Proactive Investor's  Instablog

Lachlan Star's (ASX: LSA) progress at the CMD Gold Mine in Chile is continuing to attract investor interest, with votes of confidence coming from two investment companies.

Intact Investment Management has taken up an initial substantial shareholding of 9.66% in Lachlan Star, buying up 8.34 million shares over a period of about 4 months.

Meanwhile, existing substantial shareholder Sentry Investments has taken up a further 2.6 million shares in May, taking its total shareholding to 9.4 million, equivalent to a 10.91% interest.

Lachlan Star is continuing to outperform at the CMD Gold Mine, revealing earlier this month that the company had delivered its highest level of gold stacked for the mine since it took ownership of the operation.

For the month of April the unhedged gold producer stacked 6,000 ounces of gold. A further achievement was the increase in the grade of the stacked ore to 0.61 grams per tonne, the highest stacked grade since October last year.

This increase was achieved despite the company not mining in the Chisperos and Las Loas pits for most of the month.

Lachlan Star is working to optimise its mining costs by converting part of the CMD Mine operations to owner mining, which is expected to deliver cost savings of US$100 to $150 per gold ounce.

Mining contractors on site will be rationalised from three contractors down to one, delivering an immediate saving on mining unit rates.

Unhedged gold production rising

In March Lachlan Star had unhedged gold production of around 57,500 ounces per annum, however the company is looking to increase this to 75,000 ounces per annum in the next 12 months.

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Elementos (ASX: ELT) continues to make progress towards a target definition at its Tamaya Project in Chile after the second phase sampling identified further high grade copper.

The sampling and mapping program returned high grade copper of up to 4.75% while 60% of the 73 reconnaissance samples from multiple structures returned over 1% copper.

It also showed the potential for precious metals mineralisation with gold and silver anomalies of up to 2.21 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 8.4g/t silver.

Another 124 assay results are pending.

The ongoing mapping and sampling has now uncovered over 6 kilometres of mineralised structure.

Preliminary interpretation of the results include the presence of a number of smaller sub-parallel structures flanking the main Tamaya vein that are offset by a number of small cross-cutting structure.

Tamaya

Earlier this year Elementos secured an option to earn a 50% interest in the Tamaya Project, which is strategically located in a major copper-gold district hosting the Andacollo, El Espino, Tres Valles, and Punitaqui deposits.

Historical production at Tamaya is reported to be 2 million tonnes at 12% copper, with Elementos having identified the potential for large volumes of lower grade material.

Elementos' sampling and mapping program is concentrated on the main Tamaya structural trend that was the primary focus of historic mining activity.

Next Steps

The company continues to move closer towards the start of drilling at Tamaya, which is currently planned for the third quarter of this year subject to drill rig availability.

Mapping and geochemical sampling programs are continuing over the historic workings and surface exposures of the multiple structures, veins and systems which host copper mineralisation are continuing.

This will be followed by a ground-penetrating pole-dipole IP geophysical survey, planned to commence in late May

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Predictive Discovery's (ASX: PDI) new gold discoveries at the Bonsiega Project in Burkina Faso help progress the company towards a maiden JORC Resource, which is targeted for the September quarter of 2012.

At Prospect 71, reverse circulation drilling returned a high grade intercept of 4 metres at 7.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, highlighting gold in the area. This discovery is along strike from the near surface intersections of 4 metres at 15g/t gold and 2 metres at 7.5g/t gold.

Importantly the new gold intersection is supported by broader discoveries at the nearby Dave East prospect, which include:

- 26 metres at 2.7g/t gold from 22 metres;
- 28 metres at 1.6g/t gold from 30 metres; and
- 12 metres at 1.5g/t gold from 28 metres.

Mineralisation at Dave East remains open to the northeast and at depth.

Paul Roberts, managing director of Predictive Discovery, said the company's drilling programs in Burkina Faso are aimed at identifying the scale of potential gold mineralised systems and infilling the best prospects to advance towards a JORC Resource.

"Drilling on the Dave and Dave East Prospects within the Laterite Hill Grid has already identified a large mineralised system over a strike length of at least 4 kilometres including multiple lodes containing moderate gold grades and some higher grades at depth," Roberts said.

"Infill and extension drilling on just one of these lodes at Dave East shows that it extends for at least 500 metres with significant widths of gold mineralisation on each line."

Speaking on the Prospect 71 discovery, Roberts said the new assays confirm the presence of another higher grade lode to add to recent discoveries at the Tamboana and Koundi prospects.

"The higher gold grades in these zones balance the lower grades in "Dave East‐type" lodes and strengthen the probability of obtaining average grades over the whole Laterite Hill gold field above 2 grams per tonne gold," Roberts said.

Bonsiega covers about 100 kilometres of strike within the Samira Hill greenstone belt, which also hosts SEMAFO's (TSE: SMF) 2 million ounce Samira Hill gold mine in Niger.

The project is located within 100 kilometres of both the Samira Hill mine, and the producing Taparko-Bouroum Project in Burkina Faso, which has Proven and Probable Reserves of 8.85 million tonnes at 2.81g/t gold for 800,000 ounces of gold.

Taparko is held in a joint venture between Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) and High River Gold Mines (TSE: HRG).

Predictive Discovery is continuing reverse circulation drilling on the Laterite Hill Grid, along with a power auger program testing 15 kilometres of greenstone strike to the southwest of the grid.

The company is planning preliminary metallurgical studies on representative samples of gold mineralisation.

The Laterite Hill Grid is part of a joint venture between Predictive Discovery and El Dore Mining Corporation (ASX: EDM), in which Predictive Discovery holds a 72.1% interest.

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