SIERRA MINING LIMITED - ASX: SRM

The data on Australian Shares.com is intended as a guide only and is compiled from information in the public domain. Data on this website should not be used to make an investment or trading decision.

Description

Sierra Mining Limited was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 2006 and is an exploration company focusing on several key advanced copper/gold projects on Mindanao, in the Republic of the Philippines. Sierra has also acquired a portfolio of tenements in some highly prospective epithermal gold areas located on the islands of Kairiru and Rossel in Papua New Guinea, together with a strategic land position at Salumei, on the Sepik river.

The Philippines

Bunawan Project (EP37, MPSA03)

The Bunawan project comprises two tenement applications which collectively cover 88.8km2 of prospective ground approximately 190km north-northeast of Davao adjacent to the Davao – Surigao highway. All of ELA 37 and parts of MPSA 03 (along with many other applications in the area) lie within a timber concession held by PICOP (Paper Industry Corp) who have objected to the applications. Previous timber operations in the project area have exposed copper and gold mineralisation. The tenements are in a highly mineralised area underlain by a thick sequence of andesitic volcanics. There are numerous artisanal workings, both surface and underground throughout the area, as well as a number of small-scale treatment plants. The main production in the area is from the nearby Co-O mine.

Bahayan Project (EP123)

The Bahayan project comprises Exploration Permit Application 123 covering 69.2km2 of ground near the Diwalwal mining camp. High-grade gold veins were discovered at Diwalwal in the early 1980’s, although there has been little modern exploration at Diwalwal and surrounding areas. Production from the low sulphidation epithermal quartz veins at Diwalwal is estimated to have exceeded 8 million ounces of gold. Geologically the steep dipping veins strike west-northwest and occur in highly fractured zones which are deeply oxidized, silicified and chloritised.

Nabunturan Project (EP121, EP80)

The Nabunturan Project comprises two contiguous applications which have a combined area of 65.66 km2. They are located in the Masara Mineral Field, one of most highly mineralised section of the Pacific Cordillera where there are a number of past mines and deposits currently at an advanced stage of development.

Ayan Project (EP000001-06-XI, EP118, EP131)

The project comprises one granted Exploration Permit and two applications for Exploration Permits covering a combined area of 128.7 km2. Exploration Permit No 000001-06-XI was granted on the 18th October 2006. The two applications have been cleared and have priority of application. Native copper and malachite in quartz veins cutting sediments has been reported in Exploration Permit No 000001-06-XI and quartz and base-metal stockwork zones reported in both EPA 118 and EPA 131. Artisanal gold mining is widespread in all three tenement applications.

Papua New Guinea

Exploration Licence 1398 covers 802 square kilometres including Kairiru, Muschu, Walis and Tarwai Islands as well as part of the mainland in East Sepic Province. The main prospects are listed below:

Gwaiboru Prospect

The Gwaiboru prospect is located approximately three kilometres south east of the Rumlal prospect and comprises a zone of anomalous soil and rock chip samples over an area of approximately 700 metres by 300 metres and 200 metres of vertical relief. Anomalous gold is associated with quartz veining, silicification and pyrite alteration within tectonised basaltic agglomerates. Quartz veining and faulting is sub vertical and strikes 060 degrees. Trench sampling returned intercepts of 2.5 metres at 2.76 g/t Au, 2.0 metres at 1.73 g/t Au, 4.0 metres at 2.76 g/t Au, and 1.0 metres at 1.41 g/t Au.

Shlagat Prospect

The Shlagat Prospect is located four kilometres south east of the Rumlal Prospect. Former work recorded a float sample grading 67.6 g/t Au and mapped areas of silicification. The best result from trench sampling was 3.3 metres at 3.15 g/t Au.

Rumlal Prospect

Mineralisation exposed in a series of small waterfalls near Rauship Village was the initial target defined by former exploration. An eight metre wide zone of silicified basalt associated with pyritic breccia, discontinuous quartz veins and chloritic and clay alteration returned samples up to 21.0 g/t in a rock chip sample. Previous sampling returned 0.4 metres at 16.1 g/t Au and 1.0 metre at 7.62 g/t Au. No follow up work appears to have been undertaken.

Remokio Prospect

This prospect located to the south of Gwaiboru Prospect was located by sampling carried out by earlier exploration activity. A number of areas of chalcedonic quartz and anomalous gold values was recorded in trenching. No follow up work appears to have been undertaken.

Baru Prospect

This is an area to the south of Shlagat where float and outcrop samples included sulphidic quartz veined basalts and quartz-pyrite-epidote altered basalts. Float samples of 8.16 g/t Au and 16.7 g/t Au were returned. No follow up was undertaken.

Sabar Prospect

The Sabar Prospect is an area of anomalous stream sediments and outcropping rock chip samples located at the eastern end of the island. The best rock chip samples were 12.1 g/t Au in quartz-pyrite veined and propylitic altered basalt and 5.0 g/t Au in a two metre wide quartz veined and silicified fault breccia zone. No follow up was undertaken.

Brauniak Prospect

This large area is situated on the southern flank of the island and was identified by mineralised float samples in adjacent drainages including 13.40 g/t Au and 7.40 g/t Au in quartz pyrite rocks, 9.40 g/t Au in a silicified quartz sulphide rock and 1.73 g/t Au in sulphidic quartz breccia. No follow up was undertaken.

Rossel Island Exploration Licence 1414

Exploration Licence Application ELA1414 covers approximately 607 square kilometres and covers Rossel Island entirely. Rossel Island is the easternmost island of the Louisiade Archipelago in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea (see map). It is approximately 34 kilometres long and 9 km wide. Rossel Island was prospected for gold in 1888, the same year that alluvial gold was first discovered in Papua New Guinea at the adjacent Sudest Island. There has been little exploration on Rossel Island since that time.

Exploration Licence 1463 - Magavara

The Magavara ELA is located in Eastern Papua, in the rugged hinterland south of Collingwood Bay in the Milne Bay Province. Alluvial gold has been worked historically in the region and widespread artisanal mining is continuing at the present day, with new areas identified in recent years. Mineral exploration has been undertaken in the region by a number of companies. Sierra has targeted the Magavara region to apply the current improved understanding of Papua New Guinea’s epithermal gold systems and their deeper-seated magmatic copper-gold relatives to the large copper-gold mineralised hydrothermal system identified by earlier explorers in the Magavara hinterland.

Exploration Licence 1468 - Salumei

The Salumei ELA straddles the Salumei River above its junction with the Korosameri River, in the foothills at the southern edge of the Sepik Plain in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, approximately 45 km southeast of Ambunti. Sierra has targeted the Salumei area to continue exploration of its gold potential, and to test for possible enriched secondary copper blankets developed over the better copper mineralised locations.

Mine For

gold, copper, silver

Location of operation(s)

Papua New Guinea, Philippines

Address

Level 9, BGC Centre , 28 The Esplanade
PERTH, WA, AUSTRALIA

Phone

(61 8) 9322 6322

Email

Website

http://www.sierramining.com.au

Last Updated

25/02/2010