What many are calling Western Australia’s gold discovery of the year, is getting bigger with DeGrey Mining Ltd (ASX: DEG) announcing it has defined a third gold zone at Hemi.
Exploration Manager, Phil Tornatora, said the new Crow zone has been defined as a NE trending gold in bedrock anomaly 1km long and 300m wide, north of and parallel to the Aquila and Brolga zones within the Hemi discovery area.
“Crow is an exciting new large and untested gold anomaly, which has the dimensions and a similar order of magnitude of aircore gold results as initially seen at Brolga.
“Like Brolga, the aircore drilling has only tested the shallow weathered portion of the bedrock.
“The first RC drill section comprising six holes has been completed, encountering variable sulphide mineralisation in each hole. HERC043 has returned encouraging gold mineralisation.
“We expect results of the next five holes to be available towards the end of April.”
Significant aircore intersections at Crow include: 4m @ 6.9g/t Au from 52m; 4m @ 3.7g/t Au from 52m; 1m @ 4.7g/t Au from 77m; 3m @ 1.1g/t Au from 32m; and 4m @ 1.1g/t Au from 44m.
Widespaced aircore drilling completed to date at Hemi, located near Port Hedland in the Pilbara Region of WA, has defined three large gold in bedrock zones. The previously discovered Aquila and Brolga Zones have been confirmed to host strong gold-sulphide mineralisation with deeper RC and diamond drilling. This drilling has been completed on a nominal 80m x 80m basis.
The additional aircore drilling mostly to the north of Aquila has returned further encouraging gold results. The new Crow Zone is highlighted by the maximum bedrock gold value in each aircore hole. The gold mineralisation is defined by drill sections 160m to 320m apart with holes spaced from 40m to 160m apart along lines. The gold mineralisation remains open to the SW and NE and at depth.
At Crow, the current overall dimensions are approximately 1000m x 300m as defined by the maximum gold in bedrock in aircore drilling using lower +0.1g/t gold contour and peaks at 6.9g/t. The scale of the Crow Zone is similar to the Brolga and Aquila zones. The aircore drilling has also extended the known extents of the northern intrusion.
Similar to the aircore drilling previously reported at Brolga, the aircore drilling penetration at Crow was rapidly slowed as the harder bedrock was encountered. In general, the aircore only tested from below the barren transported material from approximately 28m downhole to generally 50-60m downhole depth.
RC and diamond core drilling is currently ongoing with three rigs at Brolga and Aquila aiming to define the extent of the gold mineralisation on a nominal 80m spaced sections and 80 spaced holes on section. Resource estimation is planned thereafter based on this drilling.
Further RC drilling is planned to test bedrock mineralisation within the new Crow anomaly. This drilling will aim to initially continue on broad 160m spaced sections in parallel to resource extension drilling at Brolga and Aquila.
A metallurgical work programme has commenced at Brolga and Aquila. This program will include sampling to better define oxide, transition and fresh domains at both deposits plus a suite of comminution, CIL leach test work, sulphide flotation and oxidation assessment to provide overall recovery and potential processing flowsheet requirements.
This work is underway and is anticipated to take approximately three months and will be carried out in consultation with GR Engineering Services and ALS Metallurgy.