Mining Group begins drilling of newly discovered copper-gold target in Philippines 

(MENAFN - ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Mining Group (ASX: MNE) has begun diamond drilling to test the copper and gold system recently discovered at Tagpura North, part of the 80% owned Comval copper-gold project in the Philippines.

Tagpura North lies about 1 kilometre north of the historic Tagpura East resource.

Mining Group previously discovered extensive gold rich skarn and diorite at Tagpura North with peak assays up to 3.58% copper and 12.52 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from rock chips.

The company has defined a 500 metre by 300 metre target zone that is open along strike to the northeast which is a significantly larger footprint than the Tagpura East resource.

It has returned some of the highest copper and gold grades seen within the project area from rock chip samples to date.

Importantly, the newly discovered Tagpura North skarn, located only 750 metres from the Tagpura open pit mine, has the potential to further build on the resource base.

Last month Mining Group delivered its first resource for the project of 32.675 million tonnes at 0.42% copper and 0.13g/t gold for 136,100 tonnes of contained copper and 138,900 ounces of contained gold.

Importantly, this includes a high grade resource of 8.987 million tonnes at 0.63% copper and 0.2g/t gold, which is all at surface and expected to have a low stripping ratio.

Drilling is expected to continue over the next two to three months.

Zeff Reeves, managing director, told Proactive Investors last month the drilling of the Tagpura North Target will involve two to four holes, depending on how the first two look.

Over the broader Comval Project, Mining Group is currently assessing its resource models and will be looking at further drilling on the Tagpura East deposit and possibly Kalamatan once ground geophysics are completed.