Glass Earth Gold reports results

Glass Earth Gold's drilling rig at work at the Massey Reef gold prospect in the North Island. Photo supplied.

Glass Earth Gold, which retains extensive exploration permits around Otago, has delivered its first drilling results from its North Island tenement, 65km southeast of Waihi.

Chief executive Simon Henderson said in a market update yesterday the first results of drilling at its 100% owned Muirs Reef prospect were from the first of 17 diamond holes, totalling 2500m, planned to identify gold resources in the area known as Massey Reef.

Results from the Massey Reef drilling, to a depth of 87m, included a 2m intersection of gold at 2.46 grams per tonne (g/t) and another at 17m in length at 1.58g/t, while results from a second, adjacent hole are pending.

Exploration efforts were still focused in the Otago region to identify "Macraes-style" gold targets, test drilling having begun at the separate gold prospects of Hindon and Game Hen, and around East Otago. Glass Earth has spent about $30 million during the past more-than four years exploring for gold, mainly around Otago.

Mr Henderson said revenue generation would continue this year from a joint venture through placer (loose alluvial) gold production from the Ida Valley, which in 2010 delivered $357,000 from gold production.

At the end of December, Glass Earth had cash on hand of $C3.6 million ($NZ4.4 million) to continue to fund exploration progress.

Mr Henderson said the Muirs prospect and Massey Reef drilling programme was designed to identify the depth and strike extent of near-surface gold and identify any further mineralisation adjacent to known veins, which could lead to modelling an estimated gold resource to industry standards.

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz