Auger drilling at Helix Resources‘ (ASX:HLX) Muriel Tank Project, 60km west of Nyngan in central New South Wales, has confirmed the continuity of gold mineralisation under cover and between known historical mine workings in the historic goldfield.
Infill and extensional auger drilling was undertaken in September and October 2024, and assay results have been received for 335 samples.
The company says it’s been a cost-effective technique to rapidly identify new areas of gold mineralisation.
Based on these results, Helix has started target generation work for a reverse circulation drilling campaign to be conducted in 2025. Additionally, auger drilling will be continued to further expand the geological database.
Managing Director Kylie Prendergast says with a systematic program underway, the outlook at Muriel Tank is particularly favourable with elevated gold prices and emerging pathways for a gold project in the region.
“Nearby, 20km to the west, there is a new gold plant under construction at the Mt Boppy Gold Mine as well as Aurelia’s Peak Plant and Kingston’s Mineral Hill Plant,” she adds.
Muriel Tank is a historic goldfield with recorded production of over 400 tonnes at 15 grams per tonne of gold from shallow workings up to 30m deep.
Gold mineralisation at Muriel Tank occurs within a 5km-long by 1.5km-wide structural corridor extending from the Russel’s Mine in the northwest to Brown’s Hope in the southeast. The gold mineralisation is hosted within sub-vertical shear zones up to 4m wide containing quartz veins and quartz breccias up to 2m thick.
Gold-bearing quartz veins, quartz breccia, and gossan occur in the shear zones that trend north-northwest. Helix says the highest-grade gold is hosted in blue quartz within these structures.
In many cases the historical drilling at Muriel Tank intersected underground stopes, demonstrating how closely targeted past exploration was, directly at the known workings.
“Building on recent gold rock chip results, the auger drilling campaign has confirmed broad areas of mineralisation which significantly increase the potential of the largely undrilled Muriel Tank prospect,” says Prendergast.
“The historical goldfield is sizable and previous drilling was very patch. There is a paucity of information about the ground between and along strike from these deposits, given much of the focus was on outcropping areas.
“While the auger work conducted to date is early stage, it is demonstrating a far greater distribution of mineralised structures, possible greater continuity and overall a much larger scale making it a very attractive, modern day gold target.”
Recent field mapping identified sub-parallel and along-strike zones of blue quartz veins, quartz breccia, and stockwork that are highly prospective for further gold mineralisation.
Due to the presence of alluvial cover in the area, it is unclear how many vein outcrops continue along strike under cover. Many of these veins remain undrilled. Previous historical drilling was mostly targeted directly at the old workings delivering inconclusive results as often the historical workings and stope fill was intersected.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Helix
