Yandal Resources Ltd (ASX: YRL) has commenced flying a high-resolution aeromagnetic survey over the Sim’s Find and New England Granite prospects within its Barwidgee Project, located approximately 60km south of Northern Star’s +10moz Jundee and Nimary gold mines in Westen Australia.
The survey will provide Yandal with important detailed aeromagnetic data over both the Sim’s Find and New England Granite prospects that will be used to refine targets for future drilling programs. The programme involves flying 50m spaced lines halfway between existing multi-client 50m spaced survey data to generate effectively 25m spaced lines after all the data is merged.
“We are pleased to have this programme underway as we have been planning to collect detailed aeromagnetic data in the Sims Find area for some time,” Managing Director, Tim Kennedy, said.
“A suitable survey aircraft was in the district for another client, so we took the opportunity to save on mobilisation costs and complete the survey at a very competitive rate. Historic broader spaced surveys at Sim’s Find indicate that the high-grade mineralisation is associated with magnetic lows within the host dolerite, possibly due to chemical alteration by mineralising fluids.
“This survey will assist us in delineating the orientation and extent of the host lithology and demagnetised zones which will then guide future rounds of drilling.
“The survey will also cover the New England Granite area where limited historic work has demonstrated gold mineralisation associated a deformed granite-greenstone contact. The aeromagnetic data will be used to accurately define the granite margins and cross-cutting large-scale tensional faults that are also prospective for gold.”
At Sims Find high-grade gold has been delineated over a 400m NW trending zone. Previous intercepts within the zone include:
• 8m @ 24.3g/t Au from 9m including 1m @ 129.0g/t Au from 12m (YRLRC457)1
• 3m @ 20.9g/t Au from 30m including 1m @ 62.3g/t Au from 30m (YRLRC447)1
• 5m @ 6.5g/t Au from 17m including 1m @ 30.4g/t Au1from 17m (YRLRC445)1
Broad-spaced reconnaissance style step out drilling has confirmed the mineralisation continues at least a further 1.2km north-west along strike. Gold mineralisation is associated with quartz veins, sulphides and shears hosted within a coarse-grained dolerite and basalt sequence.
Analysis of broader spaced historic aeromagnetic data indicates that mineralisation corresponds with a distinct magnetic low within the host sequence, potentially representing alteration associated with mineralisation. The new detailed date generated from this survey will provide far greater resolution of the host sequence and zones of alteration.
The New England Granite prospect comprises a granitic intrusive measuring approximately 4.3km x 2km that is cut by large scale tensional faults subordinate to the nearby Ockerbury Fault.
Historic drilling has demonstrated that the deformed margins of the granite in contact with the surrounding greenstone sequence has elevated gold (up to 6.7g/t Au) associated with quartz veining. The competency contrast related to granite-greenstone contacts is a common gold mineralisation control in the Yandal belt and elsewhere. The aeromagnetic survey will assist in accurately delineating the granite margins and potentially also cross-cutting faults that may also be prospective.
The acquisition phase of the survey will take approximately one day to complete and will cover an area measuring approximately 8.5km north-south and 3.7km east-west.
Next Steps/Exploration Pipeline
Additional priority exploration activities planned during the coming quarters include;
1. Review historic and recent drilling data at the Mt McClure Project to establish controls on potential higher grade plunging shoots
2. RC drill testing at Mt McClure to expand the initial Mineral Resource Estimates at Challenger, Success and Parmelia.
3. RC follow-up along the high-grade Sims Find trend and other advanced prospects at Barwidgee.
For further information please visit: https://www.yandalresources.com.au/
