Alice Queen (ASX:AQX) reports drilling has confirmed the continuity of gold mineralisation at the Boda East Project in New South Wales.
The company says diamond drillhole 22BEDH011 has been completed for a total depth of 780m and visually confirmed the continuity of mineralisation beneath 20BEDH001.
The company commenced drilling 22BEDH011 on October 4 and completed it to 780m on October 22, and the hole was planned to test beneath the sulphide bearing altered mafic volcanics identified in 20BEDH001 which returned zones of elevated copper, gold and molybdenum most consistently below 326m.
Alice Queen Chief Technical Advisor John Halliday said hole 22BEDH011 has shown that the mineralisation previously identified in 20BEDH001 continues along strike to the south and deep within the same strongly altered mafic volcanic rock package, and the company is awaiting laboratory tests to confirm its visual observations of this extension.
hole 22BEDH011 has shown that the mineralisation previously identified in 20BEDH001 continues along strike to the south and deep within the same strongly altered mafic volcanic rock package
Alice says 3 zones of sulphide mineralisation have been intersected in 22BEDH011, including porphyritic dykes intruding basalt were intersected at near surface in an interval from 26m to 29m, and according to the company, these dykes are associated with quartz veins carrying out minor coarse chalcopyrite and pyrite with distinctive pink alteration halos, interpreted as hematite dusting of feldspar.
Estimates by the company trace to 0.05% visible chalcopyrite and 0.5% visible pyrite over this interval, and Alice says this is the most eastern mineralisation discovered on the project to date.
Alice also observed coarse grained chalcopyrite and minor coarse-grained bornite was observed in an interval from 65m to 71m in moderately calc-silicate altered basalt.
It also notes chalcopyrite and minor bornite are hosted in fractured basalt and epidote-carbonate-potassium feldspar veins with average visible chalcopyrite ± bornite of 0.2% and 1% visible pyrite through this 6m interval.
The company says it also observed coarse-grained and disseminated chalcopyrite and pyrite over 736m to 745m within an interval of strong biotite-hematite-epidote alteration with estimates of 0.35% chalcopyrite and 1% visible pyrite over this 9m interval.
Moderate to strongly focused epidote alteration and vein hosted calc-silicates including garnet and actinolite were observed over wide intervals in 22BEDH011 from 51m to 396m, and moderate to strong biotite-hematite-epidote alteration associated with the deeper interval of observed mineralisation was observed over the interval 723m to 780m.
Alice reports cutting and sampling has been completed with samples submitted for analysis, and the intersection of observed mineralisation close to the surface is encouraging with Alice Queen planning to commence surface mapping and sampling over the Boda East prospect in early November, anticipated to delineate any further near surface mineralisation detected in 22BEDH011 for follow-up drill testing.
Alice Queen is an Australian minerals exploration company with a portfolio of gold and copper-gold projects located in the Northern Molong Volcanic Belt in NSW, Horn Island in the Torres Strait and Fiji.
Its assets include the Boda East Project, the Horn Island Project, the Yarindury project, the Mendooran Project and the Fiji Project.
Images: Alice Queen Ltd
