Shallow Gold Hits In Maiden Drilling Campaign
Dreadnought Resources Limited (ASX:DRE) has encountered thick, near surface, oxide gold mineralisation during its maiden RC drilling programme at CRA-North, part of the Rocky Dam Gold-VMS Project located 45km east of Kalgoorlie.
Drilling was designed to target a high tenor gold-in-soil anomaly located along a sheared contract between felsic volcanics and sediments. The near surface oxide gold mineralisation is associated with gossanous quartz veining.
Mineralisation is interpreted to be striking NNW-SSE, dipping to the WSW and plunging north in line with the local foliation.
Managing Director, Dean Tuck, said follow up drilling will be undertaken to the west to drill beneath the oxide mineralisation targeting fresh bedrock mineralisation.
“Our maiden drill results at CRA-North are highly encouraging with good widths and reasonable grades. The bedrock mineralisation and potentially higher grades are interpreted to sit to the west and at depth beneath the recent intercepts,” Mr Tuck said.
“The thick shallow oxide mineralisation combined with ~300m of strike and proximity to Kalgoorlie makes CRA-North an attractive target for further drilling as soon as logistically possible.”
CRA-North was defined by CRA in the 1990s as a 700m long gold anomaly along a sheared contact of felsic volcanics and black shales. This work included shallow RAB drilling (average depth 24m) and two diamond holes (average depth 200m). The diamond drilling appears to have been ineffective with down hole surveys indicating a significant change off planned azimuth by 30°.
The recent program tested a high tenor gold-in-soil anomaly located along a sheared contact between felsic volcanics and sediments to confirm the orientation of the mineralised structure. Three sections of scissor holes were drilled either side of the gold-in-soil and historical RAB drilling intercepts. An additional hole was drilled to the south to test thin east-west trending quartz veins exposed during earthworks. In total, 7 holes for 1,212m were drilled along 300m of strike.
Drill results included 45m of 0.6g/t Au, including 9m @ 1.7g/t Au from 18m depth; and 40m @ 0.2 g/t Au from 19m depth. Dreadnought will now collect one metre splits from the mineralised intercepts before planning additional follow up drilling to test for potential bedrock mineralisation dipping to the west.
