Falcon Metals (ASX:FAL) has continued to soar at its Pyramid Hill Gold Project in Victoria since being spun out Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) via an in-specie distribution in December 2021, recently announcing ‘high-grade’ intersections.
Speaking to Mining.com.au on the sidelines of Mines and Money Connect Melbourne yesterday (14 June), Managing Director Tim Markwell says recent assay results from follow-up aircore drilling at the Wandoo and Banksia prospects returned some ‘high-grade’ results.
“So, we’ve done a lot of drillholes this year. We’ve done 80,000 metres of aircore, and we’re going to have results coming out from that drilling for the next at least month or 2. So, there’ll be more aircore results coming probably until well into July or even longer.
We’re still drilling as of today. I suspect we will finish drilling this week, just because it’s getting quite wet up north of Bendigo, with the winter rains. Our drilling will come to an end probably this week, but then we’ve got a couple of months of assays coming in, and then we’ll be getting ready to start up drilling again as soon as we can, in probably about November.
Falcon Metals has $20.6 million cash at hand and no debt, which Markwell notes allows the company to spread its wings further and pursue plenty of opportunities to continue progressing Pyramid Hill.
“You need a cash position like that to find a major orebody”
“You need a cash position like that to find a major orebody,” he says.
Markwell tells this news service this week’s results were received from first-pass regional drilling in the far north of the project, which included the identification of 2 new mineralised zones near the towns of Kerang and Pyramid Hill.
At the Wandoo prospect, he says a ‘high-grade’ zone has been defined in primary quartz veins that appear to be dipping to the west. Markwell notes Falcon will look to submit work plans and seek additional land access prior to further infill and extensional aircore drilling in the next field season, expected to start from November 2023.
The company has also further refined the northern gold trend at Banksia, with more than 1g/t gold in bedrock mineralisation confirmed over 800m of strike.
Regional drilling continues on roadside verges across the Pyramid Hill Project area and is expected to conclude this week, due to the recent rain events.
Falcon reports that a new permit was granted surrounding the historical Raywood Goldfield, located 15km north of Bendigo. EL007840 is considered underexplored and contains a ‘significant amount’ of prospective Castlemaine Group Stratigraphy under Murray Basin cover.
Meanwhile, at the Wandoo prospect, new assays from 1m resampling of the anomalous 4m composite samples from PHAC1300 have defined a ‘high-grade’ zone, including 1m at 21.8g/t Au from 60m, in the saprolite directly below the base of the transported cover. Although this does not appear to be laterally extensive, its location suggests that it is closely associated with the primary mineralisation below.
One metre resampling of the primary zone in PHAC1300 returned 4m @ 3.35g/t Au from 104m, including 1m @ 9.5g/t Au from 106m.
The MD says this phase of drilling has further refined the target zone to the southeastern portion of what has been drilled at Wandoo to date, with the mineralisation covering an area about 300m-by-200m in size to the east of the Muckleford Fault.
Importantly, this zone is open to the south. as confirmed in PHAC1582. which intersected 11m @ 1.14g/t Au from 75m including 1m @ 4.5g/t Au from 75m and 1m @ 4.96g/t Au from 79m in mineralised quartz veins in oxidised Castlemaine Group stratigraphy, and is the southernmost hole drilled in this prospective zone.
Falcon will work on gaining additional land access covering the potential southern extension to this zone. The Castlemaine Group stratigraphy at Wandoo straddles the Muckleford Fault, a major regional mineralising structure.
Falcon Metals raised $30 million through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2021 when it was demerged from Chalice Mining as part of Chalice’s decision to increase its focus on its Julimar discovery.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Falcon Metals Ltd
