JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Emmerson Resources has started its 2009 drilling programme.

The company said on Tuesday that reverse circulation drilling had now started at the Analytic One prospect, where at the conclusion of the last field season, in December 2008, the company reported an intersection of 24 m at 6,27g/t of gold from 246 m including 3 m at 48,3g/t of gold from a greenfields undercover exploration target, identified using the geophysical data acquired by Emmerson during the course of the 2008 field season.

The 2009 drilling program would start by testing up dip and along strike positions from this intercept.

Exploration will be funded by exploration company Ivanhoe Australia as part of its $18-million, three-year farm-in agreement to earn a 51% interest in the majority of Emmerson’s Tennant Creek tenement, in the Northern Territory.

It was anticipated that after the drilling at Analytic One, there would be a significant escalation of Emmerson’s previously anticipated programme, with drill testing of a range of both shallow and deeper targets, which have been identified using the geophysical data acquired by Emmerson.