Navarre Minerals returns encouraging drill results
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Having received all results from recently completed 21 hole drilling campaign Victoria-focused gold play Navarre Minerals says it is encouraged by the intersection of a prominent quartz reef structure and significant quartz veining in 16 of the 21 holes drilled.
The 1,600 metre air-core drilling program was carried out at the West Tandarra gold prospect which is located in Navarre’s Bendigo North project area in Victoria.
The gold assay results include an impressive gold intercept starting at 37m down-hole, which featured a weighted average result of 10m at 34.4 grams per tonne gold within an assay range of 17.9g/t gold to 44.3g/t gold determined by duplicate sampling.
This intercept includes a weighted average 2m at161.2g/t gold from 37m down-hole within an assay range of 78.1g/t gold to 211.3g/t gold as determined by duplicate sampling.
Navarre has interpreted the result to indicate the presence of coarse nuggetty gold.
The recently completed air-core program targeted quartz reef mineralisation believed to be located within an anticlinal structure indicated by earlier gold drilling.
Previous air-core drilling at Bendigo North intersected high grade gold mineralisation, which recorded a peak assay of 1m at 259.8g/t gold from duplicate sampling, within a corridor of gold and quartz mineralisation of over seven kilometres in strike length.
“We are excited by one of the best gold intercepts in recent Victorian exploration history which now links high grade gold hits over a two kilometre zone,” Navarre Minerals managing director Geoff McDermott said in an announcement.
“Navarre will continue to focus on areas of shallow cover to facilitate an aggressive exploration program to define the extent, continuity and geometry of the mineralisation.”
Navarre indicated that due to the wide-spaced nature of the drill traverses is insufficient drill information to confirm that the gold mineralisation intersected occurs on the same anticlinal structure.
Closer-spaced infill drill traverses will be undertaken to confirm continuity of mineralisation.
Planning is now underway to drill holes designed to scope out this quartz reef gold mineralisation and to target repetitions or “ribbons” of mineralisation at depth and parallel to the established trend.
The Bendigo North gold project is 40km north of the 22 million ounce Bendigo Goldfield and includes the West, East and North Tandarra prospects.
These prospects are located beneath a thin veneer of clay and sand (18m to 79m thick at West Tandarra), referred to as Murray Basin cover, which has precluded historic exploration and mining.