Australian mineral exploration company Alice Queen (ASX:AQX) has upgraded the epithermal gold-silver potential for the Viani Precious Metals Project located in Fiji.
The company reports it conducted a 5-day program of reconnaissance surface rock sampling over the main gold-in-soil anomaly at the Dakuniba prospect in November 2022.
In this sampling program 64 rock samples of float, rock chips, and channel samples were collected. Of these samples 10% returned gold values more than 1ppm parts per million, while 27 samples returned mineralised gold assays with more than 100 parts per billion (ppb) gold.
Alice Queen also notes 43 samples returned silver values of more than 1ppm silver (Ag), with the highest value being 53.1ppm Ag.
Alice Queen Managing Director Andrew Buxton says: “We are excited by the results of this reconnaissance sampling program which not only confirmed the potential of Viani, but also upgraded our outlook for the project.
“We are excited by the results of this reconnaissance sampling program which not only confirmed the potential of Viani, but also upgraded our outlook for the project”
Limited drilling has historically been undertaken on the Viani Project area and the activities that have taken place to date have proven inadequate for this type of mineral system. We look forward to now expanding on the completed reconnaissance program and continuing to unlock the potential of this significant project.”
The company states that 33% of samples had anomalous gold results more than 0.1g/t Au which is ‘encouraging’ for a pre-discovery epithermal project with this degree of anomalous samples.
Alice Queen reports at Nakasaiki Creek located in the West, a new quartz vein referred as Chris Reef was uncovered. The samples at Chris Reef returned high silver values of 53.1ppm and 26.3ppm Ag with Au:Ag ratios of 1:60.
Alice Queen is an Australian minerals exploration company with an exciting portfolio of gold/copper-gold projects located in the Northern Molong Volcanic Belt in New South Wales, Horn Island in the Torres Strait, and Fiji.
