Red 5 commences exploration drilling at Mapawa

West Australian-based gold exploration company Red 5 (ASX: RED) has kicked off exploration diamond drilling at the LSY prospect in the Philippines, with the first of seven planned holes now at 278 metres depth.

Managing Director Greg Edwards said the hole had, at the predicted depth, intersected an altered diorite intrusive rock-type, a typical host to porphyry systems elsewhere in the Philippines and the Pacific Rim.

"The diorite hosts variable quartz veining and sulphide mineralization, predominantly pyrite but also minor zinc, lead and copper sulphides," Mr Edwards said.

The initial programme of 2,400 metres has dual objectives of confirming the tenor of gold mineralization from shallow historic drilling, and testing a recently identified strong geophysical IP anomaly at depth. The anomaly has characteristics typical of many porphyry style (bulk tonnage) mineral systems.

The planned trajectory of the first hole undercuts the known, at and near surface, gold mineralization and is directly testing the IP target to a depth of at least 400 metres below surface, or deeper if warranted.

With favourable ground conditions the hole could be completed by late January.

The upper portions of the hole intersected altered sediments containing fracture fill and disseminated fine grained pyrite mineralization, before intersecting the mineralized intrusive at approximately 150 metres.

As this is the first hole in the programme, detailed geological observation and structural measurements are being completed ahead of core cutting for assay.

Accordingly, initial laboratory assay results will not be available until later in February.

The intrusive at LSY is superficially similar to diorites intersected below the Siana deposit, and at the Madja prospect, six kilometres to the south, supporting the overall prospectivity of the Surigao del Norte region for the discovery of additional porphyry coppergold deposits.

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