During September 28 RC holes, for 4,278m, were drilled at the Weednanna Prospect. These holes consisted of:
- 14 holes, for 1,890m, drilled to extend gold mineralisation at Shoots 4, 5 and 5E
- 10 holes, for 1,836m, drilled to extend gold mineralisation at Shoot 1
- four holes, for 552m, drilled to test for gold mineralisation associated with a major quartz vein in the immediate hangingwall at Shoot 1, where historic drill hole 00WDRC072 returned 48m @ 2.0g/t Au from 54m, including 7m @ 5.4g/t Au from 69m and 2m @ 16.0g/t Au from 98m
Managing director, Steve Johnston, commented: "The 20m @ 12.44g/t Au intercept continues to demonstrate the outstanding exploration potential at Weednanna for the discovery and definition of high-grade gold lodes at relatively shallow depth."
To extend gold mineralisation at Shoots 4, 5 and 5E 14 holes were drilled for 1,890m.
This drilling returned a best result of 20m @ 12.44g/t Au from 104m in 18WDRC027 associated with Shoot 5. This result is very significant because it is down dip of 8m @ 12.6g/t Au from 93m in 18WDRC005 and correlates with the intersection of 7m @ 21.2g/t Au from 125m in 98WDDH002 that is located 25m to the north on the 6372275mN Section. Also, this shoot appears to be sub-horizontal and is untested by drilling to the south and may project at least 50m to the north.
This high-grade gold shoot is sufficiently close to the existing Shoot 4/5 2018 Mineral Resource Estimate A$2,000/oz open pit shell that it may be amenable to either open pit or underground mining techniques.
Shoot 1
Ten holes for 1,836m were drilled to extend gold mineralisation at Shoot 1. Holes 18WDRC036-038 were drilled to test for the western extension of the main mineralised shoot, whereas holes 18WDRC039-045 were drilled to test for a northwest extension to the shoot possibly associated with historic hole 12WDRC001 that returned 6m @ 2.30g/t Au from 108m depth and 24m @ 1.40g/t Au from 144m depth.
All holes were drilled outside of the Shoot 1 2018 Mineral Resource Estimate A$2,000/oz open pit shell.
The best results from this drilling were 8m @ 2.3 g/t Au from 64m in 18WDRC039 and 7m @ 1.01 g/t Au from 145m in 18WDRC040.
Economic concentrations of gold mineralisation at Shoot 1 have been closed off to the west and at this stage, the gold intersected in historic hole 12WDRC001 does not appear to form part of a larger and potentially economic body of gold mineralisation.
Quartz Vein
Four holes for 552m were drilled to test for gold mineralisation associated with a major quartz vein in the immediate hanging wall at Shoot 1, where historic drill hole 00WDRC072 returned 48m @ 2.0g/t Au from 54m, including 7m @ 5.4g/t Au from 69m and 2m @ 16.0g/t Au from 98m.
All holes were drilled outside of the Shoot 1 2018 Mineral Resource Estimate A$2,000/oz open pit shell.
These holes all intersected the targeted quartz vein, with associated sulphide mineralisation, however, no significant potentially economic gold results were returned.
The best drill intersection was 4m @ 1.5g/t Au from 66m and 1m @ 5.8g/t Au from 81m in hole 18WDRC046.
It appears that the quartz vein targeted by this drilling is broadly anomalous in gold, however, the cause of the higher-grade gold intersected in historic hole 00WDRC072 remains uncertain.
Planned Work
A 31-hole RC drilling program, totalling 4,650m, is planned to commence at Weednanna during December with the aims of:
- Resource definition drilling in the eastern optimised pit area to increase the confidence level of that part of the mineral resource from Inferred to Indicated classification
- Identifying new near-pit mineralisation that is amenable to either open pit or underground mining techniques
- Provide adequate drilling information to develop a mine plan to efficiently transition from open pit mining of the eastern pit to underground mining that exploits resources beneath the pit and extends to the north to Shoot 2
- Providing samples for the next stage of metallurgical test work
This drilling program is the first step of systematic exploration to achieve the above objectives and will likely be followed by further infill and extensional drilling in early 2019.