersection at Gladstone Hill. (Grades of 20.2 grams per tonne of gold and 37.6 grams per tonne of silver over a 21-metre section were reported in the previous quarter).

As a result of the latest work, a new target zone has been Identified.

Assays from the trenching programme show grades of gold from 2.14 to 10.40 grams per tonne and grades of silver from 1.1 to 5.8 grams per tonne.

Amax has told Mineral Resources it intends to proceed with stage two of the joint venture and will undertake a 2000-metre diamond drilling programme. A joint venture with BP Oil NZ Ltd in which Mineral Resources has a 30 per cent carried interest, has been granted a prospecting licence over the Muirs Reef and Massey Reef near Te Puke. BP is undertaking a fivehole diamond-drilling programme of the prospect Sampling at the Tul mine has identified a target zone about 250 metres long on the Champion Reef. Isolated channels from near-surface workings have yielded values of between 8.35 grams per tonne and 300 g to 14.3 g gold and 425 g silver. The company says the zone warrants detailed investigation by diamond drilling. A prospecting licence over the Walorongomai area, adjacent to Tul, was granted in November, and exploration work has begun. In the South Island, field, work has started on the extensive alluvial gold properties held by the company. These Include the Awatuna prospect near Hokitika, and the nearby Houhou prospect

Mineral Resources has applied for exploration licences in both Hoklanga, Northland, and near Manila Springs in the Nelson district. Both, when granted, will be explored for gold. A prospecting licence at Coromandel - was relinquished. In Fiji, Beta, Ltd, in which Mineral Resources holds a 35.3 per cent interest was granted exploration licences over two areas east of the Vatakola Mine of Emperor Mines Ltd.

On the Vuda project Austpac Resources completed a deep diamond drilling programme and a major trenching programme, thereby earning a 15 per cent interest.

Two holes failed to intersect significant mineralisation, but the third Intersected two metres, averaging 5.05 g of gold per tonne. An additional exploration licence has been granted.