EurOmax starts 2012 drilling campaign at KMC, Ilovitza

EurOmax Resources (CVE:EOX)(OTCQX:EOXFF) said Thursday it has started its 2012 diamond drilling campaign at its KMC copper-gold project in Serbia and at the Ilovitza copper-gold porphyry project in Macedonia.
Multiple new targets defined by magnetic, induced polarization and resistivity data collected in late 2011 will be tested by an 8,000 meter diamond drill program at KMC in 2012, the company said.
"We are very pleased that drilling has commenced at KMC," EurOmax chief geologist and director Dr. Quinton Hennigh said.
"The KMC Project covers a vast center of mineralization that we believe is grossly underexplored. Over the next six months, we will drill approximately 8,000 meters of diamond core on multiple new well-defined targets, including skarns, breccia pipes and intrusives."
The first KMC drill hole, EOKSC-1246, was completed to a depth of 541 meters. The hole was designed to test a "prominent magnetic anomaly" located about 2 km north of the Copper Canyon copper-gold skarn system.
Although previous interpretations suggested this area to be underlain by unmineralized serpentinites, the company said hole EOKSC-1246 intercepted "extensive pyroxene-epidote skarn beginning at about 380 meters after crossing a major structural zone."
This skarn was accompanied by variable amounts of sulphides, mainly pyrite with lesser chalcopyrite, EurOmax added.
The company expects to receive assays for this hole in 6 to 8 weeks.
A second hole, EOKSC-1247, is in progress in the northern part of the project testing the Medenovatz target. This hole is vertical and has a planned depth of 500 meters.
EurOmax said nearby historical drill holes intersected "extensive lead-zinc-silver mineralization", and copper-gold mineralization in underlying skarns within a few hundred meters of hole EOKSC-1247. Numerous ancient silver mines are also present, the company said.
Completion of this hole is expected in several weeks.
Beginning at the end of May, the company will also be undertaking a detailed gravity survey to complement its geophysical database that includes detailed ground magnetics and IP-resistivity.
It is anticipated that this gravity data will better define areas underlain by intrusive rocks, possibly mineralized, that will also be tested by drilling this season.
KMC is in a large, Tertiary-aged precious and base metal district located in southwest Serbia in an area with "excellent infrastructure", the company said.
To date, drilling has identified extensive copper-gold skarn, gold skarn, and gold-bearing siliceous breccias in several locations.
The company believes one or multiple buried porphyry intrusions, perhaps also mineralized, may be the source for these widely occurring mineralized zones.
At Ilovitza, EurOmax has started a 4,000 meter step-out diamond drill program. IP-resistivity data indicates significant potential for expansion of the resource to the south, southeast and east of the conceptual pit, the miner said.
Although extensions of mineralization in these directions might prove to be somewhat deeper than the presently estimated resource, the conceptual pit produced through resource modeling would strip much of the overburden in these areas, potentially making expansion of the current resource estimate possible if exploration proves successful.
The first hole, EOIC-1229, a vertical step-out hole situated about 200 meters south of the nearest hole, is presently at a depth of about 400 meters.
Ilovitza is a Tertiary copper-gold porphyry system, part of a province of such deposits in Macedonia and Greece that includes the gold-copper Skouries deposit, owned by Eldorado Gold (TSE:ELD), in Greece.
The project is easily accessible by paved road, is near a rail line and just 75 km from a port facility.
In April, EurOmax reported an NI 43-101 compliant sulfide and mixed mineral resource estimate of 112 million pounds copper and 224,000 ounces gold in the indicated category, and 1.74 billion pounds copper and 3.84 million ounces gold in the inferred category, at a 0.25% copper equivalent cut-off.
The oxide mineral resource estimate was 21,000 ounces gold in the indicated category and 361,000 ounces gold in the inferred category at a 0.25 grams per tonne cut-off.
EurOmax is a Canadian company with three core properties in Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia.