Entre Gold starts strong at Ann Mason

Entrée Gold‘s (ETG-T, EGI-X) first diamond drill hole at its 100%-owned Ann Mason  porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit in western Nevada’s Yerington district returned 988 metres of copper mineralization in what Greg Crowe, the company’s president and chief executive, describes as “an excellent start to the program.”

The hole returned 987.8 metres averaging 0.31% copper or 0.38% copper equivalent (using gold, silver and molybdenum as credits), including 340 metres averaging 0.40% copper or 0.51% copper equivalent.

Over the last 35.8 metres of the hole, mineralization averaged 0.41% copper or 0.53% copper equivalent, an indication that mineralization continues to greater depths, the company says.

With the completion of the first hole, located in the southwestern portion of the resource, copper mineralization has been extended for 325 metres below the limit of the current resource. 

“The continuity of mineralization below the previous resource area further illustrates the upside potential for the discovery of additional resources,” Crowe said. 

The deposit, 80 km southeast of Reno, has an inferred resource of 810 million tonnes grading 0.40% copper at a 0.30% cutoff grade for about 7 billion lbs. contained copper. The resource includes 165.9 million tonnes of 0.01% molybdenum at a 0.3% copper cutoff.

Copper mineralization starts at a depth of about 100 metres with consistent grades greater than 0.3% copper beginning at a depth of 214 metres.

The Ann Mason property covers the entirety of the deposit as well as the Blue Hills prospect to the northwest and comprises a group of unpatented mining claims totaling 18.4 sq. km. 

In August 2010, Entrée unveiled an exploration program on the Ann Mason property with an approved budget of up to US$2.7 million to explore the potential for higher-grade mineralization at depth and for extensions west of the currently defined Ann Mason resource.

Currently two drills are operating at Ann Mason and the holes are 100 metres to the northeast and 100 metres to the southwest of the first hole. About 20 infill and step-out holes are planned.  

Last November Entrée Gold said induced-polarization geophysical surveys suggest that the sulphide system at Ann Mason may extend for at least 3 km west to the Blue Hill area, where drilling has shown surface oxide copper mineralization underlain by primary sulphide mineralization. 

Elsewhere in the United States, Entrée Gold is exploring for porphyry-related copper systems in Arizona, New Mexico, as well as in other parts of Nevada. Its flagship Lookout Hill property, however, is thousands of miles away in Mongolia, and surrounds the Oyu Tolgoi project of Ivanhoe Mines (IVN-T, IVN-N), Rio Tinto (RIO-L, RIO-A), and the Mongolian government.