Jupiter Mines encouraged by manganese intercepts at Oakover Project

Red Rock Resources (LON: RRR)25.1% owned Jupiter Mines Ltd (ASX: JMS) has reported encouraging exploration results from a recently-completed drill program conducted at its 100%-owned Oakover Manganese Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with assay results of up to 49.6% Mn encountered at shallow depths.
The first pass wide-spaced reverse circulation (RC) program comprised 43 vertical holes for a total 2046m of drilling on tenement E45/2641 and was targeting the priority VTEM targets JOV1A (Prospect C12) and JOV2 (Prospect C11) on a wide-spaced grid.

The drill program targeted shallow VTEM conductors with a target hole depth of 50m. In total 923 samples were collected for assay, with 17 of the holes returning significant intercepts. 26 holes recorded no significant intersections.

Significant intersections include:
- 2m at 35.35% Mn from 17m (100KRC077)
- 4m at 31.21% Mn from 33m including 1m at 49.60% (100KRC057)
- 4m at 26.89% Mn from surface (100KRC022)
- 6m at 25.02% Mn from 12m (100KRC001)

A total of 19 significant intercepts of over 15% Mn were encountered in 17 holes.

Greg Durack, chief executive officer, said the results from this first pass drill program are very encouraging, confirming the presence of the stratigraphically-important Pinjian Chert and Carawine Dolomite.

These are the host rocks for the world-class Woodie Woodie Manganese Mine operated by Consolidated Minerals (ASX: CSM) which has a total historic and mined endowment of some 28 million tonnes of high-grade manganese.

Secondly, the drilling intersected iron mineralisation in many holes, with iron rich halos being common around Woodie Woodie’s high-grade manganese deposits.

The company has also reported that exploration licence EL 45/3457, which was pegged by Jupiter last year, has recently been granted increasing the company’s ground position at the Oakover Manganese Project to 890km².

Further exploration work is planned for Oakover during the current field season, including detailed mapping of manganese outcrops and five remaining strong VTEM conductors.

Also close spaced gravity surveys will be done over JOV1 and JOV2 to refine a second drill program  and a further VTEM survey is proposed to be conducted over E45/2639, which is adjacent to Shaw River Resources’ Baramine Project to generate additional targets.

Jupiter has an exploration budget of $2 million for the Oakover Manganese Project for the 2011 financial year.

The company has 369,386,471 shares and 12,100,000 unlisted options.