Focus writes new chapter in Treasure Island story
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Focus Minerals has received preliminary results from a recent infill drilling program conducted at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Treasure Island gold project on Lake Cowan in Western Australia.
The company has received assay results for 105 infill holes so far, approximately 50 per cent of which have returned anomalous gold.
The company’s original regional reconnaissance program at Treasure Island resulted in only 2 to 3 per cent of the holes returning anomalous gold.
Focus said the latest results indicate the company is beginning to define the position of a mineralised system beneath the lake.
It has already identified two targets for preliminary diamond drill testing expected to start next week.
“The aircore program on the lake has been testing a potential thrust repeat of the Treasure Island stratigraphy,” Focus Minerals Treasure Island principal geologist Dean Goodwin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“What we have been doing with the infill is to drill down to the base of oxidation through the lake sediment looking for gold as it spreads out away from the primary deposit in the bedrock below.
Cross section showing initial planned stratigraphy diamond drill hole. Source: Company announcement
“A hyper-saline environment like the lake is a perfect place to look for this supergene effect where over time the gold spreads out at the base of the water table creating a blanket.
“What we achieved in the regional reconnaissance aircore is to find where these blankets are, and now with the infill we are starting to pinpoint where we think the primary ore bodies might be.”
The Treasure Island gold project is located 35 kilometres south-south east along strike from the major St Ives gold mine of South African company Gold Fields in Kambalda, where over 15 million ounces of gold has been discovered over the last 22 years.
Goodwin said the detailed aeromagnetics show that the structural framework Focus is finding in the Treasure Island area looks similar to what is found at St Ives.
“There’s a lot of structural complexity evident on the eastern zone, and this level of complexity along with the favourable geology increases the chance of finding gold,” he said.
“One of the holes LCAC593 returned a 4 metre composite grading 1.07 grams per tonne gold (part of a 9m end of hole intersection grading 416 parts per billion), which is a significant amount of gold for an aircore program.
“This is a strong indicator that we are possibly close to the primary structure.”
Focus Minerals said a lot more data is required from the whole infill drilling program before it can make an assessment of the full potential of the area.
The company expects to receive remaining assays for the infill aircore program in the coming weeks.