Bu Dun Hua Porphyry Copper Project

Summary

KSO acquired the Bu Dun Hua project in 2007 after recognizing porphyry Cu style alteration around a modest quartz-hematite vein system known as the Lao Ping Tong mine.  Despite widespread sand and colluvium cover, KSO has worked systematically outwards from Lao Ping Tong through 2008-2009 and late in 2009, located the outer margin of a strongly altered and Cu-Mo mineralised porphyry intrusive complex. 

This discovery, under 35m of cover, is an important step in KSO’s endeavours following its selection of Inner Mongolia as an appropriate exploration environment for low cost discovery of new bulk-mineable porphyry style deposits.

Geological overview

The Bu Dun Hua project is located in a northwest-concave Palaeozoic fold belt traversed by a NNE trending belt of Mesozoic intrusives and volcanics that elsewhere hosts a number of significant epithermal gold, porphyry copper and skarn copper deposits.

Within KSO’s tenement area, outcrop is poor outside of a prominent, central, northeast trending ridge of hydrothermally altered felsic volcanic flows and fragmental rocks   Prior to KSO’s involvement, previous explorers had focussed on a small area of precious and base metal anomalies associated with a series of variably silicified fault structures on the south flank of the ridge.  The largest of these structures had been prospected by shallow underground workings referred to as the Lao Ping Tong mine.  Geological and geophysical investigations of the Lao Ping Tong area by the Inner Mongolian Geological Bureau and the China Academy of Sciences proposed that the fault system may be underlain by intrusives at shallow depth. 

KSO Exploration

In 2008, KSO undertook detailed mapping, geophysical surveys, surface sampling and drill testing of two fault zones in the Lao Ping Tong area.  Strong Pb/Zn mineralisation, widespread alteration and porphyry-style veining provided strong evidence of a nearby mineralised porphyry intrusive.

In 2009, it drilled 6 diamond holes, 5 at the Whitehorse prospect 1km northeast of Lao Ping Tong. Three of the 5 holes intersected strongly altered sulphide-mineralised intrusive rocks under tens of metres of colluvium and drifting sand cover.  Anomalous Cu ± Mo values are widespread through the intrusive intercepts and intermittently anomalous Au values have also been noted.  The style of alteration and the presence of the mineralisation is consistent with the upper levels of a porphyry Cu system.  Trends of increasing sulphide content; increasing Cu-Mo-Au versus Pb-Zn anomalism; and changing alteration assemblages are being defined from drill-core studies as vectors to a system centre.

The Whitehorse discovery has established the presence of appropriate intrusive bodies and metal-bearing fluids for the formation of a porphyry Cu ± Mo deposit and provides both encouragement and firm guidance for ongoing drilling.  Key observations from core logging, ongoing surface mapping and drill core petrographic studies completed to date are:

• Cu ± Mo mineralisation is associated with a complex of tonalite to granite porphyry intrusions into an intermediate to acid volcanic fragmental pile;
• There have been several intrusive episodes with associated alteration phases;
• There has been post-mineralisation faulting;
• Pb + Zn mineralisation is associated with a more peripheral alteration assemblage and weakens in favour of Cu ± Mo ± Au inwards toward the intrusive complex;
• There are textures in the intrusive intercepts that imply the underlying presence of further (subsequent) intrusives;

 2010 Program

Initial interpretation places the five Whitehorse holes at the northern perimeter of a shallowly buried intrusive complex centred further to the south (see below). This is supported by magnetic survey results.  At the same time more widespread prospecting and mapping has yielded alteration results over an area of at least 4.2 sq km and points to the alternatives that either the Whitehorse system is substantial in size, or there may be more such mineralised intrusive centres within the tenement.

Drilling to be conducted in second quarter 2010 will be oriented toward definition of the size, geometry and alteration/mineralisation trends of the Whitehorse system. At the same time, attention will be given to the vicinity of the sixth 2009 drillhole which located alteration approximately 1.8km southwest of Whitehorse.

Whitehorse target model