The property is located approximately 70 kilometres west of the city of Guadalajara.

The IP/Resistivity survey at La Paloma consisted of a total of 5.8 line-kilometres, which were surveyed along a series of seven lines targeting an 800 metre strike extent of the Main "Piedra Bola" Vein structure.

The survey represents the final stage in WestStar's phase one exploration program, which included property-wide geologic mapping, the collection of 194 rock grab and channel samples, 656 soil samples, and 174 stream sediment samples.

In addition, a total of 20.8 line kilometres of ground magnetic survey was completed, the company said.

WestStar is now selecting drill targets in preparation for a 2,000 metre diamond drill program at the property, which will target the most prospective anomalies within the Main "Piedra Bola" Vein structure, as well as evaluate the potential of additional mineralized veins on the project.

"We are extremely encouraged with the results of the Phase 1 exploration program and feel the work to date has culminated in potentially high success drill targets for WestStar," said president Mitchell Adam.

"Since acquiring this past producing gold and silver property WestStar has completed a series of work programs to focus our future drilling on the Property."

Indeed, three main targets have been outlined at La Paloma, the Main "Piedra Bola" Vein, the Ridge Showing and the East Vein.

The Main Vein has been defined over a one kilometre strike length, with rock channel sampling assaying up to 0.84 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, and 64 g/t silver over 6 metres.

Individual mineralized rock samples of outcropping quartz veins returned assays of up to 7.81 g/t gold and 311 g/t silver.

The company said the Piedra Bola Vein is coincident with a broad 400 by 1,000 metre, 10 parts-per-billion (ppb) gold in soil anomaly that encompasses the nearby Ridge Showing. Individual soil samples within the Piedra Bola Vein soil anomaly have returned assays of up to 3.69 g/t gold.

The Ridge Showing, meanwhile, is situated about 300 metres southwest of the Piedra Bola Vein, and covers an area of around 100 by 30 metres. Individual soil samples within the Ridge Showing anomaly have retuned assays of up to 557 ppb gold.

Finally, a second East Vein structure located 195 metres to the northeast of the Piedra Bola Vein was traced for around 200 metres thus far. The company is hoping to increase this strike with further work, as rock channel sampling in this area returned assays of 8.6 g/t silver over 4 metres.

WestStar has an option to earn up to 80 percent of La Paloma, subject to a two percent net smelter royalty. The property lies at the very southern end of the Sierra Madre Occidental physiographic province, which is well known for gold and silver mineralization and mining.

The primary goal of the company is to define a compliant gold and silver resource at the site.

The property was, at one time, owned by Penoles, who relinquished it in 1980.

Monday, Sunridge received a new independent resource estimate, showing a significant increase in size for the Emba Derho volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit.

Sunridge said that measured and indicated resources at Emba Derho now stand at 70.0 million tonnes, with an additional 15 million tonnes in the inferred category.

The deposits's copper-rich zone has 49.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.83 percent copper and 0.93 percent zinc, and the zinc-rich zone has 16.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.80 percent zinc and 0.31 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, according to the research estimate.

Total contained metals in the measured and indicated categories are now estimated at 1.00 billion pounds of copper, 2.1 billion pounds of zinc, 506,000 ounces of gold and 18.6 million ounces of silver.

The new resource estimate was completed by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants as part of the company's ongoing prefeasibility study on the Asmara North deposits, which include Emba Derho, the Adi Nefas zinc-gold-copper VMS deposit and the Gupo gold deposit.

The prefeasibility study is being conducted by Snowden and GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants, and is scheduled for completion in April 2012.

In a research note Monday, Ocean Equities said: "The results today are encouraging for Sunridge. By increasing the overall size of the resource and better defining the ore body the company will have a higher level of certainty in the conversion of resource into reserve as it progresses through the next step of a full feasibility study at Emba Derho."

Excluding the NW zone, Sunridge has grown the size of the measured and indicated Emba Derho resource "by 39 percent", the capital markets firm said.

Ocean Equities added that Emba Derho is set to become "the processing hub of the Asmara North assets", with current optimization studies analyzing the blending of material from Emba Derho, Adi Nefas, Gupo and Debarwa in the prefeasability study.

Looking ahead, in addition to the release of the pre-feasability study, Sunridge is also expecting to release the results of a feasibility study on the Debarwa VMS project.

Released to the market will be an appropriate valuation of the Debarwa project including a production schedule with initial direct shipping ore copper production to ensure quick ramp up and access to early cashflow, Ocean Equities said.

Sunridge Gold is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the acquisition, exploration, discovery and development of base and precious metal projects on the Asmara project in Eritrea. It also holds exploration properties in Madagascar.

Horizonte entered into definitive agreements to buy 100 per cent of the Vila Oito and Floresta nickel laterite projects in July last year.

The group will pay current owner Lara Exploration about C$2 million in shares for the two sites, which will give the Canadian group a 2.95 per cent stake in Horizonte. 

Lara has agreed to a minimum 12 month lock-up for the shares it will receive from 9 February. 

The 100 per cent owned Araguaia nickel project located to the south of the Carajas mineral district of northern Brazil is its key project.

Last month, the group published a new resource estimate showing more than 100 million tonnes including 39 per cent in the indicated category and totalled 24.2 million high grade tonnes averaging 1.6 per cent Ni.

The group is expected soon to release the results of its metallurgical testing on Araguaia, which will be the basis of a pre-feasibility study.

Horizonte already has two major partners in Canadian group with a 44 per cent stake and AngloGold Ashanti (LON:AGD), which is its partner on the gold portfolio. 

Horizonte and AngloGold Ashanti have a US$5.3 million exploration alliance to generate and develop new and existing gold targets within two areas of Brazil.

Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) says that its continued feasibility work is justified at the Derryginagh barite project as drilling returns high grade results.This morning the company revealed results from the company’s first drill programme at the project in south-west Ireland.

The findings confirm high-grade vein intersections below historical mine workings, Sunrise said.

The best results included a 3.6 metre intersection containing 89 per cent barite from a depth of 200 metres and a 3.2 metre intersection of 61 per cent barite from 220 metres. Sunrise says the barite mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike.

"These results confirm that high-grade extensions to the Derryginagh barite vein system exist well below the old mine workings, and below the level of previous drilling carried out in the 1980s,"  said chairman Patrick Cheetham.

"The dimensions of the vein system outlined by drilling to-date are encouraging and further feasibility studies are justified."

Sunrise is now planning further feasibility work at the project.

Barite is an industrial mineral that has many uses, it is most commonly used as a weighting agent in drilling and as a filler in paint. Sunrise believes that the Derryginagh barite is of a sufficient quality to be used as a ‘premium’ paint filler, and as such its market value is estimated at around £200 per tonne.

“The market seems to be warming to the barite story given recent strong pricing and demand fundamentals which we see continuing,” said Andrew McGeary, analyst at Northland Capital.

The analyst added: “The (drill) campaign has successfully extended the mineralisation at depth, and demonstrated high grades with good continuity.”

According to McGeary it is expected to be a relatively simple task to extrapolate the thickness of Derryginagh’s barite mineralisation so that Sunrise can gain a good understanding of the deposit.

“Thus, while it is not ruled out at this stage, a JORC resource may not be necessary to progress the deposit. The next stage is likely to comprise some form of scoping study incorporating the new data,” he said.

Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) is set for a US$14 million boost after it agreed to sell half of its 1.5 per cent production royalty over the Mt Ida iron ore prospect.

Mt Ida is a 530 million tonne iron ore project in Western Australia. 

Jupiter Mines is developing the mine and it is currently completing a feasibility study for a 10 million tonne a year mining operation. The pivotal study is due by the end of this year.

Red Rock will receive US$14 million in three instalments from Anglo Pacific Group (LON:APF, TSE:APY).

First US$6 million will be paid for 0.3 per cent of Mt Ida’s production, a further US$4 million will buy an additional 0.225 per cent and a final US$4 million will buy the remaining 0.225 per cent.

Subsequently Anglo Pacific will own 1.5 per cent of the mine’s gross revenue iron ore royalty.

The payments will be made in either cash or shares.

Sunrise Resources says that its continued feasibility work is justified at the Derryginagh barite project as drilling returns high grade results.

This morning the company revealed results from the company’s first drill programme at the project in south-west Ireland.

The findings confirm high-grade vein intersections below historical mine workings, Sunrise said.

The best results included a 3.6 metre intersection containing 89 per cent barite from a depth of 200 metres and a 3.2 metre intersection of 61 per cent barite from 220 metres. Sunrise says the barite mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike.

"These results confirm that high-grade extensions to the Derryginagh barite vein system exist well below the old mine workings, and below the level of previous drilling carried out in the 1980s,"  said chairman Patrick Cheetham.

"The dimensions of the vein system outlined by drilling to-date are encouraging and further feasibility studies are justified."

Sunrise is now planning further feasibility work at the project.

Barite is an industrial mineral that has many uses, it is most commonly used as a weighting agent in drilling and as a filler in paint. Sunrise believes that the Derryginagh barite is of a sufficient quality to be used as a ‘premium’ paint filler, and as such its market value is estimated at around £200 per tonne.

Rainy River's June 2011 NI 43-101 resource estimate shows a measured and indicated resource of 4.41 million ounces of gold averaging 1.17 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, in addition to an inferred resource of 2.33 million ounces of gold averaging 0.94 g/t gold.

In this resource estimate, Rainy River considers the material above the final depth of the conceptual pit shell (450 metres vertical depth) offers reasonable prospects for economic extraction from an open pit, using a cut-off grade of 0.35 g/t gold.

Recently, Bayfield reported that a wide shear zone is now in the initial stages of exploration on the far east portion of the Burns Block. This zone is the easterly strike extension of the main ODM17 gold target that hosts Rainy River's deposit as well as the zone that hosts Bayfield’s high grade gold and silver mineralization 700 metres to the west.

Bayfield’s CEO, Jim Pettit, told Proactiveinvestors that the Burns Block is basically a rectangular block in the middle of Rainy River's property, and since 2010, Bayfield has completed about 70,000 metres of diamond drilling from the western border heading east, and is budgeted for another 30,000 metres of drilling in 2012.

The aim of the campaign, said Pettit, is to explore and expand the extension of gold and silver mineralization that is being defined by Rainy River on its ground adjacent to Bayfield's claims.

Early on in the 100,000 metre program at the Burns, hole RR10-15 tapped into a high grade gold and silver shoot and returned 31.71 g/t gold and 50.23 g/t silver over 3 metres at 160 metres below surface right beside the western border.

The company quickly followed up this result with hole RR10-18, which returned 35.93 g/t gold and 360 g/t silver over 10 metres.

Drilling on Burns Block was halted for a break over the holiday season, but has since resumed with exploratory drilling of mineralization initially discovered at surface in 2010 on the eastern portion of the Burns Block.

Earlier this month, the company reported assay results from this program that conclusively showed that structurally controlled gold-silver mineralization continues for at least 700 metres from west to east across the Burns Block property. Much more infill and definition drilling is planned along this strike length.

Initial wide-spaced drilling in the eastern portion of Burns Block has intercepted multi-gram gold assays, including values up to 5.58 g/t gold and 32.87 g/t silver over 1.9 metres.

Pettit said he believes that more detailed drilling in this eastern area has an "excellent chance" of intercepting richer assay results once key high-grade mineralized structures are identified.

In late 2010, surface mapping and sampling found that mineralization underneath the till cover on the western portion of the property was widely exposed at surface in an outcrop on the eastern side of the Burns Block, leading to further exploration and drilling in 2011.

Much like the western portion of the Burns Block, Bayfield is defining a lower grade envelope that could encompass much higher grade gold and silver zones at depth over to the east, the company said.

The potential for this is seen with one of the latest holes, RR11-205, which intercepted a 22.0 metre wide zone containing several distinct zones of gold mineralization in the range of 1.74 to 5.58 g/t gold, along with silver values up to 34.30 g/t silver.

Also in the northeast quadrant of the Burns Block, hole RR11-202 returned 3.00 metres of 2.56 g/t gold and 9.00 g/t silver as well as 1.50 metres of 4.08 g/t gold and 9.80 g/t silver.

Indeed, Bayfield said gold and silver values are getting richer at depth, and approximately 500 metres of the down plunge distance within the south-dipping shear zone is unexplored.

In November, Rainy River Resources released a preliminary economic assessment on its property, with plans for a combined open pit and underground operation, with a planned underground decline development looping right around the Burns Block property.

The report, which looked at mining operations over 13.2 years, estimated a life-of-mine net present value of $786 million using a $1,200 gold price, a $25 silver price and a discount rate of five percent. It also reported a 19.4 percent internal rate of return and a payback period of 3.4 years.

Pettit noted though that Rainy River's initial mine plan is "very cost-sensitive" because of the lower grades, with a mill head grade of 0.7 g/t gold, an open pit cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t gold and an underground cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t gold.

Pettit suggested that as a result of this sensitivity, underground mining is planned to hit pockets of high grade below the pit to enhance the initial economics of the mine. He added that this underground mining could target some of Bayfield’s high grade zones that are “very rich in grade” and are located near to the initially proposed underground workings in Rainy River’s 17 East Zone.

Life-of-mine average annual production for the Rainy River gold project is currently projected at 329,000 gold ounces and 497,000 silver ounces, with production anticipated to start in the second half of 2015.

The ODM17 gold zone, which extends onto the Burns Block near surface, is the first zone to be fed into the proposed mill, according to Rainy River's mine plan, added Pettit.

Pettit went on to note that another potential benefit of owning the Burns Block property is the "nice, big" outcrop located on the asset, "ideal for Rainy River's needs for constructing a mill", he said. An outcrop is an area of visible bedrock that is not covered with soil and it offers hard, stable ground as most of the district is quite boggy.

The Burns Block property can be accessed through numerous all-weather, secondary provincial highways and township roads, which lead off of paved provincial highways 11 and 71. The project therefore has good access to labour and equipment.

Aside from Burns Block, which accounts for around 99 percent of Bayfield's asset value, the company also holds the B Block and the C Block properties in the Rainy River district, which constitute "blue sky" exploration potential for the company.

Diamond drilling is now underway on the 1,976 acre C Block property situated to the west of Rainy River Resources' deposit, an area that has never before been drilled.

Around 3,000 to 3, 5000 metres of exploratory drilling is planned at the C Block, with the aim of establishing the character of the bed rock across the under-explored property. The vast majority of the asset is covered by glacial till deposits, necessitating a drilling technique called overburden drilling, which uses a reverse circulation drill, to establish gold targets for diamond drilling.

Drill targeting is also being guided by the results of ground magnetic surveys completed in 2007, and by the results of helicopter VTEM and magnetic surveys flown for Bayfield in late 2010.  Bayfield said the geophysical data is similar to that collected from its Burns Block and B Block properties, as well as the area hosting Rainy River’s deposit.

At the 1,185 acre B Block, around 2,500 metres of drilling is planned. In 2008, Bayfield drilled 2 metres of 5.84 g/t gold in the south-central portion of the B Block, with the mineralization lying within 200 metres of the surface.

Bayfield, with just under $4 million in the treasury, said it is fully funded through the balance of its exploration plans, and doesn't expect the need for more money via a financing.

Pettit, who has more than 15 years of experience managing junior resource companies, is confident with his exit strategy plans for the company given the drilling and exploration that has been done to date.

Aside from Pettit, Bayfield's management boasts president and director, Donald C. Huston, who has over 25 years in the mineral exploration industry, having been an in-field manager for several projects in North America.

Bayfield's stock has risen nearly 28 percent since the start of 2012, currently changing hands at around 61 cents, suggesting a takeover may be in the works.

In early January of this year, Doug Casey’s International Speculator refreshed its "buy" rating of Bayfield Ventures, noting that the company's bulk-tonnage lower grade mineralization in addition to higher grade drill results continue to add value to the Burns Block property, and that whatever the size of this new area of mineralization to the east is, it simply makes a takeover more likely.

One reverse circulation drill has started on gold exploration targets located on the Medrizien license, the company said, with one diamond drill expected to start drilling on the Adi Rassi target in the southern part of the Debarwa license within three weeks.

The drills are expected to complete roughly 12,000 metres of drilling over the next four to six weeks, Sunridge said.

The first planned drill targets are a series of four, sub-parallel gold mineralized shear zones, which can be followed over strike lengths of 1,000 metres to several kilometres in length, and 50 to 200 metres in width on the western part of the Medrizien exploration license.

The company said that many of these zones have been mined by Italian colonists by both open-pit and underground methods, including the Hara Hot zone which was the largest single open-pit seen on the Asmara project.

Sunridge mapped and sampled parts of the four zones ahead of the drilling program, with a total of 450 rock chip and grab samples taken. Of these, 72 returned gold assays greater than 1 gram per tonne (g/t), including 16 samples with over 5 g/t.

The best gold values were seen at 68 g/t gold in a grab sample, and 15.9 g/t gold over 2 metres in a rock chip sample.

Meanwhile, at the Debarwa license on the eastern side, a newly discovered gold mineralized shear zone, known as Adi Kubulo, will be drilled. The zone can be traced for several kilometres, with an average width of about 80 metres.

At the area, 102 rock chip and grab samples were taken so far, with assays pending, Sunridge said.

On the southern part of the Debarwa license, the Adi Rassi prospect will be the first target drilled by the diamond rig, with the target located just 10 kilometres southeast of the Debarwa deposit.

Adi Rassi is associated with a north trending shear zone about 600 metres long and averages 70 metres wide, mineralized with copper and gold.

"Management believes that Adi Rassi could be a potentially large new copper and gold discovery based on earlier drilling results such as AR-002D: 84 metres with an average grade of 1.32 g/t gold and 0.84% copper; AR-003D: 25 metres with an average grade of 0.75 g/t gold; and 0.54% copper and AR-004D: 78 metres with an average grade of 0.22 g/t gold and 1.0% copper," Sunridge said in a statment Thursday.

Results from the 12,000 metre drill program are expected within two months.

Sunridge is a mineral exploration and development company that aside from Asmara, also has exploration properties in Madagascar.

In January, the company said it expects a feasibility study for the Debarwa copper-zinc-gold-silver deposit at Asmara in the first quarter of this year, which will examine the potential for a stand-alone open-pit mine and process plant at the deposit over a seven year mine life.

The other deposits at Asmara, collectively referred to as the Asmara North project area, include the copper-zinc-gold-silver Emba Derho deposit, the zinc-gold-copper Adi Nefas deposit, and the Gupo gold deposit.

Updated resources estimates for each of these deposits are expected within the first two months of this year. A pre-feasibility study for Emba Derho is expected for the second quarter of 2012, with a full feasibility study to follow.

Shares of the company were up 9.3 percent to 59 cents as of 11:37am ET.

Sunridge Gold is a junior explorer focused on Asmara, as well as exploration properties in Madagascar.

In a research note, Ocean Equities said that Thursday's "impressive" drill results support the company's goal to upgrade the current 189,000 ounce inferred gold resource to higher resource categories, supporting the prefeasability study on the Asmara North assets, but also increasing the overall size of the resource.

The capital markets firm said the results suggest the size the of the deposit at Gupo, part of the Asmara North deposits in Eritrea, "has the potential to grow to 300,000 ounces of gold".

Earlier Thursday, Sunridge unveiled assay results from the final 63 drill holes of the recently-completed 8,100 metre, 99-hole drilling program at the Gupo gold deposit.

Among the highlights, drill hole GG-116-R returned 3.05 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 28 metres; drill hole GG-125-R encountered 3.08 g/t gold over 13 metres; drill hole GG-128-R returned 2.77 g/t gold over 19 metres and drill hole GG-142-R returned 5.72 g/t gold over 12 metres and 6.52 g/t gold over 7 metres.

At drill hole GG-156-R, the company encountered 2.31 g/t gold over 22 metres, hole GG-160-R returned 5.30 g/t gold over 19 metres and drill hole GG-168-R encountered 10.09 g/t gold over 13 metres.

Sunridge's president and CEO, Michael Hopley, said: "We are very pleased with the results of this latest drilling campaign at Gupo and are confident that it will achieve the goals of both upgrading and increasing the overall size of the Gupo Gold deposit.

"The next stage will be the completion of a new resource at Gupo by Snowden and this will be an important step towards completion of the Prefeasibility Study on the Asmara North in late March this year."

Sunridge said that in general, these results confirm the location and grade of gold mineralization defined by previous drill holes down to depths of approximately 80 metres (Gupo South) to 150 metres (Gupo Main).

In addition, new zones of mineralization have been found laterally - east and west - as well as at depth and in some cases, these zones are open.

Ocean Equities also said that Sunridge is set for a big first half of 2012: the company is expecting to release the results of a feasibility Study on the Debarwa VMS project, which includes a direct shipping ore copper zone providing early cash flow.

Released to the market will be an appropriate valuation of the Debarwa project, including a production schedule with initial direct shipping ore copper production to ensure quick ramp up and access to early cashflow.

In addition, prefeasibility studies on the Northern Asmara assets - Emba Derho, Adi Nefas and Gupo - are scheduled to be released to the market early in the second quarter.

Ocean Equities also said resource upgrades are also scheduled to coincide with the upcoming feasibility studies.