RANGE RIVER GOLD LIMITED - ASX: RNG

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Description

Range River Gold Ltd is a gold producer and gold and copper exploration company with projects in Australia.

* Formed 1994, as an unlisted public company. Seed capital of $2M raised.
* Listed on ASX on 17 June 2002, raising $6M capital.
* Acquired Opus Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary with interests in the Indee Gold Project near Port Hedland and at Telfer in September 2003.
* Earned 70% interest in the Indee Gold Project on February 2004 and signed an Exploration Joint Venture Agreement with Bullion Minerals Limited.
* Commenced mining at Indee in April 2006.
* Announced in September 2007 that operations at the Indee Gold Mine will wind down and the mine will move ultimately to care and maintenance.
* The “New Beginnings Strategy” adopted November 2007 to acquire mature mineral properties and quickly bring them into production.
* Mining ceased at Indee in December 2007.
* In June 2008 a Letter of Agreement was signed with Northwest Mining and Geological Exploration Bureau for Nonferrous Metals (NWME) in relation to an exploration farm-in agreement on the Indee tenements.
* The Indee Gold Mine was placed in Care and Maintenance in October 2008 with 30,000 ounces of gold being recovered and sold at Indee.

South Australia: Minotaur Joint Venture: Glenloth (EL3107), Lake Labyrinth (EL3698), and Lyons (EL3994)-Gold

The Gawler Craton in South Australia is a world class mineralised district hosting Iron Oxide Copper Gold deposits such as Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapateena to the east, and the gold only Challenger, Tarcoola and Tunkillia to the west. The lack of access, thick cover and extreme weathering over most of these areas has made prospecting difficult in the past.

The Glenloth, Lake Labyrinth and Lyons tenements cover areas where gold has been located previously. The Glenloth tenement is adjacent to and immediately to the north of the Tunkillia deposit. The Yarlbrinda Fault which hosts the mineralization at Tunkilia passes northward into the Glenloth tenement and joins with the Yerda Fault. Old gold workings are located along the Yerda Fault, which is a regional shear zone separating two sub-domains within the craton. Previous regional drill testing along the shear encountered anomalous gold without further follow-up.

The Lyons Area B tenement is positioned over the major northeast trending shear zone adjacent to Prominent Hill. Northeast structures are also known to be important in localizing the Olympic Dam breccia complex. Recent work by Minotaur has consisted of assessment of airborne electromagnetic data. Air core drilling was carried out targeting iron oxide copper gold mineralization. The results are awaited.

victorian Tenements

Beaufort (E4935)
The tenement covers the town of Beaufort, approximately 45 kilometres west of Ballarat, and the Camp Hill Range to the north of the town. Rich gold leads were first discovered just south of the present town site. Other leads were found soon after in drainages east and west of the north trending Camp Hill Range. The Fierey Creek diggings to the west contained a significant volume of deep lead gold. The total production for the district is thought to have exceeded 1 million ounces. Importantly, the primary source for this detrital gold has never been located. Total production from hard rock sources in the area would not have been more than a few hundred ounces. Also importantly, alluvial gold has been followed up all the streams draining the Camp Hill Range, so the source would have to be nearby but not necessarily hosted by major quartz veins. The company will therefore direct the search for the source toward disseminated and stockwork veinlet style hosts which would not have been easily identified by early prospectors.

Ballarat North (EL4943)
The Ballarat North exploration license extends northwards from 5 kilometres north of the city of Ballarat. The tenement covers the northerly extension of the Ballarat basement ridge and in particular covers the continuation of the Ballarat West goldfield to the north under recent cover toward the town of Creswick. The Ballarat –Creswick area has been a world class gold producing region, with 15.2 million ounces of production. Significant alluvial gold has been recovered from deep leads within the license area from north of Ballarat to Creswick, and mainly draining to the west. There has been negligible primary production from this area however, due to the recent transported cover sediments. The immediate area of interest within the license is between, and along strike of the Ballarat goldfields, in an area of alluvial mining which has received no modern day exploration. There no records of even a single drill hole in the main target area. Exploration would involve drilling a fence of holes across the main target trend, with the view to accessing areas below and east of the old deep leads to the north of Ballarat. Similar targets exist further north near Creswick where alluvial mining recovered significant gold from within the license area.

Ararat (EL3019, EL4758)
The Ararat Project is located south of Stawell where 6 million ounces of gold has been produced. Both the Ararat Project and Stawell exhibit many of the same characteristics from stratigraphy, structural and deformation development, and the style of gold mineralisation. Recent diamond drilling returned 3 metres @ 6.2 g/t Au from our Langi Logan Prospect, this is one of several targets identified by our previous joint venture partner Newcrest Mining Ltd who have pulled out of all exploration within Victoria. Range is in the process of reviewing the joint venture work and results to date, and the company is looking at a number of options ranging from establishing a new joint venture partner to Range River managing upcoming exploration activities.

Kingston (EL4630)
The Kingston Project is held 100% by Range River Gold Limited, it covers an area of 243 km2 and hosts the historic Landsborough Goldfield and the Kingston Mine. Historic production from Kingston has totalled 11,764 tonnes at 7.3 g/t Au, returning 2,762 ounces. Work by Range River Gold, and previous tenement holders BHP, WMC, and Hume have focused their exploration around the historical Kingston Mine which has returned significant drill hole intersections of 14m @ 26.6 g/t Au, 12m @ 15.9 g/t Au, 5m @ 13.5 g/t Au, 6m @ 5.9 g/t, and 11m @ 3.0 g/t Au associated to a series of moderate to steep dipping, northeast trending quartz reefs. Range River believes potential for additional gold prospects and resources in the project area are high, and plan to focus the majority of its expenditure towards regional exploration and to further develop mineralisation along strike from the Kingston workings.

Summerfield (EL4447)
The Summerfield exploration licence is located north of the major Bendigo and Fosterville goldfields, and covers an area of 112km2. Work by Range River Gold, and existing and past Joint Venture partners Kenley Investments Pty Ltd and Gold Fields Australasia Pty Ltd focused their exploration around geophysical and geochemical anomalies under Murray Basin sedimentary cover sequences north of Neilborough East. Aircore drilling to date has intersected weak gold mineralisation associated to corridors of quartz veining east of the Whitelaw Fault. These corridors are considered strike extensions of historical workings located south of the tenement in the Kamarooka State Forest and the Neilborough East region. Portions of the tenement are included in the Victorian gold undercover studies presently taking place. Results from this work will be incorporated into planned exploration activities.

Western Australian Indee Gold Project - Exploration

The Indee Project tenements cover approximately 75 kilometres of the prospective Mallina Shear Zone. This shear zone has been the focus of gold mineralization at numerous localities, including the immediate Indee Gold Mine leases. Exploration to date at Indee has been focused on a strike distance of approximately six kilometres over these leases, and has indicated the presence of a hydrothermal system of regional significance.

A number of other prospects have been identified along this shear trend, however extensive portions of the shear are buried under transported cover. Consulting structural geologists have reported that the potential for the discovery of further resources in the relatively under-explored Mallina Shear Zone is considered good at both the regional and prospect level. A parallel shear zone to the north is host to gold mineralization at Mallina Homestead, and old workings have been located along strike.

The Indee tenements cover some 30 kilometres of this structure, which is also largely buried under transported cover. Broad spaced drilling has been carried out previously, with a number of drill intercepts requiring follow-up. Intersections such as 4m @ 6.8g/t, 3m @ 6.6g/t, 4m @ 3.8g/t and 8m @1.8g/t are open along strike and down dip.

These intersections are unusual in that there is little quartz veining associated with the mineralization, implying that there will be less silicification and outcrop associated with future discoveries. Another parallel shear zone has been recognized to the south and has similar characteristics to the Mallina Shear Zone. No work has been carried out in this area. Prospects to the east such as Calvert and T1 are located at major changes in strike and flexures of the host structure, along with small internal granites. Most of these areas are covered by transported material. Broad spaced reconnaissance drilling is planned to test these trends.

The Toweranna prospect is located to the west, also within and adjacent to a small internal granodiorite. Past drilling has outlined a resource which could potentially be trucked to the mill at a future point. The regional effect and magnetic response to these styles of intrusions and related mineralization will be examined more closely to see if there are other similar occurrences elsewhere along the buried structural targets.

Western Australian Indee Gold Project - Operations

• Multi open pit, oxide ore mining undertaken
• Heap leach crushing, stacking & gold processing
• 850kt at 1.5gm/t mined and processed to date
• 30,000oz production
• 72%+ gold recovery exceeded model
• FiFo workforce to Port Hedland from Perth/Broome
• Mining & crushing completed Q4 2007
• Heap irrigation flushing & gold production continuing
• Well appointed & serviced accommodation camp
• Rehabilitation, care & maintenance progressing
• Remaining resources under review

Mount Morgan, Laverton

The Mt Morgans tenements (see Figure 1) are a parcel of tenements comprising 33,800 ha surrounding the historical Mt Morgans mine in the northern Yilgarn, W.A. The Laverton area of W.A., which includes Mt Morgans, is a 30+ million ounce gold camp comprising Sunrise Dam (10+Moz), Wallaby (5+Moz), Granny Smith (1.5+Moz) and Mt Morgans (1.5Moz).

Gold was discovered at Mt Morgans in 1896. The total historic production of 1.2 Moz plus current resources of 207,000 oz brings the total endowment to nearly 1.5 Moz. Up until 1952, approximately 328,000 oz at 15g/t of gold was produced principally from underground mining at Westralia. In the major production period from 1988 to 1997, approximately 917,000 oz were produced at 3.2g/t Au with the majority, 760,000 oz produced by open cut mining Near Term Production Opportunities and Development Concept RNG has identified an advanced near term production opportunity at The Craic. This opportunity provides the foundation to the development concept outlined below.

Work undertaken by Placer Dome Asia Pacific Pty Ltd (Placer) on The Craic and confirmed by RNG’s mining consultants, Mining One Pty Ltd, indicates that from a resource of 83,000 t at 9.9 g/t Au, a mineable resource of 35,000 t at 17.7 g/t Au to recover 19,000 oz Au can be mined. The ore is near surface and the pit would be mined to a depth of 95 m.

RNG intends to pursue this opportunity as the first Project Development following completion of the acquisition. The development plan would be to progress mine planning and permitting in parallel to bring the deposit into production as soon as practicable.

RNG plans to evaluate the processing of The Craic and the other opportunities with a low capital 100,000 tpa modular Gekko gravity and intense leach (GIL) plant. The high recovery (90+%), free milling metallurgical characteristics of the Mt Morgans ore types lend themselves to this processing option. The concept is that the GIL plant would be a central processing facility for ore to be mined from the current and future prospects. The other opportunities will be evaluated in parallel to the development of The Craic. The plan is that these deposits will ensure continuity of supply of ore to the plant.

Mine For

gold, uranium

Location of operation(s)

Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia

Address

Level 13, 190 Queen St
MELBOURNE, VIC, AUSTRALIA

Phone

61 3 8614 1500

Email

Website

http://www.rangeriver.com.au

Last Updated

10/02/2011