Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) reports first assays from a recent drilling program has confirmed ‘high-grade’ gold and bismuth at the Golden Forty Project in the Northern Territory.
The company says the the first 3 drill results from the 26 hole exploration program confirms the ‘high-grade’ gold mineralisation at the historic Golden Forty mine extend to the north, where it is hosted in the Golden Forty North ironstone, and these results add to the potential for increasing the gold inventory and for shallow open pit mining given the mineralisation is shallow and remains open up-plunge to the south.
It also reports the phase one drilling at Golden Forty is now completed and consisted of 20 reverse circulation (RC) and 6 diamond holes totalling 4,455m and all drillholes intersected magnetite and hematite ironstones that are ‘typically’ the host to the mineralisation.
Whilst the thickness of the intersections was variable, Emmerson says some intersections exceeded what has been intersected historically in the Golden Forty mine, and subject to receiving the assay results, this may indicate further extensions of the mineralised envelope.
“These initial results are highly encouraging as they have intersected mineralisation to the north of the historic Golden Forty Mine, are relatively shallow and thus potentially amenable to open pit mining”
Emmerson Resources Managing Director Rob Bills said “These initial results are highly encouraging as they have intersected mineralisation to the north of the historic Golden Forty Mine, are relatively shallow and thus potentially amenable to open pit mining.
We look forward to drilling the untested up-plunge portions of the mineralisation to the south in early 2023.
We await with anticipation the remainder of the assay results, in particular the diamond drillholes which indicate thickening of the magnetite-hematite ironstones within the un-mined portions of the Golden Forty Mine and also continuation of the ironstones to Golden Forty East.
The intersection of copper and some of the highest-grade bismuth encountered to date, suggest this northern ironstone also has potential for future facing metals relevant to the battery metals sector.”
Emmerson reports all RC samples have been dispatched to the laboratory with next results expected in late December, and the two diamond holes drilled at Golden Forty East as part of the collaborative funding with the Northern Territory Government Resourcing and Territory initiative (NTGS) are being processed this week, with assays expected in February next year.
In addition, the company is conducting work with the CSIRO on refining and processing drone magnetics to pinpoint potential targets at Golden Forty South, where the magnetic anomaly associated with Golden Forty Mine continues to the south but to date remains unexplained by the historic drilling.
This project has been awarded co-funding by the NTGS through the Geophysics and Drilling Collaboration and is pivotal to future drill testing of what is one of the largest magnetic anomalies in the Tennant Creek Mineral Field.
The historic Golden Forty Mine briefly commenced operations in 1938, however it was not until 1969 that the mine operated as a productive underground operation, and mining was conducted via a vertical shaft to a depth of 150m and from cross-cut development and open-hole stoping on four east-west levels,
Production ceased abruptly when failing ground conditions and increased water ingress prevented the safe extraction of ore, and the mine was decommissioned in 1983 due to these issues, not due to a lack of the ore nor declining grades. The Golden Forty Mine produced 144,056 tonnes of ore at a recovered head grade of 11.9g/t Au between 1969 and 1983.
Emmerson Resources is an ASX-listed exploration company focused on its tenements in the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Its assets include the Golden Forty Mine near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, and the Kadungle and Fifield, Wellington and Kiola projects in New South Wales.
Images: Emmerson Resources Ltd
