Market applauds AXMIN’s drill results in CAR

The market pushed shares of AXMIN (AXM-V) up on Tuesday after drill results pointing to more gold on the company’s “other” greenstone belt in the Central African Republic (CAR) were released.

The latest drill results are from the company’s Pouloubou licence — a 1,000-sq.-km greenstone belt located 150 km southeast of AXMIN’s Passendro project on the Bambari permit. Bambari is a separate 2,000-sq.-km greenstone belt.

Passendro has an indicated mineral resource of roughly 1 million oz. gold (13.2 million tonnes of ore grading 2.5 grams gold per tonne) plus an inferred resource of another 1 million oz. (19.3 million tonnes of ore grading 1.8 grams gold per tonne).

“I think the market is looking at (the Pouloubou drill results) and saying: ‘Oh my gosh, they’ve got another one,'” says Judith Webster, manager of investor relations for AXMIN.

In Toronto on Tuesday AXMIN’s shares were up 8.3%, or 6 to 54 on 30,000 shares traded.

The drilling program — designed to follow up on the extensive surface geochemical anomalies and alluvial stream workings — has defined a series of gold zones, each with a strike length of more than 1,000 metres and widths of 40 to 160 metres.

In all, 7,338 metres of rotary air blast (RAB) drilling was done at Pouloubou, returning assays that range up to 3 grams gold per tonne over 5-metre intervals. The company’s press release says: “…The results, the rock types and the alteration closely resemble that found at the Passendro project.”

AXMIN’s RAB drilling program was designed to obtain samples of the bedrock below the iron-rich laterite. The vertical drill holes — which are 10 to 20-metres deep on fences 200-metres apart — tested three areas previously identified by AXMIN’s regional and infill geochemical program. This has provided deep geochemical samples that were assayed over 5-metre composite intervals and is an important precursor to the angled core and RC drilling scheduled for the first quarter of 2006.

The two most promising areas at Pouloubou are Grengou-Loubou and Kangou.

Grengou-Loubou is a 3,000-metre, northwest-trending surface gold geochemistry anomaly up to 1,000 metres wide. Four separate gold mineralized zones were defined with strike lengths of 400 to 600-metres and widths of 40 to 160-metres. Individual zones are defined by a gold content of more than 0.1 gram per tonne. They contain numerous 5-metre intersections exceeding 0.5 gram gold per tonne and ranging up to 3 grams gold per tonne.

Kangou is 2 km east of Grengou-Loubou and is defined by a 2,000-metre surface geochemical gold anomaly that trends north-south. The anomaly was tested on four fences 200 metres apart defining a priority target 40 to 80-metres wide. It contains a gold content of 0.1 gram gold per tonne, with many assays ranging from 0.5 to 2.3 grams gold per tonne over the 5 metres.

In a press release, AXMIN’s chief executive Jonathan Forster notes: “The drilling at Pouloubou has confirmed that we have discovered a previously unrecognized gold-bearing greenstone belt with similar characteristics to our Bambari discovery and which we believe may host mineralized zones of similar potential.”