New Guinea Gold is the next big gold producer

New Gold Producer in Papua New Guinea with approx 1 million ozs in gold equivilant resources, and targets exceeding 5 millions ozs

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Message: NR-New Guinea Gold Strategy Update

NR-New Guinea Gold Strategy Update

posted on Feb 08, 2010 04:36PM

New Guinea Gold strategy update

	    <<
	                         - Refinanced and streamlined
	                             - Re-organized board
	                  - Sinivit expansion and value enhancement
	                      - Joint ventures and partnerships

	    Trading Symbols: TSX-V: NGG
	    Frankfurt: NG8.FSE
	    Web Site: www.newguineagold.ca
	    >>

	    VANCOUVER, Feb. 8 /CNW/ - New Guinea Gold Corporation (NGG) has recently
completed the raising of $5.1 million and the Joint Venture of and/or sale of
assets to Vangold Ltd and private company 7238550 Canada Ltd. This strategy,
which has taken several years to complete, (also includes retaining a 23%
holding in Coppermoly Ltd and 10% carried interest in the Crater Mt Project)
allows NGG to retain interests in 10 gold and/or copper/molybdenum projects in
Papua New Guinea. Without sufficient capital to fund exploration and take to
development all of its projects, our strategy has been to allow other
corporate entities to further fund most projects while retaining a significant
upside potential.
	    NGG is now refinanced and streamlined, has revised its Board and
Management structure, and together with new major shareholders (Skana Capital
and Mr Ricardo Salinas), and Joint venture partners has the capacity to build
NGG into a significant mining company.
	    NGG's focus is now on its Sinivit Gold Mine; improving gold production;
assessing the tellurium potential of both the oxidised and mined/crushed
mineralisation in vats and within the deeper sulphide mineralisation; and
assessing the potential for locating additional economic mineralisation, both
oxide and sulphide, along the 10 km long Wild Dog or Sinivit structural zone.

	    <<
	    SINIVIT PRODUCTION
	    ------------------
	    Gold and silver production for the December quarter totaled 1,474.5ozs and
325.9ozs respectively. Monthly production was as follows:

	               October    -   461.9ozs gold and 96.4ozs silver
	               November   -   317.3ozs gold and 85ozs silver
	               December   -   695.3ozs gold and 144.5ozs silver

	    NGG expects gold production to increase in 2010 as a result of the newly
acquired mining equipment and a possible change in the processing method.
	    By March 2010, the Company will have sufficient equipment on site so that
mining, vat building and filling requirements are not reliant on extended dry
weather, but should now be able to be accomplished regardless of weather.

	    -  In October, NGG acquired two CAT 730 6x6 articulated dump trucks; one
	       Hitachi 450H 45t excavator, and one CAT D5G bulldozer. NGG now owns
	       this equipment subject to a business loan of Kina 3 million with the
	       Bank of South Pacific, repayable monthly over 24 months. The previous
	       loan from the Bank of South Pacific has been fully repaid.

	    -  We have since then added, as NGG fully owned equipment, a further D7
	       bulldozer, two further CAT 25t excavators, a CAT grader, a CAT tool
	       carrier, and a further CAT 730 6x6 articulated dump truck. All this
	       equipment will not be on site and operating until the end of February.
	       It has been purchased using funds raised by the recent placements. In
	       the meantime, we continue to use less effective hired road trucks and
	       excavators.

	    -  The additional cone crusher purchased mid 2009 has been refurbished
	       and should be on site and operating in early March 2010. This,
	       together with a more extensive crusher parts inventory should
	       substantially increase crushing capacity by Second Quarter 2010.
	    >>

	    Production, as originally envisaged of 2,500 ozs to 3,000 ozs per month
is unlikely to be achieved on a consistent basis without a change in the
processing method. The VAT leach process we are using has been shown to have
significant shortcomings in difficult terrain and high rainfall areas.
	    As previously reported, NGG is studying converting the processing route
to a variation of CIP, which we have designated CIC or Carbon in Column.
Basically this would require us to mill new mineralisation and re-treat
existing crushed mineralisation already in vats by grinding in a mill to
nominal size of minus 100 microns, leach the gold in tanks, and collect the
gold in existing carbon columns. Residue time in tanks is expected to be
approximately 48 hours and anticipated gold recoveries by such a process would
be between 90 and 95%, rather than the present 60 to 70%. At present it takes
up to 12 months to extract all recoverable gold from a vat. The capital and
operating costs required to effect these changes are being assessed to
determine if we should proceed.

	    <<
	    SINIVIT TELLURIUM
	    -----------------
	    >>
	    A recent review of historic exploration reports has revealed further
details of the presence of the metal tellurium within the Sinivit Vein System.
In August and October 2008, NGG issued media releases concerning the tellurium
potential in the primary sulphide zone where assay information from an
historic drill hole (WDD024) had identified tellurium values ranging from
140g/t to 1,600g/t over an interval from 138.65m to 144m downhole. Tellurium
averaged 1,097g/t, gold 6.9g/t, copper 1.1% and silver 25g/t.
	    This recent review has identified the presence of tellurium in the "oxide
zone" (the focus of the gold vat leaching operation) from both historic drill
information (WDD021) and a petrological report. Hole WDD021 (City Resources
1986) encountered a 14.7m interval between 7.15m and 21.85m downhole which
averaged 10.7g/t gold and 1,110g/t tellurium. This hole was drilled into the
oxide zone of the Central Vein at Sinivit. Both copper and silver are
substantially leached from the oxide zone. A petrological report on 13 rock
chip samples also identified tellurium in the oxide zone utilizing optical and
electron probe studies. The minerals identified, included; native tellurium,
tellurobismuthinite, altaite, rickardite, hessite, petzite and calaverite.
	    We were not previously aware that significant tellurium was present in
the oxide zone and believed that most tellurium, copper and silver had been
leached from the near surface zone. These historic results suggest there may
be significant tellurium - of the order of 500g/t to 1,000g/t (100,000kg to
200,000kg contained tellurium) in the approximately 200,000 tonnes of crushed
mineralisation presently in vats. Tellurium is also expected to be present in
similar quantities in the remaining oxide gold mineralisation yet to be mined
(quantity of mineralisation not yet defined).
	    NGG urges caution in accepting the estimates above until the bulk
sampling, noted below, has been completed.
	    In the sulphide zone beneath the oxide zone NGG has completed tellurium
assays on some 68m of RC drill samples (see Press Release dated October 4,
2008 for details). These 34 results confirmed historic tellurium assays, and
averaged 576g/t tellurium, 9.92g/t gold, 1.8% copper and 55g/t silver. The
copper and silver results are an order of magnitude greater in this zone than
in the oxide zone, (the focus of present mining). An historic hole in the
sulphide zone reported in a Press Release dated August 19, 2008, averaged
5.35m at 1097g/t tellurium.
	    The tellurium assaying of the sulphide zone mineralisation to date
suggests that, associated with gold, silver and copper mineralisation,
tellurium values in this zone could average between 550g/t and 1,200g/t
(current value of between US100 and US$216/tonne of mineralisation.
	    NGG believes the historic assays to be accurate and can be relied upon,
(based on NGG's recent tellurium assays), but investors are cautioned that the
historic assaying was carried out prior to the requirement for accreditation
of laboratories.
	    NGG is embarking on a comprehensive program of sampling to allow a better
understanding of the distribution of, average content of, and metallurgical
recovery of, tellurium. This program will involve bulk sampling of material
presently in vats using an excavator and auger drill; re-assaying
approximately 70 composite samples from several hundred metres of RC drill
pulps; channel sampling within the open pit; and re-assaying composite
sulphide intersections from historic diamond core drill holes. This program
will take approximately 2 months to complete.
	    Tellurium is often difficult metallurgically to recover, and we intend to
undertake comprehensive metallurgical testing of material from different parts
of the system. We are in discussions with several interested groups re this
testing and initially several composite samples will be tested by an
interested mineral buyer in the USA.

	    About Tellurium

	    The vast majority (around 80%) of the tellurium produced elsewhere in the
world today is a by-product of copper smelting and electrolytic refining - the
metal being recovered from the anode slimes.
	    Tellurium is the scarcest of all by product metals except for gold.
Crustal abundance is 0.005ppm. It is considerably enriched in copper ores (1.5
- 3ppm).
	    Tellurium has a range of applications. It is used in blasting caps and
rubber processing; it makes a good vulcanizing agent and catalyst in synthetic
fibre production. It is being used increasingly in electronics for such
applications as Phase Change memory, Blu-Ray discs, Peltier and
Thermo-electric Coolers in Thermal Images. In recent years, the potential in
thin-film cadmium telluride (Cd/Te) photovoltaic cells, used to generate
electricity from solar cell power plants, have grabbed investor attention
pushing the price up dramatically in 2008 to around US$300/kg from US$12/kg in
2000. The current price (January 2010) is around US $180/kg.

	    <<
	    SINIVIT EXPLORATION
	    -------------------
	    >>
	    The Sinivit Project has the potential to be substantially larger than is
suggested by the current modest resources.

	    As stated earlier, NGG will now focus on defining the size of the Sinivit
system. It is important to note here that the Sinivit system has been traced,
using gold/copper and tellurium anomalism, over a strike length of more than
10kms. Less than 2kms of this zone has been explored in detail and even in
this part of the system, exploration, is most cases, has not exceeded 100m
vertical depth.

	    The proposed exploration which is budgeted at $2 million can be divided
into five parts:

	    <<
	    -  Detailed, close spaced RC drilling to define the immediate 30m below
	       the pit floors (as we reach the present pit limit of 30m). This work
	       is expected to commence in the Second Quarter 2010 and continue
	       throughout 2010.

	    -  Detailed trenching and RC drilling to define the extent of the present
	       Inferred Resource at Kavursuki - 1.5kms north of the northern oxide
	       pit. This work is in progress and should be completed in Second
	       Quarter 2010. It is expected to add resources to the current mine
	       plan.

	    -  Definition of the sulphide (gold/copper/tellurium) potential at depth
	       along the Wild Dog structure. Diamond core drilling has demonstrated
	       the presence of potentially mineable widths and grades at depth below
	       the oxide zones. The potential target area is however large, and we
	       plan to undertake a 3D Induced Polarization (IP) survey to define the
	       better target areas for testing by diamond core holes. This survey is
	       similar to the successful survey carried out by Coppermoly at
	       Mt Nakru, the results of which contributed to Barrick Gold's interest
	       in that area and subsequent Joint Venture. This work is scheduled for
	       April 2010.

	    -  Porphyry copper mineralisation has been located just to the west of
	       the Sinivit System, and may in fact be related to the mineralisation
	       at Sinivit. The 3D IP Survey will be extended to cover this zone.

	    -  A recent review of historic outcrop sampling along the 10km strike of
	       the Wild Dog Structural Zone has revealed the presence of gold and
	       tellurium at many locations.
	    >>

	    Examples are at the Mengmut vein, located 1km southwest of the Mt Sinivit
Lease, where an outcrop sample assayed 19g/t gold, 0.73% tellurium, 1.25%
copper and 381ppm molybdenum. Outcrop sampling in the vicinity of the Muruk
Vein located approximately 5kms southwest of the Mine Lease identified
tellurium in two samples (77ppm tellurium and 90ppm tellurium). At Steel Creek
Veins, located 1 km west of Muruk vein, an outcrop sample had assayed 32ppm
tellurium (9.6g/t gold and 158ppm silver).
	    Numerous rock samples have been collected which assay from less than 1g/t
gold to in excess of 100g/t gold.
	    These assays highlight the known distance over which the gold/telluride
mineralisation occurs in the Wild Dog Structural Zone and justifies detailed
follow-up exploration.
	    The IP survey will be extended to cover parts of this zone and will be
completed in conjunction with excavator trenching in areas of anomalous gold
float.

	    <<
	    JOINT VENTURES/SHARE HOLDINGS IN ASSOCIATED RESOURCE COMPANIES
	    --------------------------------------------------------------
	    >>
	    NGG's interests in the various projects in PNG are displayed on the
accompanying chart. NGG's principle interests outside its 93% owned Sinivit
Mine (and project) are its 23% interest in Coppermoly Ltd (two projects), its
17% interest (plus individual carried interests in four projects) in Vangold
Resources Ltd, and its J/V with private company 7238550 Canada Ltd, (which may
earn a 50% interest in the Normanby and Sehulea Projects).
	    Other interests are the 10% interest, carried to Bankable Feasibility
Study, in the Crater Mt projects (see Press Release dated February 2, 2010.
	    The Vangold and 7238550 Canada Ltd deals were recently described in Press
Releases dated February 1, 2010 and February 4, 2010.
	    Bob McNeil CEO and Chairman commented: "the completion of these
transactions with Vangold and 7238550 Canada Ltd will now allow NGG to focus
on, and further develop, its 92% owned Sinivit Mine and Project. In addition,
although Vangold and 7238550 Canada Ltd will manage their exploration and
subsequent development, NGG, because of its expertise in PNG will be
intimately involved in the operations of both companies".

	    <<
	    DIRECTORS AND MANAGEMENT
	    ------------------------
	    >>
	    In a Press Release dated 3 February 2010, NGG outlined changes to the
Board and Management which should help the Company complete the strategy
outlined in this Press Release.
	    The addition of new significant shareholders will add considerable
financial strength to the company going forward.

	    The information in this release was prepared under the direction of
Robert D. McNeil a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and
Metallurgy and a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
Mr McNeil has read and approves the information contained herein.
	    Full details of the Sinivit Mine are described in an Independent N1
43-101 report dated January 2006 which is available at www.newguineagold.ca
and in its recent Press Releases.

	    <<
	    ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

	    R.D.McNeil
	    CHAIRMAN & CEO
	    >>

	    Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as
that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

	    Forward Looking Statements - Certain information set forth in this news
release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known
and unknown risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are
subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the
control of NGG, including, but not limited to the impact of general economic
conditions, industry conditions, volatility of commodity prices, risks
associated with the uncertainty of resource and reserve estimates, currency
fluctuations, dependence upon regulatory approvals, the availability of future
financing and exploration risk. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions
used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at
the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue
reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.






-30-
	    /For further information: on this release or on other NGG projects such
as the Sinivit Gold Mine, contact Forbes West toll free at (888) 655-5532,
email [email protected] or Judith O'Quinn at (604) 662-3598, email
[email protected] or access our website - www.newguineagold.ca/
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