DeSoto Resources Limited (ASX:DES) has confirmed it is successful recipient of an exploration grant for Innovative Targeting for the Fenton Project with the NT Government co-contributing a total of $96,283.
The Fenton Gold Project is an under-cover, structurally complex gold target zone that extends for over 20km along strike by four km across strike on the western edge of the Pine Creek inlier. It is covered by 50m to 200m of Cambrian limestones and mudstones of the Daly Basin.
A major structure, the Fenton Shear Zone (FSZ), is interpreted from regional geophysics (gravity and magnetics) along the eastern edge of the Fenton anticlinorium. It is comparable in scale to the Pine Creek Shear Zone through the central part of the Pine Creek Orogen which hosts significant gold resources.
Observations on historic Homestake Mining Company drillcore demonstrate the correlation of elevated gold intervals with intensely sheared pyrrhotite-rich zones. Deformation produced a strong foliation in the sulphide enriched rocks and was likely a focus for fluid flow and gold mineralisation.
The company is planning to acquire a high resolution AEM survey over the Fenton Shear Zone corridor. This has two specific objectives- to map the depth to basement interface and to map the conductivity response in the basement. The programme is designed as an infill (on 200m lines) to the existing regional scale Rum Jungle TEMPEST survey (1.5km and 5 km spaced lines)
Re-processing of selected lines from the regional survey demonstrate the ability of AEM to map each of these responses in an undercover environment. It is anticipated that the infill AEM survey will significantly increase the geological understanding of an underexplored, highly prospective margin to the Pine Creek Orogen.
In addition to this AEM co-funded survey, ground Fixed Loop Electrical Magnetic (FLEM) and Induced Polarisation (IP) geophysical surveys are scheduled to commence shortly. All these geophysical techniques are expected assist the company more effectively targeting the prospective FSZ under cover in the maiden diamond drilling program later in the year.
We are pleased and thankful to have been awarded an Innovative Targeting Grant. On behalf of the Board of Desoto, we would like to thank the NT Government and the Minister for Mining and Industry for providing funding and such an exploration-friendly environment for Desoto to conduct its activities,” Managing Director, Chris Swallow, said.
“Fenton has the structural scale and geological potential to host a multi-million-ounce gold deposit, this funding will go a long way to helping us make a discovery.”
