Everest Metals Corporation Limited (ASX: EMC) has commenced a diamond drilling programme at the Revere Gold Project (RGP) in the Mid-West region of Western Australia.
The programme:
“There has been a substantial amount of work completed over the years leading up to the commencement of this diamond drilling programme at the Revere Gold Project,” Chief Operating Officer, Simon Phillips, said.
“None more important than our recent technical and geophysical data reinterpretation which confirmed the potential for occurrences of the Doolgunna formation which is known to host DeGrussa style Volcanic Hosted Massive Sulphides. We are very excited at the prospect of turning the Revere Gold Project into the Revere Copper and Gold Project on the back of a successful drilling campaign.”
The project is located just off the Great Northern Highway approximately 90km to the northeast of Meekatharra in the Murchison Region of Western Australia. The tenement package size, including the tenements under option cover an area of 82 sq. km. This is comprised of granted tenements E51/1766, E51/1770, P51/3240, P51/3241, and pending applications M51/905, E51/2119, E51/2088 and E51/2145.
The project sits proximal and along strike of the DeGrussa and Monty Copper-Gold mines, located 55km to the southwest.
The RGP is located in the Palaeoproterozoic Yerrida Basin – Doolgunna Formation. The alteration system appears to represent a classic precious metal ductile shear system – the Revere Reef System – that is associated with the Capricorn orogenic event. The historical geochemical anomaly is interpreted to represent hydrothermal mineralisation.
Visual observations of the lode material from the Revere Reef indicate that coarse visible gold is contained within gossan iron oxide which forms the matrix of the quartz breccias.
Field assessment by Enterprise Metals (2009-2017), Mineral Commodities (2018-2021), and a recent technical review and data interpretation by EMC demonstrated the potential of the Doolgunna formation to host DeGrussa style VHMS and Plutonic-style orogenic gold deposits. Historical exploration primarily focused on gold targets that could be mined by shallow open pit methods. Deeper exploration was generally limited to the immediate shallow RC drilling seeking to locate quartz vein-bearing gold.
At depth, the anomalous high copper, zinc, and arsenic values indicate the potential for a DeGrussa style copper-gold deposit below the zone of complete oxidisation. Copper and even gold lodes in the region are generally shear hosted shoots, narrow and long, comprised of high-grade lodes.
The DeGrussa deposit was discovered in follow up drilling of a zone of oxide gold mineralisation similar to that found at the RGP. The west-northwest striking breccia shear zone is interpreted to be related to deep-seated structures and to represent part of a plumbing system for metalliferous fluids that migrated upwards into suitable trap horizons – the quartz breccia or any other suitable structural traps.