NEWS ROUNDUP — Rio Tinto drills Aguila

London-based Rio Tinto (RTP-N) has completed four holes totalling 1,242 metres on MacMillan Gold‘s (MMG-T) Aguila Pit concession in north-central Peru. The program was designed to test an area where previous drilling intersected 400 metres grading 0.63% copper and 0.04% molybdenum.

This year’s follow-up holes returned similar results from within the previously identified porphyry intrusive. However, when sediments were intersected, grades were lower, averaging 0.27% copper and 0.019% molybdenum.

The current program did not indicate the presence of massive sulphide mineralization at the intrusive-sediment contact as originally interpreted from geophysical data.

Hole 2 of the current program, drilled in the central part of the concession where the porphyry intrusive is exposed at surface, intersected 124 metres averaging 0.65% copper and 0.022% moly. This section was followed by 146.2 metres of silicified and altered sediments that averaged 0.27% copper and 0.019% molybdenum. The entire hole averaged 0.44% copper and 0.02% moly over 270.2 metres.

Hole 3, drilled 175 metres north of hole 2, intersected silicified sediments averaging 0.2% copper over 325.1 metres. Hole 4 (420 metres south) intersected silicified sediments averaging 0.12% copper over 301 metres, whereas hole 5 (500 metres west of hole 2) hit silicified sediments averaging 0.16% copper over 327.7 metres.

Further drilling is expected to outline the copper mineralized porphyry intrusion.

Rio Tinto can earn a 51% stake in the concession by spending US$4.5 million on exploration and paying US$500,000 over four years.

MacMillan Gold has other copper and gold projects in Peru. The junior has 17.8 million shares outstanding and currently trades at about 15 cents.