I'm afraid that in future weeks, I may want to read this and will find it "no longer available" so I've reprinted it here -- from Canadian Mining News --
(YMC.u.CDNX) (818-542-6880)
In my review of Anatolia Minerals last month, I urged you to "buy it while you can." Since
then, the stock has soared as much as 81% and the rest of the world has come to realize that it is,
without a doubt, one of the most exciting exploration plays around right now.
All of this has come after the release of a relatively small number of drill hole assays on
Anatolia's Cukurdere prospect in Turkey, with little geological interpretation to go along with these
results. No one yet knows how big this deposit will end up being but, as it turns out, we probably
have as good of an idea as anyone outside the company.
You see, Jim Blanchard and I were early investors in Anatolia Minerals, shortly after its
founding in 1996. Back then the company had little going for it except a few promising pieces of
ground; it had virtually no money and no major venture partners.
After a couple of years, the company had made some significant progress. But, because we
owned the stock, Jim and I were especially careful about recommending the company. So we
arranged for one of our independent geological consultants, Paul Kuhn, to go to Turkey and kick the
rocks on Anatolia's properties.
With 20 years of exploration and mining experience in North America and Central Asia,
including a number of years living and working in Turkey, Paul was the perfect man for the job. He
came back with a glowing report on the company, which we published in this newsletter, along
with our recommendation.
Then the bottom fell out of the mining stock market. Yet, while the share prices of mining
shares tumbled, Anatolia's resourceful CEO, Dick Moores, continued to advance the company.
He acquired new prospects; he persuaded major mining companies to become joint venture
partners and provide the necessary funds to continue exploration; and he got Anatolia listed on
the Canadian Venture Exchange. And, at some point during this period, Moores even hired our
consultant, Paul Kuhn, to perform the initial geological mapping of a new, especially promising
prospect the company had acquired.
That prospect just so happened to be named Cukurdere.
And so you can understand why, with the latest bevy of drill results just in from Cukurdere
with little in the way of an interpretation of those assays, I asked Paul to give us his informed view.
Keep in mind that Paul owns stock in Anatolia and has worked for the company, so he would love
to have the share price take off. Yet, as you are about to see from his report, I doubt Paul has plans
to sell his stock anytime soon:
The recent news from Anatolia Minerals has been great. Drilling results from the Cukurdere
prospect
in east central Turkey have produced substantial intervals of gold mineralization over a wide area,
and high-grade gold and copper intervals have been reported in several recent drill holes.
The numbers have been good enough to raise the stock price to around US$0.55 at the time of
this writing. However, the company has merely reported numbers and no interpretations.
So what do these numbers really tell us? For a long time, I more or less ignored the numbers. I
filed away the information, watched the share price creep up a little, and went about my work as a
contract exploration geologist at a mine in north Idaho.
Then, about a month ago, I began to get curious about the drill results. You see, I worked on
this property for Anatolia two years ago. A fellow geologist, Bill Fuchs (Ph.D., Univ. of Utah),
and I did the original geologic mapping of the prospect. We outlined the copper-bearing intrusive
rocks ,the iron-stained hornfels (basically, cooked sedimentary rocks), the gold-bearing jasperoids
(silica), and the gossany (iron oxides with strong copper staining) contact between the intrusive
rocks and capping marble/limestone.
We recommended further exploration work, as funds became available, to enhance the
understanding of the mineralized system and to help in selection of high priority drill targets in
obviously copper-mineralized areas. Anatolia eventually made a great deal with Rio Tinto, and the
funds for geophysics, geochemistry, and drilling did become available.
Back to what it all means: After several news releases with impressive results of wide
mineralized intercepts, I decided to locate, as best as I could, the published drill holes on our
geo- logical map of the property. I found that most holes were spotted in areas of hornfels
outcroppings which had surface gold anomalies. Several holes were located in the surrounding
intrusive rocks, and none in the limestone at that time. All holes were located in easily accessible
parts of the property.
I then plotted the anomalous gold results for each of the reported holes (all diamond drill core
holes 1 through 7, and reverse circulation [RC] holes 1 through 10). What I came up with
astounding: Using a cutoff minimum of 10 meters (32.5 feet) thickness of mineralized material at
greater than one gram/tonne (0.029 ounces/ton) gold, I was able to create a contour map of the
reported mineralization that completely covered a northeast-trending zone 1,000 meters long by
500 meters wide.
Average thickness of the zone was greater than 60 meters. The potential of 80+ million tonnes
of mineralized material exists in this zone!
I could hardly believe the size and extent of this zone. Drawing several north-south
cross-sections of the mineralization supported strong continuity across and along the mineralized
zone. The average grade of the intercepts was 2.23 g/t gold (0.065 ounces per ton gold). At the risk
of jumping the gun, I calculated the potential gold content (remember, only 17 holes have been
drilled and reported in a system over 1,000 x 500 meters in size) to be close to five million ounces
of gold in a coherent zone!
And I believe the news gets better. Much of the mineralization lies in the hornfels rocks, which
are draped over the copper-bearing intrusive rocks like a blanket. The intrusive rocks have great
potential to host a large porphyry copper deposit. To date, there has been little drilling targeting the
porphyry potential, although there is evidence of strong copper enrichment in at least two of the
drill holes. Once the overlying gold deposit has been defined, the company may want to jump into
the copper potential.
And there is more good news: Although the company claims that they have defined the western
boundary of the deposit, I believe that the deposit does continue to the west. My cross-sections and
a long-section indicate that relatively unmineralized RC Holes 2, 3, and 9 were actually collared
below the gold-bearing blanket in an easily accessible stream valley. The same gold-bearing
hornfels rocks outcrop on the hills to the west of the stream, but are harder to access for drilling.
When the company gets around to building drill roads to access the west side of the property, they
may find another 10+ million tonnes of gold-bearing rocks
And here’s the real kicker: Based on surface geochemistry and the high grade numbers reported
for RC Hole IA (82 meters of 10.4 g/t), there may be a new 800 x 600 meter, higher-grade,
northeast-trending zone hosted by hornfels, intrusive and overlying marble. This could be much
better than the main zone! Further drilling results covering this zone will be announced shortly when
analytical results return from the tab in Canada.
To be sure, this is turning into an exciting property. The size of the main zone is the real
surprise. Normally the grade for a sulfidic deposit of this kind would be considered a little low in
current economic conditions, but in this case the deposit has a number of attractive features to Rio
Tinto. Producing a bulk sulfide concentrate requires less capital and lower operation costs and
allows for a much higher recovery of metals. And there are a number of nearby operating smelters
and roasting plants that would love to get these concentrates. It sounds like a great setup.
And, really, the most exciting news from Cukurdere is yet to come. The new zone centered
around RC Hole 1A may prove to be the real winner on this property. Stay tuned for the new
results and confirmations from Anatolia.
I must admit that I was surprised to see how positive Paul is about the Cukurdere prospect. His
informed analysis – to whatever degree it turns out to be correct – is something that I do not believe
even Anatolia itself has yet taken into account. This is a great advantage to Gold Newsletter
readers.
Consider that, if Cukurdere turns out to be only a fraction of the size Paul predicts, it will still be
worth many times the current market value of Anatolia Minerals. After its recent spike, the share
price has settled into an attractive buying range that may not last long. Buy Anatolia now, and
continue to accumulate on weakness.
Anatolia Minerals
Recent Share Price: .............. C$0.52
Stop-Loss: ........................…. C$0.38
Shares Outstanding: .… 23.4 million
Market Cap…........... C$12.2 million
Shares Outstanding
Fully Diluted: ................ 26.7 million
Market Cap
Fully Diluted: ........... C$13.9 million |
