Noricum Gold: Drill results from Rotgülden build on an already impressive track record

Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) said the final results from its 2011 drilling campaign on the Rotgülden project in Austria continued to highlight the presence of significant gold and silver mineralisation.

Four out of five holes drilled at the former mine on the property contained significant traces of both precious metals.

Hole BL 03 really caught the eye with a 3.1 metre section at a grade of 11.69 grams per tonne of gold and 44.2 grams of silver.

A 2.3 metre section from BL 05 contained 2.69 grams per tonne of gold and 2.28 grams of silver. The same hole returned 1.5 and 1.2 metre sections grading 2.78 and 3.08 grams per tonne of gold respectively. 

A 0.5 metre section from BL 07, meanwhile, contained 6.68 grams per tonne of gold and 21.6 grams of silver.

The company has drilled for a total of 1,800 metres on the property in 2011, and today’s results build on an already impressive track record which reveals it has uncovered bonanza-grade mineralisation.

Downhole electromagnetic surveys have also been completed and results will be released soon, the company said.

Noricum is now planning its 2012 drilling programme on the formerly producing Rotgülden mine as well as the Altenberg Valley target on the same property, it added.

Managing Director Greg Kuenzel said: "We are pleased to report the final results from our 2011 drill programme which highlights the presence of significant high grade gold and silver mineralisation at the historic Rotgülden mine. 

“These intersections, along with the bonanza grade results returned during 2011 from multiple targets located on the extensions to the Rotgülden mineralisation along 8km of strike, provide us with a very strong exploration foundation for 2012.

"Importantly, the development of this year's work programme is now underway and having just completed a further electromagnetic survey and reconnaissance work, the data is currently being worked on by our consultants to be taken into consideration as we look to work towards defining a maiden resource at the highly prospective Rotgülden project."

The data from the Rotgülden mine, Altenberg, and also the Schurfspitze and Kalte Seite targets and the Aloisi adit, lend some credence to the idea that contained within this area is a strike that bisects the historic Rotgulden mine nearby and extends for around eight kilometres to the south-west.

If follow-up drilling proves its existence, then all of a sudden Noricum is looking at a regional gold play. 

Rotgulden is a 51 square-kilometre project in south-west Austria. In all there are 15 former underground mines that produced gold, silver and copper. 

Drilling by previous explorers revealed gold grades of between 5 and 44 grams per tonne.

Rotgulden is one of five Austrian licence areas held by AIM listed Noricum, which bought them from a private company called Kibe Investments in late 2010. The others are Kliening, Schonberg, Goldeck and Goldzeche.

In all around £3-£4 million of recent investment has been poured into the licences by a company called Alpine Metals, the owner before Kibe.

After Rotgulden, the most advanced project is Kliening, near Graz. 

Noricum is building a picture of the Kliening gold project as a shallow, high-grade gold and silver deposit.

Supporting this idea is infill sampling on hole BB-07-01 from its recent 2,000 metre drill programme, which was published last week.

It returned 4.47 grams per tonne of gold and 9.54 grams of silver over two metres and 4.71 grams of gold and 21.99 grams of silver over 0.5 metres at depths of less than 12 metres. Tungsten has also been identified in the samples.