Pacgold (ASX:PGO) reports ‘bonanza’ gold grades have been intersected from 26 diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drillholes at its Alice River Gold Project in North Queensland.
Pacgold reports that ‘high-grade’ gold zones with ‘exceptional’ continuity have been intersected in drilling, including zones containing gold grades of 24m @ 8.0g/t Au (from 168m) including 1.9m @ 87.0g/t Au (ARDH051), and 4m @ 10.3g/t Au (from 563m) including 1m @ 32.8g/t Au (ARDH050).
The successful step-out drilling extends the high-grade gold mineralisation a further 120m vertically to over 520m depth (remains open at depth).
The company notes that both ARDH050 and ARDH051 are 160m north of the ‘spectacular’ intersection of a 16.4m interval of visible gold recently reported in ARDH061 (results pending).
Central Target now contains multiple south-plunging high-grade zones identified from drilling along 400m (to date) of the known 1.5km strike of the F1a zone, which remains open along strike and at depth.
With 26 drillholes complete, assay results are pending for 13 drillholes targeting the F1a zone at Central Target.
Pacgold Managing Director Tony Schreck said the bonanza intersections represent the highest gold grades defined by Pacgold to date on the F1a zone.
“Based on the similarities with the Donlin gold model (tier one gold deposit in Alaska), we expect the high-grade zones to continue to extend at depth over a significant vertical distance.
This has the potential to contribute materially towards a JORC Resource. Multiple high-grade zones are now being revealed along a 400m strike length where wide-spaced drilling has so far been completed.
“Multiple high-grade zones are now being revealed along a 400m strike length where wide-spaced drilling has so far been completed”
The F1a zone is defined over 1.5km which forms a portion of the priority 7km corridor encompassing the Central, Southern and Northern Targets.
Our drilling strategy to date has been focused on the Central Target, where we have achieved exceptional results that provide an excellent opportunity to potentially define a material-sized JORC Resource.”
The current drilling program of 17,500m is 60% advanced with 5,472m RC and DD completed. About 80% of the drill program will focus on the F1a zone with the remaining 20% to investigate other areas within the Southern and Northern Targets.
Two diamond drill rigs plus 1 RC rig will continue drilling at the project for the next 3 months as part of the current drilling program, with 80% focus on the Central Target, and 20% as part of the Project Pipeline (including Southern and Northern Targets).
Drill results for hole ARDH061 (which intersected spectacular visible gold), along with several other holes displaying strong alteration and quartz veining are expected to provide strong news flow in the coming weeks.
IP geophysics is planned on the Northern Target and extensions along the Alice River Shear Zone to the north-west and south-west of the current IP coverage.
This work is currently scheduled for October.
The ‘high-grade’ gold mineralisation observed at the F1a zone is associated with zones of intense multi-phase, hydrothermal quartz veining and brecciation.
The current drilling on the Central Target continues to provide strong indications that the F1a zone represents the upper levels of a large-scale, ‘high-grade’ gold system.
Pacgold has identified two primary controlling structures on the Central Target, being the F1a and the F1b zones.
The highest gold grades intersected in drilling occur where broad, north-west trending ‘linking’ vein sets intersect the F1a and F1b zones.
Drilling to date by Pacgold has concentrated on a 400m section of strike on the 1.5km long F1a zone where multiple ‘high-grade’ plunging zones are currently being defined.
Repetitions of this structural setting has been identified along the northern extent of the F1a zone and some initial scout drilling has been completed, aimed at locating the intersection of the north-west trending veining corridor with the F1b which is completely concealed by shallow sand cover.
Scout drilling has also been completed in the F1b zone where Pacgold’s drilling last year returned 7m @ 3.1g/t Au, including 2m @ 9.8g/t Au (ARDH031).
It is interpreted that the gross structural setting at the Central Target which controls the distribution of the high-grade gold zones has many similarities to that observed in several large gold deposits, including Fosterville 4.4Moz (Australia) and Waihi 4Moz (New Zealand).
On a regional scale, the structural model for the high-grade mineralisation is being applied to the Southern Target to generate priority targets within a broad gold system ahead of a drilling program planned for November.
Further IP geophysics is also planned to step out along the main Alice River Shear zone to the north-west and south-west, to identify the structure over 10km of potential strike.
Pacgold is an ASX-listed minerals exploration company focused on the Alice River Gold Project situated at the end of the Northeast Queensland Mineral Province. It has a 100% interest in the Alice River Gold Project, covering a historical ‘high-grade’ goldfield and open pit mine with 8 mining leases and five exploration permits over an area spanning 377km-square.
The company has more than 50km of under-explored prospective structure secured under exploration permits.
This gold-rich province contains several multi-million-oz gold deposits including Pajingo, Mt Leyshon, Kidston, and Ravenswood.
Images: Pacgold Limited & iStock
