Sunrise Resources

• 06/02/12

  Drilling Results, Derryginagh Drilling Project

• 16/01/12

  Annual Report & Accounts

• 12/01/12

  Drilling Program Completed

• 15/12/11

  Final Results

• 19/09/11

  New Derryginagh Drill Contract

• 

  06/07/11

  Sunrise Resources poised for bright and busy summer of drilling

  It is going to be a busy few months for Sunrise after it kick-started two key drill programmes this week. Most eyes will be focused on high-impact drilling at the Long Lake gold project, but a separate programme at the niche barite project in Ireland could tap into valuable cash-flows.

   

• 

  24/02/11

  Sunrise shares soar as Cue diamond project is given ‘green-light’ for exploration

   

  The Cue diamond project is set to move into the limelight for Sunrise Resources.  The Australian authorities have handed the group an exploration licence over 70 square kilometres on the Yilgarn Craton, that was last explored by De Beers 10 years ago. The AIM-listed explorer with diamond pedigree will now prepare for a drill programme in the second quarter of 2011.

   

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  19/08/10

  Sunrise Resources highlights 'high-value' find in southwest Ireland

  Investors welcomed the news that the group completed a barite sampling programme at the past-producing Derryginagh mine, sending the shares up a cool 33%.  A find made during the programme suggests the possibility of yet undiscovered veins of high commercial value.

• 06/02/12

  Sunrise Resources reveals high grade results from Derryginagh barite project – UPDATE

• 06/02/12

  Sunrise Resources reveals high grade results from Derryginagh barite project

• 12/01/12

  Northland Capital sees good scope for Sunrise Resources shares to outperform

• 12/01/12

  Sunrise Resources completes drilling programme at Derryginagh barite project, Ireland

• 15/12/11

  Sunrise Resources expects start of feasibility studies at Derryginagh project in 2012 - UPDATE

• 

  05/11/2010

  Sunrise Resources One2One Presentation - 4th November 2010 (PDF)

  Sunrise Resources One2One Presentation - 4th November 2010

Sunrise Resources plc (‘SRES’) is a British-led diversified mineral exploration and development specialist. 

The Company's objective is to develop profitable mining operations to sustain the Company’s wider exploration efforts and create value for shareholders through the discovery of world-class deposits. 

The Company is evaluating a product opportunity for white barite in south-west Ireland and has an exploration portfolio including gold and base-metal exploration interests in Canada and diamond exploration interests in Finland and Western Australia.

Shares in the Company trade on AIM under the symbol “SRES”.

Long Lake Gold (& Ni-Cu-PGM) Project, Sudbury, Canada



    * Historic production of 57,000 ounces gold from 200,000 tonnes ore at a recovered grade of 9 g/t gold
    * Unexploited potential below and adjacent to shallow gold mine workings and in outlying prospects – e.g. 6m @ 13.8g/t gold and 5.7m @ 30g/t gold in past drilling.
    * Claims also include potential 10km extension to producing Copper Cliff offset dyke system prospective for nickel-copper-platinum group metals

On 4 May 2010 the Company acquired a three year option acquire a 100% interest in the previously producing Long Lake Gold Mine located 20km south-west of the City of Sudbury, Ontario (Canada). The claims also cover potential extensions to the currently producing Copper Cliff dyke system which lies at the heart of the World’s most productive nickel-copper mining complex.

Long Lake Gold Mine

The Long Lake Gold Mine produced 57,000 ounces of gold from over 200,000 tonnes of ore mined in the periods 1910-1916 and 1932-1939.

The average recovered mill grade was 9 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold and the mine tailings dumps (200,000 tonnes) which remain on site have a reported grade of 2-3 g/t gold indicating an average mine head grade of over 11g/t gold.

Most of the ore mined was extracted from a 50m diameter open glory-hole developed on a plunging pipe-like zone of disseminated gold and strongly sulphide mineralised sedimentary rock down to a depth of just 55m from surface.

Unexploited Potential

Old mine reports highlight that gold ore and waste rock were often visually difficult to distinguish and, today, native gold can be found in material on the mine waste dumps (see photos) A mineralised grab sample collected by the Company from the waste pile assayed 8.8g/t gold.

The horizontal limits of mining were reportedly defined by the economic cut-off grades of the day rather than any identifiable geological boundaries. Consequently the Company believes it likely that further gold mineralisation can be defined outside of the existing pit.

For example - a 1937 angled drill hole located just east of the pit returned 15.7m at 3.4g/t gold from surface. In addition a recent helicopter geophysical programme, which covered the mine and surrounding area, has identified a string of electrical conductors, possibly indicative of gold-bearing metal sulphides, extending from the mine in a north-easterly direction.

During the two periods of historic gold production exploratory mine development extended beneath the glory-hole down to the fourth mine level at 105m vertical depth where, at that time, it was thought the ore-body was displaced by faulting. However, drilling in 1936 encountered high grade ore in several holes in unexploited areas beneath the fault and approximately 25m below the deepest mine workings. The results, which included intersections of 6m @ 13.8g/t gold and 1.5m @ 30.2g/t gold, indicate considerable potential to define further high-grade gold mineralisation below the existing shallow workings, as well as beyond the current pit limits.

Since closure in 1939 the mine has been held privately and the past owners have been under no obligation to file details of past exploration work. However field reconnaissance by the Company and an extensive record search has shown that some exploration has taken place in an area 350m south of the mine where old newspaper reports highlight drilling results of 5.7m grading 30g/t gold in 1973 with follow up results of 4.1m grading 12g/t gold in 1987. Reporting of work in this outlying area on the Property is incomplete and the significance of these high grade drill intersections remains to be evaluated.

Copper Cliffs Offset – Nickel-Copper-PGM Potential

Since 1883 the Sudbury mining field has accounted for over 25% of the world's total nickel production and new discoveries continue to be made. It is the most productive nickel-mining field in the world with over 1.7 billion tonnes of past production, reserves and resources.

Nickel-copper-and platinum group metals (“PGM”) bearing sulphide minerals occur in a 60 km by 27 km elliptical igneous body called the Sudbury Igneous Complex (“SIC”). Mineralisation occurs within the SIC as well as in the neighbouring country rocks in close association with breccias and so-called ‘Offset Dykes’. These are typically quartz-diorite in composition and extend both radially away from and concentric to the SIC . Nearly half of the nickel ore at Sudbury occurs in breccias and Offset Dykes in the footwall rocks of the SIC.

On the south trending Copper Cliff Offset Dyke, north of the Company’s Property, the producing Copper Cliffs South mine and the Copper Cliff North mine have yielded over 200 million tonnes of ore and Vale Inco Limited's Clarabelle Mill, Copper Cliff Smelter and Copper Cliff Nickel Refinery are located in close proximity.

Offset Dykes have become the target of progressively more intense exploration interest in recent years following a number of new discoveries. The latest such discovery on the Copper Cliff Offset dyke was made in 2004 at Kelly Lake, to the south of the existing mines (in the direction of the Company’s Long Lake property), where a resource of over 20 Mt at a grade of 3.5% combined nickel and copper and 5 g/t PGM has been reported.

Prospecting operations by the claim holder within the Property have included sampling, petrological studies and limited mapping. This has identified numerous areas with outcropping offset-type dykes. The Property was optioned during 2008 to Australian company Pegasus Metals Limited. At that time the Long Lake mine was privately held and excluded from the Pegasus option.

In 2008 Pegasus Metals carried out a helicopter-borne airborne electromagnetic survey which, identified potential gold targets near to the Long Lake mine as well as a number of conductive targets for nickel-copper-PGM. Ground examination confirmed that at least one such anomaly is associated with an outcrop of an Offset-type dyke. Whilst some follow up ground geophysics was carried out, Pegasus Metals dropped the option during the recent global financial crisis before drill testing any of the anomalies.

Sudbury is ‘elephant country’ for nickel-copper-PGM deposits and the nickel targets on the claim block are a real bonus. It’s rare to find two such prospective but geologically distinct projects in the one claim block.

For more information on the Long Lake Gold Mine project CLICK HERE

Sunrise's diamond projects are located in the centre of the Karelian Craton (a part of the Fenno- Scandian Shield), which extends from Sweden, through Finland and eastwards into Russia. It comprises generally north to north-east/north-west trending Archaean greenstone belts in granitoid basement.

The diamond prospective area of the Karelian Craton in Finland, defined by Archaean rocks with <40 mW/m2 heat flow and >200 km lithospheric thickness, covers over 300,000 sq.km and is nearly the same size as the Slave Craton in Canada. Published geochemical data on indicator minerals suggest that the diamond window beneath central Finland may be 90km or more thick – on a par with, or greater than, other cratons in the world containing economic diamond deposits (Figure 1).

Kimberlites are widely distributed in the Karelian Craton and a higher-than-average percentage of these kimberlites contain diamonds. These have a broad spectrum of compositions including Group I and II and various hybrids of the kimberlite clan. In the Russian part of the Craton, large economic diamond deposits have been discovered in the Arkhangelsk region, including the Lomonosov diamond project run by Alrosa and the highly diamondiferous Grib pipe.

At Kostamuksha, 100km east of the Finnish/Russian border a cluster of lamproites (50 dykes and 2 diatremes), including olivine lamproites are diamond bearing and developed within a major westnorth- west trending shear zone. Similarly oriented fractures in northern Finland are recognised as deep-seated mantle-taping structures that have been active over long periods of geological time.

Known kimberlite intrusion in Finland and Russia has extended from the Proterozoic – e.g. Kostamuksha (1120-1320 Ma) and Lentiira (1200Ma) – through to the Devonian – e.g. Arkhangelsk (365 Ma), Terskii (404 Ma) and Kaavi-Kuopio (430-590 Ma). The Kuusamo project area is located in east central Finland close to the Russian border and close to the geographic centre of the Karelian Craton. The Kuusamo kimberlites are located some 120 km north of the Group II kimberlites/olivine lamproites reported from the Lentiira area of eastern Finland and about 300 km NE from the Group I kimberlites discovered in the 1980's and 90's in the Kaavi- Kuopio region at the southwestern edge of the craton.

The Kuusamo project area sits on the southern margin of a broad WNW trending alkaline province “the Kola Alkaline province” which stretches for over 1,000 km from Northern Finland through the diamond bearing regions of Kandalaksha, Terskii Bereg, Arkhangelsk and Central Timan in NW Russia.

Within the prospective parts of the Karelian Craton, the Company considers the extension of the Kola alkaline province into Northern Finland particularly prospective. Within this area, the Kuusamo district stands out as a major centre of earthquake activity in Finland. This may also reflect a higher concentration of deep fractures active over a long period of geological time, and therefore a favourable region for repeated kimberlite intrusion.

Kuusamo Project

In northern Finland the diamond exploration interests held by Sunrise Resources include seven new kimberlites discovered in a previously unrecognised cluster in north central Finland, now known as the “Kuusamo” kimberlite cluster and numerous additional untested targets in the same area. The Kuusamo project is located in the centre of the Karelian Craton which extends from Sweden, through Finland and eastwards into Russia.

For more information on the Kuusamo Project CLICK HERE  

Kaavi-Kuopio
In August 2006 Sunrise announced that it had signed a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Canada’s Nordic Diamonds Ltd (“Nordic”) under which Sunrise could earn up to a 75% joint venture interest in claims covering 16 of the 20 known kimberlite pipes in the Kaavi-Kuopio area of south-central Finland, most of which are diamondiferous. Subsequently, in January 2009, Sunrise moved to acquire 100% of the Nordic joint venture claims and Nordic retains a royalty interes.

Sunrise already held claim applications over two of the other four pipes in this cluster and had previously identified a number of the pipes covered by the Nordic agreement as targets for further sampling. The 16 pipes range in size up to 2.2 hectares and were discovered by Ashton Mining and its joint venture partners in the period prior to that company’s takeover by Rio Tinto in 2000, when the emphasis of diamond exploration switched to Canada.

Work by Nordic on the joint venture claims focused on data compilation and also on drilling two of the previously discovered pipes (Pipes 12 and 21), with the intent of re-evaluating diamond content and kimberlite geology. Nordic drill core samples from Pipe 21 (reported area approximately 1.3 hectares) returned high micro-diamond counts of up to 1.84 micro-diamonds/kg of kimberlite supporting the results of a 16.6 tonne mini-bulk sample previously taken by Ashton Mining in 1995, which returned a reported grade of 26.7 carats per hundred tonnes including a stone of 1.13 carats. Approximately 79% of the micro-diamonds recovered by Nordic were reported to be white and 91% transparent.

The Kaavi-Kuopio claims also include three kimberlite pipes lying within five kilometres of the Lahtojoki kimberlite (Pipe 7), where bulk sampling is planned by Mantle Diamonds. They also cover a number of kimberlite targets such as the high priority “Target 295” kimberlite indicator mineral anomaly where numerous G10 garnets, kimberlitic ilmenites and kimberlitic rock fragments were found.

For more information on the Kaavi-Kuopio CLICK HERE

BHP Billiton Database
In December 2005 Sunrise signed an agreement with BHP Billiton to acquire exclusive use of BHP Billiton’s diamond exploration database for the whole of Finland.

The database includes results from over 18,000 geochemical samples, 25,000 line km of close-spaced airborne geophysical data, a large archive of ground magnetic and drilling data and numerous evaluation reports. Sunrise estimates that this extensive database has a replacement value of over US$10milllion and gives the Company a 6-year leap forward in target definition and exploration in the diamond prospective part of the Finnish sector of the Karelian Craton.

For more information on the BHP Billiton Database project CLICK HERE

Australia - Cue Project – Diamonds, PGM's & Au

In October 2009 the Company applied for an exploration licence targeting diamonds, platinum group metals (PGM’s) and gold in Western Australia.

The exploration licence application (ELA20/727) covers an area of approximately 70 square km and is located 70km to the north-west of the town of Cue in the Murchison Mineral Field in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia.

The Cue region was explored by De Beers in the period 1994-2002 during which time De Beers discovered a number of kimberlite dykes in two separate areas within the Company’s application area.

For more information on the Cue Project CLICK HERE

Ireland - Derryginagh Project

In November 2009 the Company was granted a Prospecting Licence for base metals, barite, silver, gold and platinum group elements near Bantry, County Cork, in the south-west of the Irish Republic.

The Company is targeting the Derryginagh barite deposit for the production of high value white “paint-grade” barite for use as mineral filler in paints and plastics. White paint-grade barite is the highest-value use for barite having significant sales volumes. Off-white barite is used as a lower value mineral filler and high volumes of low-grade barite are used as a weighting agent in drilling mud in the oil and gas industry.

For more information on the Derryginagh Project CLICK HERE

Directors & Senior Management

Executive Chairman – Patrick Cheetham

Mr Cheetham is the founder of the Company. He is a mining geologist with 29 years experience in mineral exploration and 23 years in public company management. Mr Cheetham started his career as an exploration geologist in Australia with Western Mining Corporation and prior to that worked for Imperial Metals Corporation in British Columbia, Canada. From 1986 to 1993 he was joint managing director of Dragon Mining NL, during which time he was responsible for the formation of that company, the identification of and acquisition of its exploration projects, its listing on the Australian Stock Exchange and the subsequent development of its exploration projects. Patrick co-founded Archaean Gold N.L. in 1993 - the subject of a successful $50 million takeover bid by Lachlan Resources NL. He is currently also Chairman of Tertiary Minerals plc.

            
(Senior) Non-Executive Director - Francis Johnstone

Mr Johnstone is a founding director of the Company with over 20 years experience in the mining sector and has been a director of a number of junior resource companies. He is currently an adviser to Baker Steel Resources Trust Limited, an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange specialising in private mining investments. Prior to that he was Commercial Director of Ridge Mining plc, an AIM listed mining company which took the Blue Ridge Platinum Mine in South Africa, from first discovery through to production which prior to being acquired by Aquarius Platinum Limited in a recommended takeover for £143 million in July 2009.

             
Non-Executive Director - Neil Herbert

Mr. Herbert has worked in the management of mining and exploration companies in Africa, Asia and the Americas since 1998. He is currently Co-Chairman and Managing Director for Polo Resources. Mr. Herbert is the Chairman of mineral exploration company UrAmerica Ltd and a Director of European Nickel plc. Previously he was Finance Director of UraMin Inc from its formation in 2005, its listing on both AIM and TSX raising over US$400 million and through its acquisition by Areva in 2007 for US$2.5bn. Mr. Herbert was previously Finance Director of Galahad Gold plc, International Molybdenum plc, Kalahari Diamond Resources plc and HPD Exploration plc managing a number of project acquisitions and disposals together with stock market listings and fund raisings and has been non-executive director of a number of other companies. He was Chief Financial Officer of gold explorer Brancote Holdings plc until its acquisition by Meridian Gold Inc in 2002 for US$368 million. Mr. Herbert is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and prior to joining the mining industry worked for Price Waterhouse.
             
         
Company Secretary - Colin Fitch MA, LLM, FCIS, Barrister-at- Law

Colin Fitch is a Barrister-at-Law, and was previously Corporate Finance Director of Kleinwort Benson, Partner and Head of Corporate Finance at Rowe & Pitman (SG Warburg Securities) and Assistant Secretary at the London Stock Exchange. He has also held a number of non-executive directorships of public and private companies, including Merrydown Plc. Since retiring from full time work he is currently non-executive director of African Lakes and was until recently Company Secretary of both Ridge Mining plc and Cluff Gold.

             
Project Manager, New Business Development - Andrew Dixon

Mr Dixon is a mineral processing engineer, a chartered professional metallurgist and fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.  He also holds a Masters degree in Mineral Economics.  He has 27+ years experience in managing, operating and developing mineral and diamond projects in a variety of countries worldwide.  He has held various plant supervisory and management positions with De Beers, Argyle Diamonds Mines, Trans Hex and Ashton Mining Australia, including time as a senior sales analyst with Argyle Diamond Sales.

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