Extorre Gold discovers new high grade silver zone at Puntudo

Extorre Gold Mines (AMEX:XG) (TSE:XG) said Wednesday that it has discovered significant silver-gold mineralization at its Puntudo project in Santa Cruz, Argentina.
The Puntudo property is located just south of Coeur d'Alene Mines and Mirasol Resources' Joaquin silver project, and is also 200 kilometres west of Extorre's own Cerro Moro project.
With 32 drill holes completed to date at Puntudo, Extorre has reported results for the first 15 today. The company said that mineralization intersected in the holes show the potential strike extension of the La Negra and La Morocha veins from the Joaquin project to the south - onto the northern boundary  of Extorre's Puntudo property.
Highlights from drilling included 42.3 metres at 16 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.60 g/t gold in hole RD0001 on the La Morocha structure, including 6.9 metres at 32 g/t silver and 1.01 g/t gold.
Meanwhile, on the La Negra vein, hole RD0004 returned 3.0 metres at 695 g/t silver and 0.66 g/t gold; and hole RD0015 intersected 9.0 metres at 211 g/t silver and 1.19 g/t gold, including 5.71 metres at 320 g/t silver and 1.82 g/t gold.
The site of the new mineralization, termed the Renaldo Prospect, is located on the northeast side of the company's 29,500 hectare Puntudo property.
“There is a saying in the mining business that the best place to find mineralization is alongside a known deposit," said Extorre's chief geologist, Glen van Kerkvoort.

"That has certainly been the case for our Renaldo Prospect. Boosted by the success of the Couer d’Alene and Mirasol discovery to the north we were able to fast track the discovery process at Renaldo.
"We are encouraged by the fact that Coeur d’Alene has notified Mirasol of its intention to proceed with a Bankable Feasibility Study on Joaquin project."

Indeed, the adjacent Joaquin property has an NI 43-101 compliant resource of 19.6 million ounces of silver in the indicated category and 47.9 million ounces of silver in the inferred category.
The company said the main focus of drilling to date at Puntudo has been the south extension of the La Negra vein, but roughly half of the total Joaquin resource is derived from the La Morocha structure, and with the encouraging result from hole RD001, Extorre has now initiated testing of the La Morocha trend.
Extorre also said that additional targets in the Renaldo area, including the intersection of the La Morocha and La Negra structural trends have been identified for future drilling.

Rubicon Minerals reports final results from delineation drill program at F2 Zone

Rubicon Minerals (TSE:RMX) (AMEX:RBY) reported Wednesday final high grade drill results from its 27,000 metre delineation program on the F2 Core Zone, part of the Phoenix gold project in the Red Lake district of Ontario.
The drill program was designed to infill an area 100 metres above and below the 305 metre level, over a strike length of 150 metres. 264 holes were drilled from three underground drill stations for a total of more than 35,000 metres.
"The delineation program has been very successful in confirming the continuity of the mineralization in this part of the F2 Gold system," said president and CEO David Adamson.
"We plan to apply this approach to other shallow parts of the F2 Gold System, most obviously above and below the current delineation area with the objective of upgrading our current inferred resources in these areas."
Highlights of the final holes included 36.4 g/t gold over 4.1 metres in hole D305-04-69; 148.1 g/t gold over 3.5 metres in hole D305-04-93; 22.5 g/t gold over 5.1 metres in hole D305-06-072; and 15.4 g/t gold over 6.1 metres in hole D305-05-88.
Concurrently, the company is also operating a 9X exploration drilling program, which is continuing to expand and infill the F2 gold system.
Rubicon controls over 100 square miles of exploration ground in the prolific Red Lake gold district of Ontario, which hosts Goldcorp's high-grade Red Lake Mine.

Bacterin International receives $1m from Lincoln Park Capital, additional $30m in the cards

Bacterin International Holdings (AMEX:BONE), which develops bone graft material and anti-infective coatings for medical applications, said Tuesday that Chicago-based asset manager Lincoln Park Capital has invested an initial $1 million into the company through an equity financing, and has committed to contribute a further $30 million.

Under the terms of the deal, Belgrade, US-based Bacterin received $1 million through the sale of shares to Lincoln Park at a price of $3.06 each, together with warrants to purchase an additional 130,719 shares at the same price. The price was consistent with the market price of Bacterin's shares on May 26.

In addition, Lincoln Park has committed to invest up to an additonal $30 million over the next three years through further equity financings, with no additional warrants to be granted.

Together with a previously announced capital raise, Bacterin has recently raised just over $3 million with Lincoln Park's $1 million investment.

Bacterin said the agreement with Lincoln Park can be cancelled at any time, at no cost to the company.

Extorre Gold releases further high grade gold-silver results from Cerro Moro

Extorre Gold Mines (AMEX:XG) (TSE:XG) reported Tuesday that it has continued to drill high grade gold-silver results from the Zoe discovery, part of the Cerro Moro project in Santa Cruz, Argentina.
Notable intersections included 8.00 metres at 84 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 1,332 g/t silver, or 35.0 g/t gold equivalent in hole MD1220, including 4.15 metres at 15.2 g/t gold and 2,419 g/t silver, or 63.6 g/t gold equivalent.
Other significant results included hole MD1234, which intersected 2.00 metres at 36.3 g/t gold and 1,858 g/t silver, including 0.90 metres at 63.5 g/t gold and 3,135 g/t silver; and hole MD1253, which returned 2.00 metres at 37.0 g/t gold and 1,924 g/t silver, including 0.90 metres at 80.4 g/t gold and 4,023 g/t silver.
The company said that a total of 34 diamond drill holes now define the Zoe structure over a strike length of roughly 1.5 kilometres, one kilometre of which shows high grade gold-silver mineralization that is peripheral to a "central, bonanza grade zone".
"As with the Martina and Escondida Far West zones located west of Zoe, we are finding the near surface mineralization is generally significantly lower grade than what is found at depth," said Extorre's project manager, Fernando Chacon.
"We will therefore begin step back drilling to test for high grade mineralization at more favourable depths."
Indeed, management said it is considering moving two drill rigs to Cerro Moro from the company's other Puntudo project, which is located around 220 kilometres to the west. The move is planned for mid-June.
Of the 34 holes completed to date at the Zoe discovery, 22 have now been publicly released. Currently, there are four rigs operating at Cerro Moro, with three at the Zoe target.
Last April, the company announced that Cerro Moro had estimated indicated resources of 357,000 ounces of gold and 15.3 million ounces of silver, or 612, 000 ounces of gold equivalent, plus inferred resources of 190,000 ounces of gold and 12.0 million ounces of silver.
A preliminary economic assessment on the project last October also highlighted the robust economics of Cerro Moro, as the mine is expected to produce an average of 133,500 ounces of gold equivalent during its first five years of operations, at a cash cost of just US$201 per ounce.

Graham Corp's Q4 profit surges, sales rise 88%

Graham Corporation (AMEX:GHM) said Friday that fourth quarter profit more than quadrupled, boosting the company’s shares as sales climbed 88% during the period due to strong organic growth and acquisitions.
Shares in the company were up 10.62%, trading at $23.44 as of Friday 10 a.m. EST.
In the first three months ending March 31, the Batavia, New York-based vacum and heat transfer equipment manufacturer reported net income of $2.7 million, or 27 cents per diluted share, way up from $0.6 million, or six cents per diluted share, in the prior-year period.
The company more than beat analyst forecasts of 21 cents per share.
Net sales jumped 88% to $25.9 million, compared with $13.8 million in the year ago period, driven by organic growth of 51%.
The company said the December acquisition of Energy Steel & Supply Company, a specialty machining company targeted for the nuclear power industry, also contributed $5.1 million to fourth quarter sales.
Orders during the fourth quarter were $26.8 million, up 47% over orders in the prior year period. Approximately 20% of the total order value in the latest quarter was won by Energy Steel, benefiting the company's nuclear power market segment, said Graham.
According to the company, strong activity in the alternative energy markets allowed Graham to secure orders for geothermal and biomass power-generating facilities in Asia and the U.S.
The company said that sales to the refining industry also accounted for more of total revenue at 38%, reflecting certain large Middle Eastern projects advancing, as well as increased maintenance activity in the US market.
Higher sales and an improving economy drove the improvement of operating margins to 15.4%, compared with 8.6% a year before.
For the next few years, Graham said it expects an increase in orders to come from international customers in its traditional oil refinery and petrochemical markets, while the addition of Energy Steel is expected to continue to improve U.S. order rates from the nuclear power generation market. At quarter-end, the company had a backlog of $91.1 million.
"The first half of fiscal 2011 was the tail end of the trough of the recession for us. The second half of the year clearly demonstrated the early signs of a strengthening market," said president and CEO, James R. Lines.
"Our fourth-quarter results were a strong indication of this early recovery.”
Looking ahead, the company predicts sales for fiscal 2012 to be in the range of $95 and $105 million, an improvement of about 30% to 40% from fiscal 2011. It expects gross margin to be in the range of 29% to 32% for the year.
"While we expect strong growth in fiscal 2012, the health of our markets and the strength and sustainability of the economic recovery can impact our results," added Lines.