Chalice Gold Mines Limited (ASX: CHN) is planning to accelerate activities at its 100%- owned Pyramid Hill Gold Project near Bendigo in Victoria, Australia, after receiving encouraging new reconnaissance air-core (AC) drilling results from the Karri Target.
Managing Director, Alex Dorsch, said the new results, which follow the initial discovery of the gold trend under cover at the Karri Target in late 2019, have significantly expanded the footprint and the robustness of the Karri Target.
Mr Dorsch said the company is now planning to significantly ramp-up in activities at the project, with the impending commencement of its maiden diamond drill programme, along with a trial 2D seismic survey.
“The latest air-core drill results continue to demonstrate the scale and robustness of the gold trend under cover at the Karri Target, with a contiguous gold zone now extending over a strike length of more than 3km,” Mr Dorsch said.
Given the scale of the target, the favourable geological setting and the tenor of the results being generated by this relatively early stage of exploration, we believe there is the potential to discover a large- scale gold system at depth.
“The Karri gold trend has a consistent north-south orientation, sub-parallel to the interpreted position of the regional scale Muckleford Fault. This structural setting is similar to many large-scale gold deposits in the Bendigo Zone, such as Fosterville, ~70km south-east of Karri, where the high-grade gold zones are associated with a secondary structure, sub-parallel to the regional-scale fault.”
“In addition, given the location of very high-grade historical gold deposits along the Muckleford Fault to the south of the Project – such as Ballarat (~14Moz @ ~12g/t Au) and Maldon (~2Moz @ 33g/t Au) – we believe there is the potential for similar high grades to be intersected as we drill deeper.
“Our highly effective AC drilling programme will continue throughout the current quarter, and we look forward to commencing our first diamond program and 2D seismic survey later this month to better understand the geology and structural controls, and to optimise our future drilling strategy.
“Our strong financial position and significant in-house technical expertise positions the company exceptionally well for the systematic exploration program ahead.”
Approximately 20,500m of the ~25,000m Phase 2 AC programme has now been completed in the Muckleford Area, with assays currently pending for ~3,000m of drilling at the Karri Target.
Further reconnaissance AC drilling is currently underway at the Ironbark North Target, after which further step-out and in-fill AC drilling will be completed at the Karri Target on a 500m x 50m grid.
An initial diamond drill programme will commence in mid-January in parallel to the ongoing Phase 2 AC drill programme. One ~300m deep hole is planned at each of the Karri, Ironbark North and Ironbark Targets to provide ide an early understanding of the local geology and structural controls.
Mr Dorsch said this initial information would be used to determine the optimal drilling strategy for the next phases of exploration.
“Based on real-time results from these initial diamond holes, the programme may be expanded. It is expected that further reconnaissance diamond drilling would follow these initial holes to systematically test each target at depth.”
