Dreadnought Resources Limited (ASX: DRE) had reported a highly encouraging update on its Rocky Dam Gold-VMS Project in WA.
The company announced the commencement of a ~1,000m RC drill program at CRA-North within the Rocky Dam project.
It may be noted that CRA-North is a high tenor gold in soil anomaly located along a sheared contact between felsic volcanics and sediments.
DRE said that the assay results are expected by early June 2020.
Rocky Dam project
DRE’s Rocky Dam is located 45kms east of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields Superterrane of Western Australia.
Rocky Dam is prospective for typical Archean mesothermal lode gold deposits and Cu-Zn VMS mineralisation. Rocky Dam has known gold and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) occurrences with drill ready gold targets based on 1990s mineralised gold intercepts which were not followed up.
The Rocky Dam Project consists of 1 granted tenement E25/533 held under the name ‘Dreadnought (Yilgarn) Pty Ltd. A wholly owned subsidiary of Dreadnought Resources Ltd.
95% of the Project is located on pastoral lot N049710, with the remaining 5% located on UCL. E25/533 is located entirely with the Maduwongga Native Title Claim.
CRA-North anomaly
The last significant exploration at Rocky Dam was undertaken by CRA in the 1990s. This work identified CRA-North, being a 700m long gold anomaly through shallow RAB drilling (average depth 24m) and two diamond holes (average depth 200m).
Shallow RAB drilling and diamond drilling
The shallow RAB drilling defined a 700m long by 50-100m wide anomalous gold zone coinciding with a faulted graphitic schist contact between metasediments and porphyritic felsic volcanics. In addition, the diamond drilling confirmed the presence of bed rock mineralisation.
However, the diamond drilling done was ineffective with down hole surveys indicating a significant change off planned azimuth by 30 degrees. Accordingly, the historically defined near-surface anomalism remained open along strike and untested at depth.
UFF soil survey confirms location
DRE reported that all historical reports on CRA-North were in local grid and a review of high resolution ortho-imagery and ground truthing could not locate the exact location of the historical drilling or anomalism.
As a result, a detailed 100m x 50m ultra-fine fraction (UFF) soil survey and geological mapping was undertaken.
The program was designed to locate and confirm historically identified gold anomalism and to define a drill target for RC drill testing in 2020. The program successfully defined a high tenor gold in soil anomaly located along a sheared contact between felsic volcanics and sediments which matches descriptions from historical exploration work carried out by CRA in the 1990s.
The company said that the soil survey defined an ~800m long >50ppb gold in soil anomaly with a core of 250m x 150m >100ppb with a peak value of 0.6g/t Au.
The company said that the anomaly correlated strongly with subcropping gossanous quartz veins within a sheared contact with felsic schists and sediments. This aligned with CRA’s historical work and the interpreted location of the historical drilling.
RC drilling at Rocky Dam
The company reported that a ~1,000m RC drilling program has now commenced at CRA-North to test a high tenor gold in soil anomaly located along a sheared contact between felsic volcanics and sediments. DRE said that the program is expected to confirm the orientation of the mineralised structure.
The company said that two 200m scissor holes will be drilled over the core of the anomaly with additional holes drilled along ~350m of strike.
Updates and next steps
DRE reported that the RC drill program is expected to be completed in early May 2020 with results expected to be made available in June 2020
The company also announced the details of newsflow anticipated for the next three months, April, May, and June.
April: Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Reports
April/May: Geological mapping at Illaara Central to further constrain targets for drill testing; Results of Metzke’s Find regional soil sampling
May: Commence RC drilling programs at Metzke’s Find, Rodney and Warspite; Results of magnetic and gravity 3D inversions at Tarraji
May/June: Results of EIS applications for RC drilling at Chianti-Rufina and diamond drilling at Texas part of the Tarraji-Yampi Project in the Kimberley; Drill targets from geological mapping at Illaara Central
June: Assay results from RC drilling program at Rocky Dam; Assay results from RC drilling programs at Metzke’s Find, Rodney and Warspite
Management comments
Dreadnought Managing Director, Dean Tuck, said: “This RC program will be the first since historical shallow RAB drilling in the 1990s generated this compelling gold anomaly which remains open and untested at depth and along strike.
While on site, Dreadnought will follow up on other prospective anomalies at Rocky Dam. We look forward to announcing results in June 2020. Our other work programs at Illaara are well advanced and will be executed once all approvals are received.”