Black Rock Mining’s (ASX:BKT) Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania has delivered its best drill results to date at the recently discovered Ulanzi prospect, which will remain the company focus the remainder of 2015.
New assays from Ulanzi have reinforced the broader project’s potential with 92 metres grading 8.5% total graphitic carbon (TGC), including 12 metres at 14% TGC.
Other holes returned 52 metres at 10.4% TGC (including 8 metres at 13.81% TGC) and 32 metres at 9.25% TGC (including 10 metres at 16.32% TGC).
Assay results have returned for nine out of seventeen drill holes, showing that the 1,000m of strike drill tested is consistently mineralised at about 10% TGC.
The strike length of the prospect now extends over 5.5 kilometres, making it larger in size than Mahenge’s Cascade and Epanko North areas, which have driven much of Black Rock’s investor enthusiasm in recent months.
“In a short but intensive three month period, Ulanzi has been transformed from a few lines of test samples into the drill-out of more than 5-kilometre-long graphite mineralised structure with significant resource potential,” Black Rock managing director Steven Tambanis said.
“Every drillhole at Ulanzi is expected to add resource tonnes.”
Ulanzi will remain the company’s main exploration focus for the remainder of the year although additional drilling at Cascade is also planned to follow up on the excellent intervals received from the first four holes last month.
Cascade progress
Today’s drilling results at Ulanzi follow quickly on the return of two holes at Cascade which intercepted 98 metres at 8.92% TGC (including 40 metres at 10.18% TGC) and 60 metres at 9.04% TGC (including 62 metres at 10.07% TGC).
Additional holes will be drilled from the east to determine the full width of lode, which is currently over 70 metres.
The overall width of mineralisation is expected to increase with additional drilling from the east.
Previous trenching 250 metres to the south of the recent drill holes returned a result of 98 metres at 10.3% TGC, complementing 60 metres at 9.47% TGC further to the south.
Share performance
Exploration success at Mahenge has driven Black Rock share 260% from a June low of A$0.025 to a 52-week high of $0.09 in recent trading.
This momentum was punctuated most recently by a 7.1% bounce earlier this month on Cascade drilling results, which brought the stock to its current price of $0.08.
The company’s financial profile has otherwise been supported by an oversubscribed prospectus to raise up to $3.5 million in March immediately before confirming the company name change from Green Rock Energy to Black Rock.
The company held cash and cash equivalents of $2.5 million at the end of June, up 210% compared to the same time last year.
Analysis
These results justify infill and extensional drilling at Ulanzi and suggest the new prospect could be the company’s most prized area.
Upcoming drilling at Ulanzi will include an ambitious 30-hole program to deliver a resource by the end of the year.
Ulanzi and Cascade have both delivered significant upside potential to Black Rock shareholders by returning excellent first-pass drill results. Each has strong potential to deliver a stand-alone graphite resource only 70 kilometres by road from a train line that runs to major port city of Dar es Salaam.
Black Rock has set an initial exploration target of 30-60 million tonnes at 8-12%TGC.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.