Mindoro bullish at Lobo project (March 19, 2003)

Trenching on the Lobo project in the Philippines has returned encouraging gold values for Mindoro Resources (MIO-V).

The program focussed on the SW Breccia (SWB) zone, in the southwestern portion of the Camo trend. A 14.5-metre (assumed true width) section running 24.7 grams gold and 2.1 grams silver per tonne was reported, and mineralization remains open at both ends of the trench.

Sampling on two outcrops returned 5 metres grading 6.6 grams gold and 10 grams silver per tonne, plus 1.15% copper (from the Jap Tunnel outcrop), and 1.5 metres grading 1.6 grams gold, 1.5 grams silver and 0.15% copper.

Grab sampling of breccia float boulders and subcrops returned up to 22.4 grams gold, 68.2 grams silver and 0.72% copper.

Boulder mapping has traced mineralization over at least 370 metres along strike, with interpreted true widths of up to 24 metres. Internal continuity has not been established, owing to a lack of outcrop. The breccia consists of quartz-barite-mixed sulphide material, with secondary copper oxides in places.

The SWB gold-silver-copper zone is on the southwestern portion of the Camo trend, one of two 2-km-long epithermal vein/breccia systems at Lobo. The other system, Sampson, is 800 metres away.

The Lobo property is also home to the so-called Camo prospects, which are adjacent to each other. These prospects are in the central-northeastern section of the Camo trend and consist of highly mineralized float boulders. Outcrops are rare.

Previous channel sampling on the Camo 1 vein returned 9 metres grading 1.45 gram gold, 488 grams silver and 1.07% copper. Nearby, Camo 2, which has been traced on a 5-metre width for at least 150 metres along strike, returned 0.52 gram gold, 218 grams silver, and 4.39% copper from float samples. Chip sampling at Camo 3, about 60 metres to the northeast, returned 0.03 gram gold, 58 grams silver and 1.1% copper.

Grab samples from the Far Northeast prospect on the Sampson trend run as high as 0.1 gram gold, 1,792 gram silver and 8.68 % copper.

Other prospects include East Ridge, Calumpang, and Balisong.

Mindoro has a drill on its way to test SWB zone.

The junior has the right to earn a 75% interest in the Lobo project. It has applied for additional ground adjacent to Lobo. The land would tie up the area between the Lobo and Archangel project, 5 km to the southeast.

Meanwhile, work carried out during due diligence at Archangel has outlined an alteration system measuring 1.5 by 3 km. The system is characteristic of a porphyry copper-gold deposit and features at least six widely distributed copper oxide showings. Previous operators also defined extensive and strong copper soil anomalies. The targets have yet to be drill-tested.

Earlier this year, Mindoro tabled an inferred resource of 17 million tonnes running 0.7 gram gold and 2.5 grams silver per tonne for the Kay Tanda epithermal gold zone, also on the Archangel property.

Both the Lobo and Archangel properties were previously mined. The Japanese selectively mined the SWB zone for high-grade copper ore during the Second World War, and Pan Philippines mined the Dita area for barite in the 1950s. Small-scale underground mining targeted the Sampson vein for copper, gold and silver in the 1960s.