Commences IP And Seismic Drilling In Nevada
Astro Resources NL (ASX:ARO) has entered into a contract with Zonge International Inc to carry out an electrical DC/IP survey at the Needles Property, located in Nevada, USA.
The survey will consist of 11 lines for a total of 27.3 line kilometres.
Additionally, the company has entered into a contract with Bird Seismic Services Inc. to carry out five lines of shallow seismic over the same area for a total of 10.7 line kilometres.
Chairman, Jacob Khouri, said the DC/IP and seismic are both scheduled to commence in January with results anticipated in mid-late Q1.
“We are excited by the commencement of the DC/IP and seismic work,” Mr Khouri said.
“Needles is a high quality gold project and this program has been designed to test for buried, flat-lying gold mineralisation akin to that found at the nearby Round Mountain Deposit, considered to be one of the world’s largest epithermal, low-sulphidation volcanic-hosted gold deposits.
“Should the geophysical work generate positive results, Astro plans to commence a drill program mid-year, subject to rig availability.”
The DC/IP survey is designed to infill the 2018 survey to 200m line-spacings and extend it to the west, to close off the southwest chargeability anomaly discovered in the 2018 survey. The results of this work will provide higher resolution of the chargeability anomaly and allow the creation of a robust inversion model, providing better understanding of the distribution of sulphides at depth, which may be associated with a Round Mountain style deposit of gold mineralisation. The results of this modelling will be used to constrain the location of drill holes in the upcoming drilling programs.
The seismic survey is designed to test the central and western parts of the property that the Company considers to be the most prospective. The results of the survey will provide a depth profile of the shallow dipping volcanics and their relative compactions, which affects porosity, a critical component of the Round Mountain gold deposit model that Astro is using for Needles.
The survey will also help locate sub-vertical faults that may have disrupted the volcanic sequence, including hidden faults with no surface expression, which may host epithermal, bonanza-style gold mineralisation. The results of the survey will be used in the planning of the 2021 drilling programmes.
