Advanced gold explorer, Alice Queen Limited (ASX: AQX) has announced encouraging results from its soil and rock chip geochemical sampling program at the Horn Island Gold Project in Torres Strait, far-north Queensland.
The company reported that anomalous gold in soil and rock chips samples have been returned from surface sampling programs conducted on the eastern part of Horn Island.
AQX said that a maximum assay result of 215 g/t Au was returned from rock chip sampling, with 14 samples returning greater than 1 g/t Au. The company reported that a maximum assay result of 2.31 g/t Au was returned from soil sampling over the current Mineral Resource, with 21 samples returning greater than 0.1 g/t Au.
Alice Queen said that anomalous gold results occur locally within the 1.5km area located northwest of the 0.5 Moz Inferred Horn Island Mineral Resource. AQX noted that several areas of anomalous gold in soil and rock chip results occur immediately adjacent to the current Mineral Resource.
Alice Queen said that the anomalous gold commonly correlates with aeromagnetic low anomaly trends, which are interpreted to represent primary structures for hosting potential gold mineralisation.
The company announced that a Ground Dipole Dipole Induced Polarisation (DDIP) survey is well underway and is expected to be completed by end of December 2019. This will be immediately followed by a technical review of results to develop and rank targets, prior to planning of further work programs.
Horn Island JV
The company had recently entered into a joint venture (JV) at Horn Island with Australian listed mid-tier gold producer, St Barbara Limited (SBM). The terms of the JV states that St Barbara will spend $4m over three years to earn 70 per cent of areas outside the Excluded Zones.
Soil and rock chip geochemical sampling program
Alice Queen recently completed a soil and rock chip geochemical sampling program at Horn Island JV. This sampling program targeted the area located NW of the Horn Island Mineral Resource (~0.5 Moz Au Inferred, based on 7.96 Mt at an average grade of 1.9 g/t Au, using a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off grade) and historic mining centre.
The company said that 407 (primary and duplicate) soil and 176 quartz vein rock chip samples were collected in total.
The company reported that gold and multi-element assay results have now been returned.
High-grade results reported
The company announced that it has received high-grade gold rock chip and soil sampling results.
AQX said that a maximum assay result of 215 g/t Au was returned from rock chip sampling, with 14 samples returning greater than 1 g/t Au.
The company said that a maximum assay result of 2.31 g/t Au was returned from soil sampling over the current Mineral Resource, with 21 samples returning greater than 0.1 g/t Au.
The company noted that anomalous gold results occur locally within the 1.5km area located northwest of the 0.5 Moz Inferred Horn Island Mineral Resource.
Results indicate prospectivity
The company said that the results broadly correlate with previous vein rock chip results (JV and historic AQX sampling), including 16.5 g/t, 5.52 g/t, 3.15 g/t, 3.08 g/t, and 2.34 g/t Au. The company said that the results add further encouragement for the prospectivity of this area.
DDIP survey
The company announced that the area will be further tested by the ongoing ground dipole-dipole induced polarisation (DDIP) survey program.
The DDIP survey targeting a 3km by 2.5km area around the Mineral Resource area is well underway and expected to be completed by end of December 2019.
The company said that the main aim of the DDIP is to identify near surface to deeply occurring chargeability anomalies, which may be caused by sulphide minerals associated with gold mineralisation.
Once completed, the results from both the geochemical and geophysical surveys are planned to be interpreted in conjunction with existing exploration data, to develop and rank targets for future exploration programs.
Management comments
Alice Queen’s Managing Director, Andrew Buxton, commented “We are just under six months into the JV at Horn Island with St Barbara and we are already seeing positive results.
We are confident that these geochemical results combined with the geophysical survey as well as further field work will define targets that will set us up for a significant exploration program over the next 12 months.
In relation to the areas which are excluded from the joint venture, we have been working hard to put together a program that seeks to elevate our existing Resource from Inferred to Indicated status. This program will commence with some additional diamond core drilling early in the New Year.
The core from these holes will also be used for ore sorting and metallurgical test work as we progress towards a BFS on the existing Horn Island open pit mining opportunity.”
