Anglo Australian Resources NL (ASX: AAR) has confirmed the presence of gold at depths well below the previously known extent of mineralisation during its ongoing drilling programme at the Mandilla Gold Project, 70km south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
In June, the company commenced a 3,000m diamond drilling programme, which has since been extended, with 12 holes thus far being completed for an aggregate 3,300m drilled. The campaign is now nearing completion.
Two of the four completed holes, MDRCD217 and MDRCD228, were designed to follow-up previous RC intersections along the Mandilla East southern extension.
MDRCD217 returned 9.35m @ 1.04g/t Au from 201.4m and 11.1m @ 1.83g/t Au from 261.7m.
MDRCD228, located 80m further to the south, returned 13.4m @ 7.02g/t Au from 180.4m.
Significant mineralisation was intersected in MDRCD191, which returned assays of 76.5m @ 1.21g/t Au from 296m, 7.35m @ 1.43g/t Au from 393.7m and 3.8m @ 2.26g/t Au from 410.9m.
Managing Director, Marc Ducler, said hole MDRCD191 is significant, not only because of the thick mineralised section but because, with gold still present at a depth of -50mRL, it represents the deepest mineralised intersection to date at the Mandilla Gold Project (previously known deepest mineralisation was at +100mRL).
The hole was originally planned to be drilled to a depth of 300m; however, the decision was made to extend the hole based on visual observations of the drill core indicating the presence of a continuing wide zone of alteration, quartz veining and visible gold.
MDRCD229, located 40m to the north, also returned 10.9m @ 1.52g/t Au from 196.2m, 15.5m @ 1.12g/t Au from 260.45m, 16.3m @ 0.57g/t Au from 296.7m and 17.8m @ 0.66g/t Au from 332.2m. with gold logged within the quartz vein zones within all the above intersections.
The current diamond drill program at the Mandilla Gold Project has two key objectives – to increase our understanding of the structural controls that influence mineralisation and to extend known mineralisation at depth,” Mr Ducler said.
“It has been successful on both fronts with broad zones of deeper mineralisation encountered highlighting the growing scale of the discovery.
“We are keenly waiting assay results from the remaining holes in the program – with recently completed diamond holes intersecting albite/silica alteration, quartz veining and numerous occurrences of visible gold.
“A 10,000m RC drill programme will commence shortly to test extensions to Mandilla East and Mandilla South, and to increase drill density at Mandilla East to support a maiden Mineral Resource later this year.”