Investing News NetworkAUSTRALIA
Warriedar Resources Limited (ASX: WA8) (Warriedar or the Company) is pleased to report on assay results received for the five (5) holes drilled at the Austin deposit, part of the ongoing Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at its Golden Range Project in the Murchison province of Western Australia.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- RC drilling results at the Austin deposit (Golden Range Project), located 4km southwest of the Golden Grove Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag-Au deposit, intersected polymetallic sulphide mineralisation.
- The Austin polymetallic system, open at depth and plunging south, sits within an interpreted Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) horizon.
- Robust extensional intercepts returned including 20m @ 1.98g/t Au, 7.2g/t Ag, 844ppm Pb from 160m; and 8m @ 1.04g/t Au, 19.5 g/t Ag, 0.54% Pb from 144m.
- Historic drilling at Austin (gold was the focus but multi-element assays were taken) returned 30m @ 3.31 g/t Au, 29 g/t Ag, 0.62% Pb from 127m, including 2m @ 7.07 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag, 1% Pb and 2m @ 3.15 g/t Au, 54 g/t Ag, 2.5% Pb.
- Five (5) holes for 1,086m have been drilled at Austin in this campaign, with target depth not achieved for three (3) of those holes; follow-up diamond tails and surface and downhole Electromagnetic (EM) surveying is planned for Q3, chasing high grade feeder zones.
The Warriedar team reviewed the historical data and carried out a geological and geochemical interpretation, indicating the Austin primary polymetallic sulphide mineralisation is hosted within a felsic-intermediate unit at the contact with an overlying mafic-ultramafic unit.
Three of the five holes drilled at Austin in this campaign failed to reach target depth due to excessive water. These holes are planned to be diamond tailed in the Q3 drilling program. Two holes were successful in reaching target depth.
Key intervals returned from these two holes include (refer Table 1, and Figures 3 and 4):
- 8m @ 1.04 g/t Au, 19.5 g/t Ag, 0.54% Pb from 144m (AURC087); including
- 4m @ 0.88 g/t Au, 27 g/t Ag and 1.02% Pb from 144m (AURC087);
- 20m @ 1.98 g/t Au, 7.2 g/t Ag, 844ppm Pb from 160m (AURC086).
The Yalgoo Singleton Greenstone belt that underlies the Warriedar tenements, hosts several Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits, the most significant being the Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag-Au Golden Grove cluster of mines, located approximately 4kms to the east of Austin (see Figure 1). To the south in the same belt is Capricorn Metals’ (ASX: CMM) Mt Gibson Gold Project, believed to have originally been a Au-Cu-Zn rich VMS deposit that has been overprinted by a later hydrothermal gold mineralising event. To the north in the same belt are the Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) VMS prospects (see locations in Figure 1).
VMS deposits typically occur in clusters, as readily demonstrated at the adjacent Golden Grove cluster. Encouragingly, there is a weak bedrock conductor in 2014 Airborne EM data approximately 1.2km south of the historical Austin pit, within the same host horizon. Ground and downhole EM are the only effective EM configurations for detecting Golden Grove style mineralisation1, and ground EM is planned to be undertaken over the conductor south of Austin during H2 2023.
Figure 1: The location of the Austin deposit (orange annotation) within the wider Warriedar tenement package and the Southern Murchison region. The yellow diamond on the Golden Range Project is the M1 deposit (and existing plant).
1 Geophysical Responses over the Scuddles VMS deposit, G. Boyd and K.F. Frankcombe, Exploration Geophysics 1994, 25(3) 164 – 164.
Figure 2: The location of the Austin deposit with respect to the Gossan Hill and Scuddles pits, belonging to the Golden Grove cluster of Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits. Golden Grove Mineral Resources (see 29M ASX Announcement 23 May 2023): 61.4Mt @ 1.7% Cu, 4.0% Zn, 0.7g/t Au, 28g/t AgThe white dashed box shows the coverage of Figure 3.
Figure 3: The Austin deposit and the interpreted VMS horizon. A discrete bedrock conductor was identified in the 2014 Airborne Electromagnetic Survey (AEM) data (red diamond) within the VMS horizon. The collars and trace of the holes drilled are annotated. Underlying Image: Gradient Array IP (GAIP) Conductivity, where blue = low & Red = high. Grey dots = GAIP stations.
The historical Austin pit is about 20m deep and the current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Austin is 434,000t @ 1.4 g/t Au for 19,200 oz Au (see Appendix 1). The oxide gold resource at Austin was mined in 2014 by Minjar Gold (84,203t @ 1.03 g/t Au for 2,788oz Au). Figure 4 shows the Austin pit and the location of the historic and 2023 drilling. The locations of cross sections are annotated in yellow.
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