Apollo Minerals (ASX:AON) is looking to kick off further exploration at the Salane Gold Project in Gabon after returning ‘bonanza’ gold grades at multiple prospects.
The $16.32 million market capitalisation company says Salane is one of its 3 core projects alongside the Kroussou Zinc-Lead Project and its newly acquired Belgrade Copper Project in Serbia.
Exploration at Salane has also uncovered 2 mineralised areas — the Salane Fault and P6 prospect — that contain ‘high-grade’ gold samples within an open 12km gold trend.
At the A1 prospect, which is part of the 1.5km long ‘Salane Fault’ vein system, rock chip samples gathered adjacent to historical trenching have returned gold (Au) grades of 429g/t, 125g/t, 306g/t, 111g/t and 247g/t Au.
These results indicate the presence of a 1.3km gold and multi-element anomaly to the south of the Salane Fault, as well as a 5km extension to the north of alluvial gold workings, which demonstrate ‘significant’ trend potential.
Follow-up field work is being planned to further define the ‘high-priority’ Salane Fault and expand the soils program prior to drill testing.
Additional ‘high-grade’ samples were gathered from the P6 prospect and demonstrated gold grades of up to 53g/t Au from 2.6m wide outcropping quartz veining.
Addressing the results, Apollo Minerals Managing Director Neil Inwood says: “The Salane Gold Project is an exciting developing opportunity. Salane was originally mined for gold in the mid-1950s and averaged 13g/t Au in the quartz vein workings, which were reported to have stopped once they encountered the water table.
“we believe that Salane may have the scale and gold grades for a significant gold discovery“
Since then, there has been no modern exploration or drilling in the area for almost 70 years. It is impressive to see multiple rock chips over 100g/t Au in two separate vein systems 2.8km apart and high-grade gold-rich veining visible at surface; all from the first-pass 2023 field season.
With alluvial workings extending for 5km to the north and our own soil anomalies extending 1.2km to the south (and open), we believe that Salane may have the scale and gold grades for a significant gold discovery.”
Apollo Minerals is an explorer and developer focused on discovering large-scale, near-surface zinc-lead resources at its projects in Gabon and Serbia.
The company’s Salane project is located about 16km from the township of Lambarene and less than 2km from the sealed N1 highway within the company’s wholly owned Keri permit.
Apollo Minerals had $1.7 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 June 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Apollo Minerals
