Hamelin Gold (ASX:HMG) has discovered a new zone of granite-hosted gold mineralisation during first-pass drilling at the Jazz prospect in the West Tanami region of Western Australia.
Managing Director Peter Bewick says this is the first time the company has seen granite-hosted gold mineralisation in the West Tanami and it represents a new geological setting for gold in the region.
“The lateral and depth extent of mineralisation identified is also rarely observed in the region as the oxide zone above non-mafic hosted gold systems in the Tanami are generally leached of any mineralisation,” he explains.
The new zone of gold mineralisation was identified in first-pass aircore drilling that returned hits of 16m @ 0.36 grams per tonne (g/t) gold including 2m @ 1.4g/t from 38m, 2m @ 2.1g/t from 50m, and 10m @ 0.45g/t from 36m including 2m @ 1.9g/t from 44m.
Mineralisation is hosted within a low-zircon, high-silica granite and can be traced across two, 400m-spaced aircore traverses, with mineralisation open to the west.
The location of gold mineralisation in the margins of a brittle granite body like what Hamelin has uncovered at the Jazz prospect is noted as a favourable gold setting in many deposits globally.
These include Gold Road Resources’ (ASX:GOR) Gruyere Mine, Gold Fields’ (NYSE:GFI) Granny Smith Mine and Vault Minerals’ (ASX:VAU) King of the Hills operation, all in Western Australia, as well as Snowline Gold’s (TSX-V:SGD) recent Valley intrusion-related gold system discovery in Alaska.
Hamelin was drill testing a series of multi-element soil geochemical anomalies identified during a 2024 sampling program and using the CSIRO-developed Ultrafine technology.
The 3,667m aircore drilling program was completed in December 2024 and was aimed at generating a more detailed geological and structural interpretation of the Jazz prospect area.
The Jazz granitoid appears to be a member of a suite of non-magnetic felsic intrusions mapped across the West Tanami and is characterised by a low zircon, high silica geochemistry, which Hamelin says is a readily identifiable signature in early stage drilling programs.
Similar non-magnetic granites of the West Tanami have seen very little historical exploration because they were considered by previous explorers to have low prospectivity for gold.
Jazz is located at the western end of the Sultan and Afghan Corridors in the northwest of the West Tanami Project.
Bewick says the untested primary position below the oxide mineralisation at Jazz defines a priority target for Hamelin.
“The next phase of exploration at Jazz is planned to commence early in the 2025 dry season and will include RC drilling to test for extensions to mineralisation both along strike and at depth,” he says.
The West Tanami Project covers 2,277km2 and spans 100km of strike along the Trans-Tanami structural corridor that hosts Newmont’s (ASX:NEM) plus-14-million-ounce Callie Gold Deposit across the border in the Northern Territory.
Hamelin says it is one of Australia’s most unexplored gold provinces.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Hamelin Gold
