REG - Bluebird Merchant - High Grade Lobo Gold Prospect To Be Drilled

Bluebird Merchant VenturesAnnouncement

27/09/2023 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20230927:nRSa7453Na&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 7453N  Bluebird Merchant Ventures Limited  27 September 2023

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd / EPIC: BMV.L / Market: FTSE / Sector: Mining

27 September 2023

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd

('Bluebird' or 'the Company')

 

High Grade Lobo Gold Prospect To Be Drilled In The Philippines

 

Advancing the third gold project in Bluebird's portfolio

 

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd, a gold company primarily focused on bringing
historic mines back into production, is pleased to announce a fully funded
5,666m drill programme at the Lobo prospect of the Batangas Gold Project in
the Philippines ('Batangas' or 'the Project').  The 34-hole three phase
programme is aimed at further delineating the Project's identified high-grade
targets, upgrading the current mining inventory, and providing data to develop
an underground mine plan.

 

Overview

·    Lobo is a high-grade gold mining opportunity within the Batangas
project area being developed in tandem with a local highly experienced JV
partner in the Philippines.

·    The three-phase drill programme will be initially focused on the
South West Breccia ('SWB') target, which has not been tested at depth or along
known extensions; this is just one of nine targets in the system, which has a
current 15km strike.

·    SWB has only been drilled to 80-100m but produced the majority of the
initial Probable JORC Compliant Ore Reserves of 171,000 tons at 6.6 g/t for
36,000 oz Au excluding silver credits that can be mined in the first 18 months
of any operation - Indicated Resource of 82,000 oz Au.

·    Results at SWB extensions included:

o  6.7m at 11.6 g/t Au from 9.3m.

o  18m at 6.85 g/t Au from 31 m down hole.

o  6m at 7.16 g/t Au from 43 m including 3m at 11.5 g/t Au.

·    SWB is likely to be the first area to be mined by the JV - drill data
will be used for a mine plan and included in the Definitive Feasibility Study
('DFS').

·    Lobo licence area is highly prospective with results across the nine
identified targets including:

o  2.1m @14.4g/t Au and 3m at 12.1g/t at West Drift, which already has an
Indicated and Inferred resource of 350,000t at 3 g/t Au.

o  8.35m at 18.3 g/t Au and 6.0m at 31.2 g/t Au located immediately west of
the SWB Extension.

o  19m surface channel sample with intersections of 19m grading 9.8 g/t Au at
Ulupong.

o  Limestone Target trenching yielded 3.5m at 25.9 g/t Au including 1.5m at
56.8 g/t Au.

·    Batangas is one of three gold projects being developed by Bluebird -
the other two, Gubong and Kochang, are in South Korea where encouraging
progress is being made regarding the grant of the Temporary Mountain Use
Permits the final permit to allow production.

 

Bluebird CEO Colin Patterson said, "The Batangas Gold Project, one of three
high grade gold projects in our portfolio, is being advanced to a production
decision by our local JV partners in the Philippines.  The focus is on the
development of the Lobo 1,160-hectare area where five parallel running high
grade epithermal veins have been identified over a 15km strike. Previous
shallow drilling over just 1km delineated a resource primarily at the South
West Breccia prospect and included 150,000 tons at 6.4 g/t from just the upper
80m of the mineral resources. To put this into context, it is open at depth
and there are nine other identified high-grade gold zones.

 

"The fully funded three-phase drill programme will test the most prospective
and upper parts (below the current identified resource) first and then, if the
results are as expected, progressively test deeper extensions and less
well-known areas downdip of SWB. There is evidence that mineralisation grade
may increase at depth and the aim is to dramatically expand the resource
inventory and develop a mine plan for the submission of a DFS and final
permitting.

 

"Importantly, the wider project potential, which will be further tested in the
future to expand mine inventory, is clear to see. Drilling at the SWB
extension produced results including 2.1m @14.4g/t Au and 3m @12.1g/t.  At
Ulupong, a high-grade epithermal vein was exposed in a 19m surface channel
sample with intersections of 19m grading 9.8 g/t gold, while at the Pica
Prospect, a series of epithermal quartz-barite veins including 1.5m at 8.5 g/t
Au from 29.8m and 13.65m at 2.49 g/t Au from 110m have been identified.
Southwest of Japanese Tunnel, a 500m strike length zone produced 2m at 31.1
g/t Au and 3m at 22.2 g/t Au, while at the Limestone Target, trenching yielded
3.5m at 25.9 g/t Au including 1.5m at 56.8 g/t Au. These are exciting results.

 

"To provide some value context, Batangas was the original listing asset of the
Company in 2016, and when we raised our interest to 25% it was valued at
US$6.8 million.  We believe there is huge potential to expand the resource
inventory across the wider project so are delighted with the progress being
made by our local JV partner, which has extensive in country mining experience
and is funding all work including permitting to a production decision in
return for 60% of the Project."

 

Details

Three-Phase Drill Programme at Lobo

The Lobo licence area covers 1,164-hectare. The mineral resources are
associated with a linear, steeply dipping, epithermal lode with high grade
'shoots' of mineralisation.  Multiple high grade target areas have been
identified and include the South West Breccia ('SWB'), West Drift, Japanese
Tunnel, historic Lobo copper mine, Camo, Acacia, Pica, Balisong and Ulupong
prospects. The provisional Lobo underground mining plan is similar to the
initial phase of Medusa Mining's Philippine project.

 

The drilling programme is an iterative campaign that will commence with an
initial 2,000m with further drilling to be determined based on the results.
It has been formulated utilising detailed surface geology mapping,
aeromagnetic, radiometric, topographic data, drillhole lithology, and drilling
primarily conducted by Mindoro Resources, Goldfields, and Red Mountain
Resources. Currently, five major epithermal vein systems have been identified
with a total strike length of over 15km. Drilling to date has only tested
c.2km of strike and to relatively shallow depths.  It is evident from
existing data that there are higher grade gold zones at lower elevations and
the mineralisation is open at depth.

 

The main target is the SWB deposit where 38 holes identified five sub-parallel
vein systems developed on northeast trending structures, spaced 500-1,000m
apart and covering an area of approximately 3km by 1.5km. A preliminary
resource statement based primarily on previous drilling at SWB, to a depth
ranging from 80-100m, produced an initial Probable JORC Compliant Ore Reserves
of 171,000 tons at 6.6 g/t for 36,000 oz Au excluding silver credits that can
be mined in the first 18 months of any operation.  There is an Indicated
Resource of 82,000 oz Au that is perceived as easily convertible.  The first
2,000m of the drilling will test the depth of SWB below the initial quantified
area, being c.80m to c.200m, as well as the immediate high-grade extensions
including West Drift.

 

The Board and its local JV partner, which has extensive mining experience in
the Philippines, believe that there is enormous potential to expand the
resource inventory at SWB as well as across the wider project area. For
example, diamond drilling and trenching previously tested the northern extent
and at depth below the previous SWB resource.  Eight drill holes for 530m
were completed and results included 6.7m at 11.6 g/t Au from 9.3m and 18m at
6.85 g/t Au from 31m, and down hole 6m at 7.16 g/t Au from 43m including 3m at
11.5 g/t Au.

 

The extent of the mineralisation at Lobo has already been tested. 15 diamond
drill holes at West Drift totalling 3,111m identified generally increasing
gold grades with depth. The vertical extent of a shallow plunging high grade
gold shoot, located between 100m and 150m, has been delineated over a 200m
strike length within a 400m long target zone.

 

At Ulupong, a high-grade epithermal vein has been exposed by a continuous 19m
surface channel with intersections of 19m grading 9.8 g/t Au. The vein is at
the western end of an extensive zone of anomalous gold soil geochemistry at
Ulupong-Sawahan, which extends for over 2km in a northeast-southwest direction
sub parallel to the SWB and West Drift epithermal gold vein systems.

 

The Pica Prospect has a series of epithermal quartz-barite veins including
1.5m at 8.5 g/t Au from 29.8m and 13.65m at 2.49 g/t Au from 110m. Regional
mapping has located extensions to this mineralised vein structure for more
than 3km, again testing high grade extensions to the SWB lode system.
Trenching of a 500m strike length zone of intermittently exposed epithermal
lode material produced high grade gold mineralisation including 2m at 31.1 g/t
Au and 3m at 22.2 g/t Au 100m southwest of Japanese Tunnel, 2.6m at 28.6 g/t
Au to the southwestern most lode exposure before the structure passes under
younger limestone and 8.35m at 18.3 g/t Au and 6.0m at 31.2 g/t Au located
immediately west of the SWB Extension.

 

At the SWB corridor, an 837m extension to the surface mineralisation was
identified and included 3.95m at 4.6 g/t Au from surface trenching and a drill
intersection of 0.65m at 18 g/t Au from 10m downhole depth.  The
mineralisation is also open to the southwest and Japanese Tunnel where
drilling intersected 1.5m at 3.63 g/t Au from 38.7m downhole including 0.5m at
4.73 g/t Au.

 

Finally trenching at the Tamarind prospect reported 4.5m at 14.8 g/t Au
including 1.0m at 44.9 g/t Au, 9m at 28.9 g/t Au and at Limestone Target, 3.5m
at 25.9 g/t Au including 1.5m at 56.8 g/t Au.

 

With the appointment of drilling contractors being finalised, the planned
drilling campaign is expected to be completed early Q1 2024.  Post assaying
results will be reported as the Company receives them.  Once all results are
received the JV will use them to formulate the mine plan for Lobo.

 

Corporate

The Company has issued 23,000,000 Shares to Momentum Resources in reference to
a return of shares that were made from the Pledged Share Pool Agreement that
was announced on 20 March 2023 ("Returned Shares"). Momentum Resources is a
related party of Bluebird Directors Colin Patterson and Charles Barclay. The
transaction was approved by the Non-Executive Chairman, Jonathan
Morley-Kirk.  Application will be made for the Returned Shares, which will
rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue, to be admitted to
trading ("Admission") on the Standard Listing Segment of the Main Market of
the London Stock Exchange. Admission is expected on or around 2 October 2023.

 

The Company's total issued and voting share capital upon Admission will be
712,865,042 Ordinary Shares. This figure may be used by shareholders as the
denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are
required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the
securities of the Company.

 

**ENDS**

 

For further information please visit https://bluebirdmv.com or contact:

Colin Patterson
Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd               Email:
colin@bluebirdmv.com (mailto:colin@bluebirdmv.com)

Nick Emmerson                                SI Capital
 
 Tel: 01483413500

 

About Bluebird

Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd (BMV.L) is a London listed South Korea-focused
resources company centred on bringing historically producing gold mines back
into production. The Company, led by a team of proven mine rehabilitation
experts, currently has two 100% owned licensed high grade narrow vein mining
projects, the Kochang Gold and Silver Project ('Kochang') and the Gubong Gold
Project ('Gubong'), which each have a defined route to low cost/ low capex
production with a cumulative target of producing 100,000 oz + Au per annum.

 

The management team has invested cUS$2 million personally into the Company and
believe, following analysis of historic production and exploration data, as
well as extensive sampling, geological, geophysical, and engineering studies,
there is potential for in excess of 1.5 million oz of mineable gold in its
Korean projects alone.

 

Kochang is an epithermal vein deposit with parallel vertical ore bodies
covering 8.3 sq km that reportedly produced 110,000 oz of gold and 5.9 million
oz of silver between 1961 and 1975.  Consisting of a gold and silver mine,
there are currently four main veins and a number of parallel subsidiary veins
vein which have been identified, as well as a newly identified cross-cutting
vein. Historic drilling indicates the veins continue to depth below the
current 150m mine and mapping shows the veins on surface providing potential
above and below the old workings. The veins extend to the NE providing a
strike length of 2.5km with 600m between the two mines not exploited.  There
is potential to expand operations to the southwest/northeast and to depth, as
well as exploit the already mined areas. The total resource potential is
between 550,000 and 700,000 tonnes, with a range of grades between 5.2 g/t to
6.6 g/t gold, and 27.3 g/t to 34.8 g/t silver.  Following the granting of a
Mountain Use permit, there is an estimated 6-to-9-month development time to
trial mining.

 

Gubong, which was historically the second largest gold mine in South Korea has
9 granted tenements covering c.25 sq km.  Gubong is moderately dipping with 9
veins extending 500m below surface and known to extend at least a further
250m. However, the production opportunity for Bluebird prior to looking at
deepening the mine is the 25 levels already developed with all the remnants
and unmined areas left by the original miners.  The 25 levels extend over
120km in total length which indicates the size of the opportunity. The Korea
Resources Corporation ('KORES') estimated 2.34M tonnes at some 7.3g/t Au
garnered from 57 drill holes over 17,715.3 metres.  With additional sampling,
mapping, pit modelling and grade analysis, plus the fact that Gubong is an
orogenic deposit, which typically have a depth of 2km compared to the current
depth of 500m, the Board believe it has a geological potential of 1 million +
oz Au in-situ, plus an estimated additional 300,000 oz Au from satellite ore
bodies.

 

Additionally, the Company has the highly prospective Batangas Gold Exploration
Project in the Philippines, where it has an agreement with a Philippine
company, whose owners have decades of experience in mining, to develop the
Project.  The JV covers the entire Batangas Project area, which has a current
JORC compliant resource of 440,000 ounces, including a maiden ore reserve of
128,000 ounces (including silver credits). Exploration expenditure to the tune
of c.$20m has already been invested.  Work is focused on completing
Exploration and Environmental Work Programmes initially targeting the
high-grade Lobo area, although there is excellent exploration potential across
the licence with high-grade targets already identified and 14km of identified
mineralised structures.  The staged agreement is based on the JV partner
achieving defined development goals and provides Bluebird with a free carry on
the development of Batangas with a view to advancing to construction.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  DRLNKABBOBKDQCB