Franco drilling expected in six weeks

Vancouver-based Newport Exploration (TSX-V: NWX) aims to start phase I diamond-core drilling in roughly six weeks on its newly acquired Franco gold project in Mexico's San Luis Potosi state, company president Ian Rozier told BNamericas. Phase I drilling will last roughly six weeks. "I'm hoping sincerely that we push on to a second program straight away," he said, adding: "We've got a very, very big, big gold target." Newport announced November 5 it had agreed to pay Cdn$380,000 (US$290,000) to share a 50% share of Franco with Canada's Cardero Resources (TSX-V: CDU). The two companies plan to form a Mexican operating company dubbed Newco to divide payments and exploration costs. "We'll set up a management committee and we've got a common group of consultants that do projects for us that we both love and trust," Rozier said. "We are the operators on the program, but it will be a joint effort." Previous exploration work and results attracted Newport to the property, the president said. Geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical survey data exist on the 983ha property, returning antimony, arsenic and mercury anomalies of up to 67,999ppm, 18,000ppm and 10ppm, respectively, Newport said in a statement. Further, rock geochemical sampling has shown Franco contains roughly 2g/t gold, according to Cardero figures. "We think there's a very good chance of a very big disseminated gold deposit beneath what we're seeing on surface," said Rozier.