Horizonte Minerals PLC (LON:HZM,TSE:HZM) said it has commenced a 3,000 metres diamond drilling programme at its Falcao gold project in the southern part of the Carajas mining district in northern Brazil, in joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. The initiation of the drilling programme follows detailed soil sampling, geologic mapping and an aeromagnetic and radiometric survey conducted in October 2010, which confirmed a 300 to 600 metres wide zone at greater than 50 parts per billion with isolated results as high as 13.5 grammes per tonne gold. The current drilling programme has the objective of testing the gold soil anomaly which is currently 4 kilometres long, open to the east, and varies from 200 metres to over 800 metres in width at values of more than 50 ppb Au. Ten drillholes between 200 and 300 metres depth have been spaced over a 4,700 metres strike extent to test the gold soil anomaly and its extension to the east. Horizonte chairman David Hall said: "The initiation of the diamond drilling programme represents an important milestone for Falcao as it will provide the first indications of the style and controls on the mineralisation. The drilling programme will test for mineralisation at various locations along the 4,700m strike allowing an evaluation and prioritisation of areas for follow up drilling with the aim of proving the economic prospectivity of the project." The Falcao JV deal was signed in August 2010 and gives AngloGold the right to earn into 51 percent of the project by investing US$4.5 million over three years. AngloGold has the option of obtaining a further 19 percent, taking its interest to 70 percent, by funding a pre-feasibility study within three years of the vesting date. Under the terms of the agreement, AngloGold was required to invest a minimum of US$900,000 within the first year, a milestone that has already been achieved. Horizonte is operator until vesting is completed. Falcao lies in the highly endowed, southern part of Para state some 300 kilometres south of Carajas and just 100 kilometres south of Horizonte's Araguaia lateritic nickel project. The area has good infrastructure and the target lies dominantly in cattle grazing country with excellent access to drill sites. Earlier this year, a three year extension to the exploration licences, covering an area of 300 square kilometres, was granted by the Brazilian Mines Department. Only last week, Horizonte appointed a new general exploration manager as it strives to advance the flagship Araguaia nickel project and gold portfolio at Carajas. Paul Nagerl is a geologist with 24 years’ experience in the mineral resource industry. Horizonte stressed his extensive Brazilian mining experience, which includes establishing Falconbridge Brazil and successfully implementing nickel and platinum group element programmes in Brazil that resulted in the discovery of the Serra de Tapas nickel laterite project in Araguaia. Horizonte is working towards delineating a resource in excess of 100 million tons of nickel laterite at its Araguaia and Lontra projects in Brazil. Together these nickel projects comprise 11 licences and licence applications across 73,000 hectares with eight significant mineralised zones.

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