North Stawell Minerals (ASX:NSM) share price jumped 3.85% this morning on news that its drilling programme at the Forsaken Prospect in Victoria, Australia has yielded exciting results, with significant gold intercepts extending the mineralization trend.
Highlights
- Notable gold intercepts (1+ grams per tonne of gold) have been returned from an 18-hole 1,548m drill programme, including 3.0m at 1.02 g/t gold from 62m and 3.0m at 1.98 g/t gold from 51m.
- The results extend significant gold mineralisation 170m further north (250m total).
- They demonstrate gold occurs roughly parallel to the margin of an interpreted basalt – a contact that can be traced for several kilometres.
- Results also demonstrate that significant gold occurs south of an historic diamond hole, previously interpreted as the southern extent of mineralization.
- Anomalous results extend the target to 550m, with grades occurring on all lines drilled.
- The Forsaken target is interpreted as a large, structurally disrupted fold immediately east of the regionally significant Pleasant Ck Fault – a compelling structural target for gold mineralisation.
“The Forsaken air core drilling programme has been an exciting success for our exploration program. The gold grades and extents of mineralisation are highly encouraging and we’ll continue to drill-test Forsaken next season,” Chief Executive, Russell Krause, said.
“The Forsaken target is interpreted to occur on the western margin of a 9km basalt. The basalt margin (clearly defined in NSM’s AGG gravity-gradiometry geophysics1, but not in historic magnetics data) is a possible repeat of the geology that hosts the multi million-ounce Stawell Mine, 40km along strike to the south.
“At Stawell, gold-bearing fluids are focussed into flexures of faults and shears as they wrap around the immovable buttress of basalt. At the northern end of Forsaken the basalt is interpreted as a being dragged into the the regionally significant Pleasant Creek Fault, forming a large, two km wide fold. Fault-fold systems are recognised as geometries conducive to focussing gold mineralisation, potentially increasing prospectivity at Forsaken.”
Historic air core drilling at Forsaken (91 holes for 1,620m) included a stand-out result – 10m at 1.34g/t Au (GLA204). This impressive result was followed up a 210.4m diamond hole (GLD005 (no significant assays) and the project was forsaken.
“With new high-resolution geophysics data, NSM returned to the target in 2022, drilling 31 holes for 1,671m as 4 wide- spaced fences over 800m strike, testing the eastern side of the interpreted fold closure, and intersected significant mineralization 70m north of GLA204 in NSAC0244 (1m at 1.24g/t Au).
“The NSM 2023 air core drilling was part of exploration’s Phase 2 programmes, drilling inclined air core holes to establish trends in mineralization, and focussed on the two historic 1+g/t Au results. Three lines were drilled, each intersecting anomalous gold, and returned two more significant results.
“NSAC0586 intersected 3.0m at 1.02g/t Au 170m north of NSAC0244, extending the 1+g/t Au trend to 250m, open to the north. NSAC0595, drilled 40m south of the discovery intercept in GLA204, intersected 3.0m at 1.98g/t Au. Despite the modest step-out, this hole has achieved the critical result of demonstrating gold mineralization south of the historic diamond hole, opens up 4km of interpreted basalt contact to continued exploration. The contiguous anomalous trend has been extended to 500m and is open north and south.
“NSM has rapidly focussed on, and efficiently expanded, the Forsaken target. The supporting geophysics and mineralization models have helped focus effective exploration and identify targets, and exploration will continue to expand this target along strike and to depth.
“Gold anomalism in historic drilling follows the margin of the basalt around the interpreted fold and into the western limb of the structure, suggesting this contact may be highly prospective in multiple areas. Gold values are also interpreted as elevated in association with the fold hinge is of particular interest.”
For further information please visit: https://www.northstawellminerals.com/
