Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) has intercepted gold from drilling at the Sandy Mitchell Rare Earths and Heavy Minerals Project in North Queensland.
The company conducted drilling to target a topographic high paleochannel south of the project’s resource estimate of 71.8 million tonnes @ 1,732 parts per million monazite equivalent.
Key intercepts include 1m @ 0.07 grams per tonne gold from 1m, returning 0.46g/t gold in concentrate; 1m @ 0.27g/t gold from 5m, returning 4.5g/t gold in concentrate; and 1m @ 0.16g/t gold from 7m, returning 3.66g/t gold in concentrate.
These results yielded concentration factors of 6.77, 16.66, and 22.63, respectively.
The drilling campaign was undertaken to determine whether gold panned from streams in the southern area of the project tenement was derived from the topographically high paleochannel Mesa, with 38 of the 166 intercepts returned to date.
Ark Mines is continuing assays on the remaining drill hole samples while simultaneously planning an infill drilling campaign.
Ongoing workstreams will contribute to an updated resource estimate ahead of a Prefeasibility Study.
Managing Director Ben Emery says the initial drill results “confirm the presence of gold” within the paleochannel system at Sandy Mitchell, separate from the 2025 resource expansion program.
“While the gold grades aren’t high in isolation, gravity concentration testing has demonstrated the potential for gold credits if the gold carries within the REE (rare earth elements) and heavy metal mineralisation — an outcome that could add real value to the heavy mineral concentrate,” Emery says.
“We will now complete assaying across all remaining drill samples and look forward to reporting results as they become available.”
Meanwhile, the company has recently appointed Daemon de Chaeney as the technical services manager and company geologist for the Sandy Mitchell Project.
Ark Mines is a critical minerals exploration and development company with assets in North Queensland.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Ark Mines
