Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) reports the mineralisation at the Mt Clement Prospect previously considered to be 2 separate deposits is part of 1 polymetallic system at Paulsens Gold Operation in Western Australia.
The company says Mt Clement hosts one of the only ‘synergetic’ mineral deposits known in the Ashburton Basin and has seen sporadic gold and base metal exploration, with the mineralisation hosted within brecciated fine-grained siltstone and sandstone with local talc-rich interbedded units of the Ashburton Formation.
Mineralised lenses have been complexly folded and faulted as a result of deformation within the Ashburton fold and thrust belt.
Black Cat’s new geology model considers the deposits are part of 1 polymetallic system, and the nature of this mineralisation lends itself to the potential for additional lodes in the immediate area including the approximately 1km untested zone between the Central and Eastern Zones and along strike as well as north and south.
The company reports the deposits have been modelled and estimated into 3 zones including Western, Central and Eastern, and gold mineralisation occurs in the quartz breccia, talc rich units and sedimentary turbidite units as discrete stacked lenses. Within these lenses the gold often occurs with copper-antimony-silver, and the most gold-silver-copper zones are currently in near surface gossans in the western area of the resource.
It also notes the potential to grow the resource at Mt Clement is ‘high’ with mineralisation open in all directions and at depth, and negligible drilling exists outside the known resources and other anomalies require follow-up, with further drilling planned for the first half of 2023.
Black Cat Managing Director Gareth Solly said: “The high-grade polymetallic resource at Mt Clement is a great example of the underexplored opportunities we see in the Paulsens region.
“The high-grade polymetallic resource at Mt Clement is a great example of the underexplored opportunities we see in the Paulsens region”
The gold potential of the area is well known and sticking out of the ground we also have silver, copper, lead and antimony, which is listed as a critical metal in the US, Europe and Australia.
The stellar grades of gold-copper-silver identified well outside the Mt Clement Resource shows just how open the mineralisation is there, with an opportunity to significantly extend the resource with targeted drilling.”
Black Cat reports the Western Zone is rich in gold, silver and copper, and is open in all directions with a resource of 0.42 million tonnes @ 2.6g/t Au, 76.9g/t Ag, 0.4% Cu and 0.2% Sb for 35,000 ounces of Au, 1.03 million ounces of Ag, 1,600 tonnes of Cu and 700 tonnes of Sb of contained metal.
The area has previously been explored for gold and channel sampling and drilling has occurred to the east of the resource with limited drilling to the west.
Recent mapping and rock sampling west of Mt Clement identified potential to increase the strike length of the western zone from around 100m to around 300m, and a rock chip taken from an outcropping breccia ridge 200m directly along strike of the western zone assayed 48.70g/t Au, 6.6% Cu, 6.61% Sb, and 2,7170g/t Ag.
The company says the Central Zone is dominated by gold and consists of flay lying shallow veins containing 0.53 million tonnes @ 1.4g/t Au, and this zone is open at depth and to the east.
Historical drill results in the Western and Central Zones are ‘encouraging’ and include 17m @ 3.47g/t Au, 57.86g/t Ag, 0.41% Cu and 0.41% Sb from 97m in ARMCRC013, 8m @ 4.12g/t Au, 0.50g/t Ag, 0.03% Cu and 0.002% Sb from 12m and 6m @ 6.12g/t Au, 93.76g/t Ag, 0.86% Cu and 1.07% Sb from 106m in ARMCRC001.
Other intercepts include 4.5m @ 8g/t Au, 94.28g/t Ag and 0.40% Cu from CRP34 (not assayed for Sb), 9.62m @ 5.41g/t Au, 8.49g/t Ag and 0.11% Cu from 61.45m from CD01 (also not assayed for Sb).
The Eastern Zone of the Mt Clements system is located around 1km to the southeast of the Central Zone and previous mapping in the area identified 4 mineralised lodes including Taipan, Dugite, Gwadar and Tiger, all of which are sub-parallel to mapped stratigraphy.
Only the southern Taipan lode has been drilled and it hosts the current resource of 0.79 million tonnes @ 1.7% Sb, 2.4% Pb and 17g/t Ag for 13,200 tonnes of Sb, 18,700 tonnes of Pb and 434,000 ounces of Ag of contained metal.
Mineralisation in the Eastern Zone is present in the form of a boulangerite-galena mineral assemblage with accessory pyrite, pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite and the nature of the Sb-Pb mineralogy makes this a ‘high-grade’ antimony deposit, and even with limited work to date, the company says the system already hosts Australia’s ‘third largest’ and ‘second highest grade’ antimony resource.
The current resource in the Eastern Zone is based on drilling within Taipan which has a mapped strike extent of around 600m on surface and limited drilling within the top 50m of the lode and it remains open at depth and along strike to the west.
Historical surface sampling has shown generally ‘higher’ grades along the undrilled lodes, including Dugite located around 100m north of Taipan.
Moving forward, Black Cat will be reprocessing legacy geophysical data including aeromagnetics and ground EM with this work currently ongoing with results expected to be received throughout the December 2022 quarter.
The company has also completed a 25m line spacing aeromagnetic survey at Electric Dingo with results also expected this quarter, and it will also be reviewing and ranking ‘high-priority’ exploration target areas for 2023 work programs focusing on gold and base metal prospects.
Black Cat Syndicate is an Australian gold exploration company with operations across Western Australia including the Coyote and Paulsens Gold Operations as well as the Kal East Gold Project near Kalgoorlie.
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