Siren Gold (ASX:SNG) announces that it has started diamond drilling at the Barrons Flat prospect within EP 54454 at its Sams Creek Gold Project, located in the northwest of the South Island of New Zealand.
The Sams Creek Dyke (SCD) is up to 60m thick, 7km long, and has a vertical extent of more than 1km.
Siren Gold reports that drilling to date has focused on a 1km section of the dyke which contains the previously announced Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 588koz @ 2.43g/t Au at a 1.5g/t cut-off.
The company notes that Sams Creek has significant potential for increased gold resources from further exploration drilling.
Siren is targeting a large tonnage bulk mechanized underground mining operation at the Sams Creek Gold Project, which is located 140km northeast of Reefton and 100km northeast of Lyell.
The project comprises 2 exploration tenements – EP 54454, which is 100% held by Sams Creek Gold (SCGL) a wholly owned subsidiary of Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR), and EP40338, which is 81.9% held by SCGL under a joint venture with New Zealand’s largest gold miner OceanaGold (ASX:OGC), who own the remaining 18.1% interest.
Siren has entered into an agreement to acquire the Sams Creek Gold Project from Sandfire which is expected to be completed in October 22.
EP 54454 expires on 26 September 2022 and Sandfire has applied for a 4-year permit extension, which is currently being processed by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals (NZPaM). Sandfire has also recently been granted an access agreement by the DoC to allow drilling at Barrons Flat.
Siren believes there is significant potential at Sams Creek for a large underground mining operation.
Topography is very steep, with the SDC outcropping from 800m-200m above sea level and it has been intersected in drill holes to -200m. To date around 127 diamond holes have been drilled in this zone.
Golder completed a JORC Main Zone Resource estimate in 2013 for an open pit mining scenario and included large areas of low-grade mineralisation.
An Indicated and Inferred Resource of 1Moz @ 1.54g/t Au at a 0.7g/t cut-off was estimated. At a 1.5g/t cut-off the estimate is 588koz @ 2.43g/t Au (Table 1).
Siren considers that Sams Creek is a potential underground mine and believes the model could be improved for an underground mining scenario, by trimming some of the low-grade dyke, and using separate domains for the high-grade mineralisation along the fold hinges and lower grade fold limbs.
The 2013 resource estimate does not include the SE Traverse prospect.
The SE Traverse is an isolated section of dyke about 500m long and 200m wide that is interpreted to be a continuation of the anticline hinge that extends from Main Zone for over 1.5km and is open at depth.
Drillhole intersections in the SE Traverse confirm the continuation of the higher-grade mineralisation in the anticline hinge.
Siren will engage a consultant in quarter 4 of 2022 to review the potential for an improved underground Main Zone MRE based on an underground mining scenario and review the SE Traverse data to see if it is sufficient for a Maiden MRE.
If the review is encouraging, new MRE’s will be completed in Q4 of 2022.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Siren Gold Ltd
