Resources round-up: Griffin Mining, Lansdowne, ATH Resources

Griffin Mining has continued to deliver 'excellent' results from underground diamond drilling at its Caijiaying mine in northern China. Some of the best results so far include 37.4 metres (m) at 6.55g per tonne gold and 4.33% zinc, 45m at 5.23g/t (grammes per tonne) gold and 4.47% zinc and 28.5m 3.42g per tonne gold and 1.92% zinc. Better zinc results included 25.4m at 15.5% zinc and 30m at 10.91% zinc. Drilling will continue during 2012 to evaluate what is a highly prospective corridor of mineralization.

Lansdowne Oil & Gas has said that testing at the Barryroe well, in which the company has a 20% stake, revealed a high productivity oil system with an average test permeability of around 400 millidarcies, confirming the productivity potential as demonstrated during the well testing operations. Testing suggests that a 1,000 metre horizontal well could deliver initial production of 12,500 barrels of oil a day and 11m cubic feet of gas (the equivalent of 14,300 barrels of oil). The findings are vastly improved on early analysis which predicted 13 vertical wells would produce around 1,800 barrels of oil each day at peak production of 20,000, a level which could now be reached by less than two wells.

Coal producer ATH Resources has disappointed investors after revealing its decision to defer the start of the planned Glenmuckloch Eastern extension following a further fall in the international price of coal. The reduction to coal prices will also affect the company's expectations for its trading performance. The miner plans to review the investment case to either proceed or begin final restoration of the current site towards the end of this calendar year. The deferment will have little impact on production levels in the current financial year, but if ultimately a decision was made not to proceed with the site at all, volumes would be reduced by around 500,000 tonnes in total over the subsequent two years.

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