Oriel Receives First Round of Drill Hole and Trench Assay Results from the Kupol Gold Project, Urup Island.
Oriel Receives First Round of Drill Hole and Trench Assay Results from the Kupol Gold Project, Urup Island.
Dr Sergey V Kurzin, the Chairman and CEO of Oriel Resources PLC (“Oriel”) said today “we are pleased to announce the initial results of Oriel’s exploration and drilling campaign for the 2004 season on the Urup Project in the Kuril Islands. The campaign was completed despite inclement weather conditions, permitting issues and the necessity to set up a mining camp on an uninhabited island. As a result drilling did not commence until late August 2004.”
During the limited seasonal campaign 15 drill holes were completed and the assays for the first two drill holes received so far are shown below in addition to the assays for the first two of the 9 trenches completed.
The results from the first 271 samples of the 2004 drilling and trenching program at Kupol during the summer, which was completed in September, are as follows:
Hole ID Type From m To m Interval Au g/t
KPDD1 Drill Hole 2.6 58.4 55.8 3.97
KPDD1 includes 3.6 28.1 24.5 6.45
KPDD1 includes 9.6 16.8 7.2 11.7
KPDD2 Drill Hole 0.8 17.8 17 2.0
KPTR6 Trench 0 19.8 19.8 15.5
KPTR6 includes 0 6 6 30
KPTR8 Trench 0 17 17 5.3
KPTR8 includes 0 6 6 9.24
The 2004 field program comprised the following work,
• 604m of channel sampling from 9 separate trenches (633 samples).
• 15 diamond drill holes with a total length of 2,015.25m (1,656 samples)
• Detailed geological mapping and ground geophysics.
The mineralized body at Kupol had been interpreted by the Sakhalin Geological Institute as a +150m long by 50m wide mineralized body dipping at approximately 65 degrees to the east, and interpreted as extending to a depth of 100m or more below the surface. However, as a result of the geological mapping and drilling completed during the 2004 program, Oriel has reinterpreted the mineralized body as being a relatively flat-lying 10 to 20m thick zone, covering an area of approximately 150 by 100 metres, bounded along the west side by sea-cliffs. Since the intensity and grade of mineralization increases to the west, we interpret this as indicating that the bulk of this particular deposit has been eroded away. In view of this reinterpretation, Oriel has decided to pause the 2004 drilling program at 2,015 metres total length to allow Oriel to re-evaluate the Project once all the assay data becomes available in February 2005.
The original 70 square kilometre licence area has approximately ten additional exploration targets which will be evaluated beginning in 2005.
The Chairman and CEO, Dr Sergey V Kurzin said, “We are very encouraged that our original thoughts on the high grade, open pittable nature and good thickness of this deposit have been confirmed. However, the tonnage potential may be more limited than we originally thought, but reinterpretation has allowed us to identify high quality targets in the licence area for next season.
For further information, or to download the entire press release, please visit our website at www.orielresources.com or contact:
Sergey V Kurzin
svkurzin@orielresources.com
Stephen R Dattels
sdattels@orielresources.com
18 Upper Brook Street. • London W1K 7PU • England
Telephone +44 (0) 20 7514 0590 Facsimile +44 (0) 20 7514 0591