Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) has identified 14 additional gold targets across its Boa Vista Gold Project tenure in Brazil’s Tapajós Mineral Province.
The company has prioritised four targets — Baixão, Zé do Leicha, Almir, and Jair — for advancement towards drilling following results from the VG1 prospect, where the best intercept returned 195.3 gram-metres ending in mineralisation.
Selective ‘high-grade’ rock-chip samples have returned up to 31 grams per tonne gold (Au) at Baixão, 11.1g/t Au at Jair, and 5.6g/t Au at Zé do Leicha, supporting the potential for multiple gold-bearing targets beyond VG1.
The remaining 10 targets will be progressively assessed and ranked as additional geological information becomes available.
Incoming Managing Director Andrew Nesbitt says the success of VG1 drilling has provided a strong platform to expand exploration across the gold tenure package.
“The success of the VG1 drilling program has provided Australian Mines with a strong platform to expand exploration across the broader Boa Vista gold tenure package. Recent work has identified multiple prospective structural corridors, alteration zones, gold-in-soil anomalies, and historical artisanal workings, supporting our view that Boa Vista has the potential to host a broader gold mineralising system beyond VG1,” Nesbitt says.
“We are now advancing four priority target areas towards drilling, while continuing systematic work across the broader project area, including planned stream sediment sampling in the underexplored north-eastern portion of the tenure.”
VG1 remains the most advanced target at Boa Vista, with drilling confirming a broad, near-surface gold-mineralised system extending approximately 700m along a northwest-southeast strike. The mineralised envelope remains open along strike and at depth, with deeper drilling extending to approximately 300m below surface.
Mineralisation is associated with quartz veining, sericitic alteration, sulphidation, and locally coarse free gold within a structurally controlled intrusive-hosted setting.
The Baixão target, located 2km southwest of VG1, covers an interpreted footprint of about 1.8km by 1km. The target is defined by a coincident gold-in-soil panning geochemistry anomaly exceeding 50 parts per billion gold, rock-chip samples grading up to 31g/t Au, artisanal workings, and interpreted structural continuity with the broader VG1 corridor.
Zé do Leicha, positioned about 1.5km northeast of VG1, covers about 2.8km by 1.5km. The target features a gold-in-soil panning geochemistry anomaly, grab samples up to 5.6g/t Au, historical artisanal workings, and interpreted structural corridors.
Australian Mines has planned a comprehensive stream sediment sampling program across 135 sites within the underexplored northeastern portion of the project. The program will identify additional gold targets and determine whether widespread historical artisanal workings represent discrete mineralised sources or broader connected structural corridors.
Write to France Pinzon at Mining.com.au
Images: Australian Mines
