Iceni Gold Ltd (ASX: ICL) has obtained positive drill results confirming its 2.5km long Guyer North target in Western Australia.
The Guyer Well target area lies in the south-eastern part of Iceni’s tenure. It lies over a north-northwest striking belt of mafic greenstone sequences, bounded to the west by the Danjo Batholith and to the east by felsic volcanics.
The eastern part of the Guyer Well target area is cut by the north-northwest trending Guyer Fault. The Guyer Fault/Shear is interpreted to be a splay of the main Celia Fault. Fifteen kilometres of strike of the prospective Guyer Fault is controlled by Iceni within the 14 Mile Well Project.
Much of the central and southern portions of the Guyer Well target area are blanketed under transported cover. The cover sequences consist of palaeochannels covered by sheetwash and alluvial channels with minor residual soils. The northeastern part of the Guyer Well target area occurs over lacustrine clays and sediments associated with Lake Carey.
The variable depth of cover at Guyer has limited the ability of conventional soil sampling to identify coherent bedrock gold anomalies. The CSIRO developed the UFF+ soil sampling technique to see through deep cover and identify the anomalies hidden below.
The UFF+ soil sampling was conducted across the entire tenement package on a regular grid (nominally 100m x 400m). The soil samples were analysed for 50 elements along with other soil properties like soil sizing, colour, conductivity and acidity along with short wave infra-red analysis (SWIR) to identify clay mineralogy.
The UFF+ results have been reviewed and interpreted by an external consulting geochemist. A number of coherent gold and multielement anomalies have been identified, dividing the Guyer into the North Guyer, Central Guyer and South Guyer prospects.
Significant anomalies have also been identified at the adjacent East Well, Burges Bore and Hage prospects.
Metal Detecting
Metal detecting along the Guyer Shear has discovered over 500 gold nuggets in the surface alluvium. The distribution of the nuggets forms a defined trend that corresponded with the North Guyer UFF+ gold soil anomaly. The nugget trend provides tangible support for the gold soil anomaly.
The nugget assemblage includes angular nuggets, these show little signs of rounding due to transport. The angular nuggets are interpreted to be close to the primary source.
Rounded and flattened nuggets in the assemblage show considerable modification due to transport. These nuggets are interpreted to be far from source, potentially eroded from the palaeochannels that cut into the Guyer Fault.
Technical Director David Nixon said this is significant because palaeochannel gold may form a new style of exploration target for Iceni. Palaeochannel gold mineralisation has been successfully mined in the district at the nearby Sunrise Dam gold mine on the eastern shore of Lake Carey.
Iceni recently completed Air Core drilling at Guyer North. The drilling was designed to test across the interpreted position of the Guyer Shear along the eastern side of the Danjo Granite. The drilling tested the area of the UFF gold soil anomaly and the recently identified gold nugget trend.
“The assay results from this drilling have been received. A number of gold anomalous holes have been identified. These holes form a cluster that correlate with the eastern contact of the Danjo Granite,” Mr Nixon said.
“A number of gold deposits within the Leonora-Laverton District are known to be associated with Granite-Greenstone contacts, for example Granny Smith (2.5Moz Au), Jubilee (150koz Au) and King of the Hills (6Moz Au) gold mines.
“Three kilometres of the Granite-Greenstone contact at Guyer North remains untested.
granite-greenstone contact, this is supported by the parallel UFF+ gold anomaly and the recently identified gold nugget trend.
“These positive drilling results re-enforce the potential of the entire 15km long Guyer Fault and the associated 11km long granite-greenstone contact of the Danjo Batholith at Guyer.
“The significance of the discovery of such a large number of gold nuggets to date in the near surface cover that includes palaeochannels suggests there could be potential for palaeochannel hosted gold deposits similar to other palaeochannel deposits in the Eastern Goldfields. These deposits have been mined at Sunrise Dam, Kalgoorlie, Mt Pleasant, Kanowna, St Ives, Higginsville and Norseman.”
For further information please visit: https://www.icenigold.com.au
