Manganese and gold exploration company Bligh Resources Limited announced that a number of the rock chip samples collected from the historical manganese workings at the Manilla Project in Northern New South Wales returned high grade manganese assays.

The sampling program confirmed that economic grades of manganese were produced from the historical workings with the highest assays returned from Manganese Mountain (sample Man-02; 45.4% Mn) and Bendemeer 2 Mine (sample Man-04; 46.5% Mn).

Fieldwork undertaken indicates the manganese mineralization is associated with cherts and shales, interpreted as deep water sediments, together with volcanic. Bligh's technical team believes that the Manilla manganese mineralization is similar to the Franciscan manganese deposits of California. The Franciscan Manganese ore lenses are developed as the result of sea floor spreading and hydrothermal activity along mid oceanic ridges; the manganese ore forms on the flanks of the ridges. Franciscan Manganese deposits are characterized by a range in grade from about 30% to 50% Mn and low iron content. These deposits generally occur as clusters of between 2 and 3 and up to 5 deposits in localized areas.

The manganese ore at the historical prospects comprise both manganese silicates and oxides, and appear to contain predominantly rhodonite and pyrolusite as the manganese minerals. The manganese mineralization is usually concordantly enveloped by metasediments and cherts and dips conformably with country rock. It appears that the rhodonite is being replaced with manganese oxide and this replacement varies from prospect to prospect.

The Franciscan ores models and recent structural interpretation completed will be used to progress the exploration program. Bligh will now identify areas where emplacement cluster of manganese mineralization may have occurred for further exploration.