Sabalong Project

Minerals: Gold, silver
Location: central, southwest Sumbawa Island in Sumbawa Regency, Indonesia
Area: 9,950 ha (24,586 acres)
Status: Surface exploration, mapping and trenching
Ownership: 100% by Southern Arc, IUP granted to Southern Arc.

Epithermal Alteration & Mineralization Identified by Newmont
Held previously by Newmont and later Rio Tinto Zinc, Sabalong is an excellent prospect for epithermal gold and silver mineralization. Newmont's exploration reported Ag-Au anomalous drainages from four contiguous catchment areas. Subsequent follow-up ground traverses indentified extensive hydrothermal alteration hosting high-sufidation epithermal quartz veins.

Newmont Work Confirmed by Rio Tinto
Newmont dropped Sabalong as part of the company's mandatory relinquishments, and the property was acquired later by Rio Tinto Zinc. Initial reconnaissance sampling by RTZ reconfirmed Newmont's Au-Ag anomalous catchment areas, along with delineation of potential carbonate-replacement and base metal mineralization further to the east.

Rio Tinto Drilling
Additional prospect evaluation defined an area of 3 by 2 km of phyllic alteration assemblages, hosting zones of residual silica and enargite-bearing quartz veins typical of high-sulfidation epithermal systems. Subsequent diamond drilling (reported by Dalimunth and Stevadji, 1998) produced an encouraging intersection of 32 m@3.5 g/t Au from drill hole SL-18. RTZ subsequently relinquished the property as a condition of its Contract of Work.

Acquired by Southern Arc in 2007
Southern Arc acquired Sabalong in April 2007 by way of an exploration license or KP. However, on December 16, 2009 Southern Arc was awarded an IUP by the regent of Sumbawa.

Following up on Rio Tinto's Work
Starting in July 2007, Southern Arc's survey and surface prospecting crews carried out a semi-detailed prospect evaluation of Rio Tinto's epithermal prospects. This work was implemented into early May 2008 and included a detailed regional BLEG sampling program, alteration mapping, and rock chip and channel sampling.  Trenching was also carried out at Toyang and Lito prospects to expose and sample vein extensions.

Sabalong is located in Nusa Tenggara Barat Province on Sumbawa Island, approximately 22 km SSE of the administrative city of Sumbawa Besar and 70 km northeast of Newmont’s world-class Batu Hijau porphyry gold-copper mine.