Ethan Minerals Limited

Indonesia

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:45:39 +0000

Gold Tiger Project

The Gold Tiger project is located in the province of Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo Indonesia. The project consists of five (5) mineral concession licenses in the Pujon area, of the Kapuas Tengah district within the Kapuas regency of Central Kalimantan province.

Based on previous exploration programs and geotechnical studies, the project purports to contain wide spread, alluvial and primary hard rock gold mineralization. Within the project a discrete delineated alluvial project, containing a calculated gold reserve of 631,747 oz is reported.

Gunung Mas Project

The Gunung Mas Project lies in central Kalimantan near the Company’s Gold Tiger Project. The geology comprises andesitic intrusive, with metamorphic lying to the south. A large tonalite intrusive has intruded the entire package.

Gold mineralization is known along the contract between the tonalite and the metamorphic. This appears to be a stockwork style, with individual veins ranging from 5cm to 1m in width. Sulphides are not noted as a major constituent of the mineralization located to date. Alluvial gold occurrences are also known to occur in active drainage to the south of the bedrock mineralisation.

Africa

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:44:21 +0000

Kapumba Project

Kapumba is located in Central Zambia, approximately 80 kilometres east of Kawbe and is close to the Great North Road, the main artery for road transport infrastructure. The project has been in production for the past 50 years and is currently operating at a rate of approximately 650,000MT of manganese ore annually. The operation is an open cut mine with a run of grades which are typically above 50% and as high as 61% Mn.

Several occurrences of graphite and manganese are reported from the project area, notably the Kapumba manganese mine, with reported historical production of approximately 3 million MT of manganese ore grading above 50% Mn. The ore is closely associated with lenticular bodies of dolomite limestone, which form part of the tightly folded schists of the Lower Divison of the Basement Complex.

The deposits are believed to have been formed through the oxidation of primary manganese-bearing minerals, which are found as veins cutting across the calcareous rock. The manganese ore bodies occur over a distance of 2.5 kilometres along the top of the Kapmuba Hills, and form a residual capping over strongly folded manganiferous dolomites, intercalated with schists, gneisses and quartzite. The manganese content of the ore varies from 38% to 61% Mn. The true thickness reach is a maximum of 30 metres.

Mufweshi Project

The Mufweshi project is located in the Kasempa district of the North-western Province of Zambia, Kasempa Boma is the nearest town and is situated 180km from Solwezi and approximately 260km west of Kalulushi via a gravel road. The project area is roughly centered at 26’24’54’’ longitude and 13’15’18’’ latitude.

Recent exploration work by the Geological Survey Department of Zambia within the 40Ha small mining concession area ‘alone’ has been of great interest with rock chip and grab samples (21) taken from oxide material in a small active mining excavation returning significant Gold and Copper values ranging up 24.9% Cu and 46.5grm Au.

Mkushi Project

The Mkushi area is approximately 77km2 and encompasses five known manganese prospects which are located 20km from existing infrastructure including a railway loading station that runs to the port of Dar Es Salaam.

Arrangements are being made with port authorities of Dar Es Salaam to receive shipment of manganese ore.

Newsletters

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 06:01:36 +0000

Ethan Minerals Limited Newsletter – DayBreak – November 2010

The Prospector

admin — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:00:22 +0000

The image of a prospector was chosen as Ethan Minerals Limited’s logo as prospectors formed part of Australia’s early history and represented a certain spirit of Australia. They were renowned and admired for their resilience, perseverance, pioneering courage and ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. In our company’s business practices, Ethan aims to reflect these values in concert with the values of honesty, integrity, caring and fairness.

ASX Media Releases

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:08:42 +0000

Northampton

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:20:38 +0000

This project is comprised of seven Queen Victoria Crown Grants as well as exploration licences E66/56, E66/64, E66/53 and E66/73. QVCGs are privately owned areas of land that were granted during Queen Victoria’s reign in the 1800’s and the minerals rights are alienated from the Crown.

Ethan’s entire land holding has good access from the North West Coastal Highway, the Northampton to Port Gregory Road and the Kalbarri to North West Coastal Highway and by well maintained gravel roads and tracks to the prospects. Ravensgate have researched and compiled extensive notes on the Northampton project which are summarised in the following sections.

Western Australia’s first mining operations were undertaken based on the lead-silver and copper, vein-type deposits in the Northampton Complex with more than 100 deposits worked between 1850 and 1973 in the three main centres of Northampton, Galena and Narra Tarra. The overall historical production is conservatively estimated at 77,000 tonnes lead, 4,268 tonnes copper, 42.3 tonnes zinc and 212.3kg silver.

Mary Springs Lead Mine
The Mary Springs Mine is located less than 500m from the Northwest Coastal Highway and 80km north of the township of Northampton. During the period 1951 to 1967 the mine produced 925 tonnes of lead ore and concentrates. From 1967 to 1969 Canadian Southern Cross Mines NL (CSC) mined 3,508 tonnes of lead ore containing 530 tonnes of lead metal extracted from three parallel ore shoots generally striking at 030° and dipping to the west at 70°.

Where the ore is observed in pillars the ore is 1.2 to 1.5m wide and is comprised of quartz and sulphides with 30% to 40% galena with veins of massive galena up to 30cm thick present on the footwall side of the lode. Ethan’s Directors have been shown photographs of underground workings taken by the last miners at the site showing galena veins approximately 1.5 to 2 metres wide.

Scott and Gales, Kathleen Hope and Martin Springs Mines
The three mines are located 8km north west of Northampton. Scott and Gales Mine is about 300m south of the old Martin Springs Copper Mine and consists of two shafts about 40m apart. The lode is made up of malachite, azurite, chalcocite, galena and cerussite, but is poorly defined and requires further exploration work.

The Kathleen Hope Mine is located just south of Scott and Gales Mine. Production was first recorded in 1957 and over the next ten years the mine produced 23.3 tonnes of lead metal and 808 grams of silver from 371.8 tonnes of ore.

The Martin Springs Mine is located 300m north of Scott and Gales Mine and was largely a copper producer. No further information was available from historical records.

Wheal Fortune, Wheal Fortune extended and the Paringa mines
This trio of mines is located 5km west north west of Northampton and lies within a shear line trending 040°-050°N and dipping 70°W or more to the southeast and consists of a number of parallel, en echelon shears with richer zones occurring where the shears intersect pegmatite. Individual ore shoots plunge south with ore zones up to 1.2m wide. Ore minerals include galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite in the primary zone with malachite, azurite, covellite, chalcocite and native copper in the oxidised and supergene zones.

The Wheal Fortune copper and lead mine was worked from 1862 to 1868 over a length of 223m and to a depth of 90 m. The Wheal Fortune Mine produced 3,015 tonnes of lead ore at 75% Pb and 2,681 tonnes of copper ore at 17% Cu.

The Wheal Fortune Extended Mine connected with the Wheal Fortune Mine at the 55m level.

At the northerly Paringa Mine, the ore is located in shears striking at between 030°-040°. The shears cut garnet granulites which have been invaded by pegmatites. While mylonitic shears cut the Paringa lodes, it is not certain whether they relate to ore forming processes.

The total production for all three mines from 1899 was 44,753 tonnes of ore for 4,428 tonnes of lead and 28 kilograms of silver.

Kirtons South, Kirtons North, Kirtons North Extended and Kirtons Group of Mines
The Kirtons Group of Mines is located 6.5km west-northwest of Northampton. During the main period of production, underground mining was carried out at the Kirtons North Extended Mine where a shoot was stoped over a length of 70m and a width of between 0.90m and 1.2m. The Kirtons North Extended lodes contained galena, cerussite and copper minerals.

The Kirtons North Mine has many similar features to the Kirtons North Extended Mine which was mined discontinuously over a length of some 60m. Where mined, the mineralised section was 0.60m to 0.90m in width, with galena and cerussite occurring in the northern workings and copper and oxidised zinc minerals in the southernmost shaft.

The Baddera Group
The Baddera Group is located some 9km north of Northampton and 1.5km by dirt road east of the North-West Coastal Highway with two mines having been worked on the property, the Baddera and the Baddera North. Discovered in 1873 the mine was worked for a period of 10 years to a depth of 30m. Production figures are not available for this period except for one production record of 687.8 tonnes of concentrate averaging 72% Pb.

The mine was reopened in 1910 and worked until 1920 with production figures of 14,200 tonnes of lead metal from 132,000 tonnes of ore for an average grade of about 11%Pb. The Baderra North Mine was worked from 1946 through to 1954 with recorded production of 731 tonnes of lead from 15,200 tonnes of ore for an average grade of about 5%Pb.

At the Baderra Mine, discontinuous lenses of galena occur within a lode shear 2.5m in width striking 050° and dipping 70° to the west. The mineralised shear is located in granulite, pegmatite and quartz.

The Baddera ore bodies occur on cymoid loop structures formed where two bands of massive glassy quartz have been intersected by the lode shear. The two bands of quartz trend at 030° sub-parallel to the local foliation of the country rocks. The two branches of the shear (the cymoid loop) are exposed at the southern end of the Baddera Mine and can be followed in the surface workings and rejoin in the southernmost open pit. At surface, the Baddera workings extend for about 130m.

Rhyhope Mine
The Rhyhope Mine is located 3km west of Northampton and located south of the Northampton – Port Gregory Road. The Rhyhope lode follows a shear zone in gneiss striking at 025° and dipping easterly with the lode consisting of crushed gneiss with minor quartz and pyrite, galena, sphalerite and barite.

To date, the company has focused on the Mary Springs area, but a significant number of former producing mines remain to be explored by modern exploration techniques. Rocks of the Northampton Complex are dominated by granites, migmatites and granulites.

Recent targeting work completed by the company has utilised Landsat imagery to define new targets. A total of 17 targets have been defined to date. Ethan will prioritise these targets and assess them following a compilation of all available historical drilling. There are a number of historic exploration reports dating back to the 1800’s that will need to be entered into a comprehensive electronic data base prior to assessment.

In the interim, Ethan Minerals Limited will complete an RC Drilling Program at Mary Springs to infill and potentially expand the current resource. A total of 14 holes for approximatley 1200m are proposed for this program.