ROYAL FALCON SIGNS JOINT VENTURE ON LARGE GOLD COPPER PROJECT IN SWEDEN

Transcription

1 ASX ANNOUNCEMENT 7 APRIL 2009 ASX: GMR ROYAL FALCON SIGNS JOINT VENTURE ON LARGE GOLD COPPER PROJECT IN SWEDEN Highlights Golden Rim s, Abu Dhabi registered alliance company, Royal Falcon Mining LLC, has secured its first major mineral projects The projects are located in central Sweden and include the advanced Falun and Bersbo poly-metallic projects Through a joint venture arrangement with Drake Resources Ltd, Royal Falcon Mining LLC can earn up to 75% interest in the projects Considerable volumes of high grade gold and copper mineralisation remain at Falun and offer immediate targets for drilling The Eastern Copper-Gold Zone at Falun includes near-surface mineralisation with intersections including g/t gold and 0.5% copper, g/t gold and 0.5% copper, and g/t gold and 0.7% copper Little modern exploration has been conducted at Bersbo and conductors recently discovered in a VTEM geophysical survey may be related to massive sulphide mineralisation The Directors of Golden Rim Resources Ltd ( Golden Rim ) are pleased to announce that as a 35% shareholder in Abu Dhabi registered Royal Falcon Mining LLC ( Royal Falcon ), it has executed a Farmin and Joint Venture Heads of Agreement with Drake Resources Ltd ( Drake ) on the advanced Falun and Bersbo poly-metallic projects located in the Bergslagen district in central Sweden ( Bergslagen Joint Venture ). Previously the projects were subject to an alliance agreement between Drake and OZ Minerals Ltd ( OZ Minerals ). OZ Minerals spent around A$2 million in Sweden on exploration and project generation through the alliance. The involvement of OZ Minerals was critical in the partners securing the much sought after Falun project. Despite advanced plans for a major exploration campaign, OZ Minerals recently withdrew from the alliance agreement with Drake owing to a change in strategic direction. As part of a termination agreement with Drake, OZ Minerals retain no on-going rights in relation to the Falun and Bersbo projects. GOLDEN RIM RESOURCES LTD ABN Level 2, 10 Outram Street, West Perth, WA 6005, Australia Telephone: Facsimile: info@goldenrim.com.au Website:

2 Bergslagen Joint Venture Terms The Bergslagen Joint Venture consists of 15 granted licences covering an area of 376 square kilometres. Licence ownership is currently being transferred from OZ Minerals to Drake, with Drake to have 100% ownership. Under the terms of the agreement, Royal Falcon have the right to earn a 51% interest in the Falun and Bersbo licences by spending US$3 million within three years. A further US$3 million can then be spent by Royal Falcon to increase this interest to 75%. Royal Falcon must spend at least US$1 million on the licences before it can elect to withdraw from the agreement. If Drake s project interest falls below 5%, then their interest will revert to a 2% Net Smelter Royalty on production from the Falun or Bersbo projects. Royal Falcon has initially agreed to allow Drake to continue to manage the exploration work on the Bergslagen Joint Venture licences. Royal Falcon can elect to take over management from Drake. Falun Copper - Gold - Zinc Project The Falun copper-gold-zinc project comprises six licences covering 101 square kilometres around the historic mining centre of Falun, located 200 kilometres northwest of Stockholm. Falun was first mined around 700AD, and was the largest copper producer in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The mine was closed in 1992 after operating for more than 1,400 years. Records show that more than 35 million tonnes of high-grade ore were mined containing on average 1-3% copper, 2-6% zinc and 1-7 g/t gold. Falun is regarded as one of the world s great, massive sulphide mineralising systems. At Falun, there are two main ore types. The bulk of the mined orebody was made up by pyritic copper-zinc-gold massive sulphide ores. High-grade pods of siliceous copper-gold ore occur in the footwall alteration zone. A less defined network of gold-bismuth veins also overprints part of the system. There has been no exploration at the Falun mine for almost two decades. A review of the last exploration work undertaken at the mine shows that the approach was limited to ad hoc drilling around the edges of the orebody for extensions of the massive sulphides. In the final years of operation, a programme to assess the copper-gold and gold- bismuth ores was initiated, but it was left unfinished. Royal Falcon and Drake consider that there is potential for substantial discoveries near the old mine. Falun is located within a major siliceous alteration zone that extends continuously for eight kilometres within the Drake licence. The zone is up to 800 metres in width and appears to continue at this size with depth. Comparisons with similar major Page 2 of 11

3 ore systems such as Rosebery and Golden Grove in Australia suggest that only a small part of the potential ore system at Falun has been effectively explored. A modern integrated approach to exploration has never been applied to the mineralised system at Falun. Royal Falcon and Drake believe that such an approach using detailed geology, including three dimensional mapping of the Falun orebodies, volcanic stratigraphy, alteration assemblages, litho-geochemistry patterns, down-hole geophysics, structural analysis, and significant drilling is required to effectively test the potential for discovery in the system. With more than a millennium of mining history, the Falun mine is a historic site. In recognition of this, the old open pit and parts of the town have been placed on the World Heritage register. Open pit mining is precluded from within this area. However, the managers of the site are positive about the development of a living mine alongside or underneath the historic mine. The majority of the waste tips, and the industrial areas north and southeast of the old mine, are outside the heritage site. The existing decline could be accessed below the floor of the pit from one of these areas. A recent compilation of historic drilling data (985 holes) by Drake suggests considerable volumes of high grade gold and copper mineralisation remains at Falun, particularly to the east and west of the massive sulphide orebody which was the focus of past mining. The gold and copper mineralisation extends over broad zones to depths of more than 1,000 metres. Only limited high grade parts of this mineralisation were selectively mined for copper years ago. The extent of the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone has been partly defined by past mining and drilling. It extends for at least 500 m (in a north-south orientation), is up to 200 metres wide, and extends to at least 550 metres. Old mine reports suggest that it may extend to 1,100 metre depth. The Swedish mine geologists regarded the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone as a stock work or stringer zone. A few shallow diamond holes drilled in the very upper portion of the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone in the final years of the operation returned encouraging intercepts of g/t gold and 0.5% copper, g/t gold and 0.5 % copper (ending in mineralisation) and g/t gold and 2.0 % copper (starting in mineralisation). Underground diamond drilling between 200 and 400 metres depth below these near-surface intersections indicate that mineralisation is present, but the mine geologists assayed only sporadic short intervals of centimetre length, instead of the full length of mineralised core. It is believed that the reason for these unusual sampling protocols was a focus on the narrow quartz veins. Despite the incomplete sampling in this area, the individual short samples contained interesting high grade gold grades (e.g g/t gold, g/t gold, g/t gold and g/t gold). Page 3 of 11

4 Photograph of the Falun open pit in central Sweden. Page 4 of 11

5 Figure 1: Plan view at 145m level of the Falun Mine depicting the location of ore zones. Figure 2: Plan view depicting results of shallow drilling in the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone at Falun. Page 5 of 11

6 Figure 3: Section view depicting the location of previous drilling in the Eastern Copper-Gold Zone at Falun. Page 6 of 11

7 Bersbo Copper- Zinc Project The Bersbo copper-zinc project comprises nine licences, covering over 275 square kilometres of the Bersbo massive sulphide belt. It is located approximately 150 kilometres southwest of Stockholm. Copper was mined at Bersbo for almost 1,000 years. It is believed to have been the second largest copper producer in the Bergslagen province. As the mining records are incomplete, the past production statistics, and tonnage and grade of the ore mined are not known. However, a report written in 1912, after the mine had closed, describes a parcel of ore of 50,000t with average grades of 20% Zn and 2% Cu remaining in the mine. Grab samples taken from the surface dumps assayed in the ranges of % copper and % zinc. In addition, sampling by OZ Minerals at prospects along the 50 kilometre strikelength of the prospective belt gives assays ranging up to 6.4% zinc, 0.9% copper, 0.4 g/t gold and 44 g/t silver. Despite the past mining and records of widespread mineral occurrence, Bersbo lies in a forgotten corner of Bergslagen, off most geological or mineral exploration-related maps of the province. The last government mapping is believed to have been in the 1890s. The only known exploration in the last four decades were two holes drilled by Zinkgruvan Mining in the early 1990s, and a small electro-magnetic geophysical survey by Granges in the 1980s. Hence, the Bersbo area must also be regarded as almost totally unexplored in the current context. A number of strong VTEM geophysical conductors have recently been discovered by OZ Minerals which are believed to be related to massive sulphide mineralisation. These conductors offer very attractive targets for drilling. Page 7 of 11

8 Figure 4: Plan showing the Bersbo licences and the location of VTEM geophysical conductors. Planned Work Royal Falcon and Drake have agreed to a US$1 million exploration program on the Falun and Bersbo projects to be conducted over the next six months. The program will include a major diamond drilling program to test the copper-gold zones at Falun. It is expected that this drilling will be sufficient to enable an initial resource estimate for the copper-gold mineralisation to be calculated. At Bersbo a diamond drilling program is planned to test for additional mineralisation at the Bersbo mine and to test the exciting VTEM geophysical targets. Drake and Royal Falcon plan to commence activities in Sweden immediately to take advantage of the coming Northern Hemisphere summer. Page 8 of 11

9 About Golden Rim, Royal Falcon and the Alliance with Royal Group On the 1 st August 2008 Golden Rim Resources Ltd entered to a Strategic Alliance with PAL Group, a subsidiary of Royal Group, based in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) to jointly acquire, explore and develop major mineral projects. A jointly owned company, Royal Falcon Mining LLC ( Royal Falcon ), was established in Abu Dhabi in December 2008 to manage mineral projects acquired under the alliance. Royal Group is one of the largest business and investment houses in the UAE. It is a globally diversified conglomerate of 60 large and medium sized companies and has a vast network of business contacts and extensive operating experience with large developments in many countries, along with the financial capacity to undertake major investments. Launched in the late 1990 s, Royal Group currently employs over 10,000 people from a wide variety of countries and cultures and is supported through its head office in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi. The Chairman of the Group is His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It has a significant and growing presence internationally, with a broad spectrum of investments and partners throughout the Middle East, Asia, USA and South America. One of Royal Group s current projects in property development is the US$60 billion Al Reem Island Project in Abu Dhabi. Royal Falcon is actively conducting a worldwide search for new major mineral projects. Currently the Company is reviewing several major gold and iron ore projects in northern Africa. Royal Falcon is willing to consider an involvement in quality projects anywhere. Corporate Golden Rim is also pleased to announce an addition to their corporate staff with the appointment of Ms Hayley Butcher as Assistant Company Secretary. Page 9 of 11

10 Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact this office. Yours faithfully GOLDEN RIM RESOURCES LTD CRAIG MACKAY Managing Director 7 April 2009 The information in this report, insofar as it relates to exploration results, is based on information compiled by Mr Craig Mackay. Mr Mackay is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr Mackay consults to the Company. This report accurately reflects the information compiled by Mr Mackay and Mr Mackay consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Page 10 of 11

11 Company Information Golden Rim Resources Ltd ABN Directors Mr Rick Crabb : Chairman Mr Craig Mackay : Managing Director Mr Gilbert Rodgers : Executive Director & Company Secretary Mr Glenister Lamont : Non-executive Director Registered Office Level 2 10 Outram Street West Perth WA 6005 Australia Telephone: Facsimile: info@goldenrim.com.au Website: Stock Exchange Listing Australian Securities Exchange ASX Code : GMR Capital Structure (31 December 2008) Issued Shares : 104,657,587 Unlisted Options : 33,150,000 Major Shareholders PAL Technology Services LLC : 14.98% Mr Rick Crabb : 8.43% Share Registry Security Transfer Registrars Pty Ltd 770 Canning Highway Applecross WA 6000 Australia Telephone: Facsimile: Page 11 of 11