Desoto Resources (ASX:DES) has confirmed the presence of a ‘large’ gold system within its Fenton Gold Project in the Northern Territory through a recent bout of drilling and airborne electromagnetics (AEM) work.
The junior explorer is now planning to complete 3D modelling to help design a ground geophysical survey program in the area as it ranks structural and geophysical anomalies ahead of future exploration.
This all comes as Desoto reports the assay results from the final 2 holes of a 2023 drilling program at the Fenton project, with all holes intersecting ‘broad’ zones of gold mineralisation.
Desoto says the new holes, FMD0003 and FMD0004, each struck wide zones of low-grade mineralisation with the same geological characteristics as the original Homestake discovery holes in the area.
The top results from these 2 holes include 17m @ 0.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 578m, including 5m @ 1.08g/t gold, in FMD003, and 72m @ 0.43g/t gold from 528m, including 5m @ 1.02g/t gold, in FMD0004.
Desoto says it has intersected the mineralisation shear zone over more than 2km of strike, and mineralisation remains open to the north and south.
Meanwhile, the company’s AEM surveys, which were co-funded by the Northern Territory government, identified 18 prospective conductivity targets to the north, south, and west of the drilled area at Fenton.
Of these, 3 anomalies warrant ‘immediate’ ground geophysical survey follow-up work prior to any drill testing.
Desoto Managing Director Chris Swallow says the company’s exploration approach at Fenton combined ‘strong’ structural geological skills with ‘high-quality’ geophysical surveys.
“We are also greatly encouraged by the new targets identified by our NT government-supported AEM survey and the scale of the exploration potential that this program has revealed.
We are confident that we can use the new knowledge obtained in our first year of exploration to target higher-grade gold mineralisation in the known gold-mineralised zone and new AEM target areas.”
Alongside Fenton, Desoto also owns the Fenix Lithium-Gold Project, which comprises 3 wholly owned and granted tenements near the Fenton project in the Northern Territory.
Desoto, which has an $8.45 million market capitalisation, had just shy of $6 million cash at hand on September 30 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: Desoto Resources
