Sipa Resources Limited announced that it has received assay results from the three diamond drill holes completed as part of the exploration program at the Barbwire Terrace Project located south-east of Broome in Western Australia. Exploration is managed and operated by Sipa under a 50/50 joint venture ("JV") with Buru Energy Limited, with the goal of discovering lead-zinc mineralisation in an analogous geological setting to the zinc-lead deposits along the Lennard Shel). The latest drilling at Barbwire Terrace was co-funded by the Western Australian government's Exploration Incentive Scheme, with up to $180,000 to be provided to the JV towards drilling costs.

Three diamond holes were drilled for a total of 1,412m at up to 20km spacing along strike. The broad-spaced reconnaissance program achieved an initial `proof of concept' within a portion of the extensive tenement holding. Base metal sulphides were observed in drill core from all three holes within large thicknesses of variably altered Pillara Limestone, the host to the zinc-lead deposits along the Lennard Shelf.

Initial geological observations and elevated readings in handheld XRF confirmed the presence of lead and zinc sulphides. However, assay results were not in line with these initial observations, with the best intersection of 3050 ppm (0.3%) Zn in hole BWTDD004 within an intercept of 5m @ 1301 ppm (0.13%) Zn, compared with typical background levels of <50ppm Zn or Pb. Detailed examination of the core has shown that the base metal sulphides are typically found along fracture planes and lining the surfaces of the numerous calcite veins and vughs observed in the dolomitised Pillara Limestone, rather than disseminated throughout the entire rock mass.

However, the zones of more massive sulphide mineralisation observed in core from BWTDD003 returned low level results for zinc and lead and further investigations are currently underway to understand why this is the case. The JV will conduct a detailed review of the assay results prior to finalising plans for follow-up exploration at the project.