Everest Metals Corporation (ASX: EMC) has received positive assay results from the recently completed drill and blast works undertaken as part of the bulk sampling programme at the Revere gold and base metal project in Western Australia.
Assays received from drill and blast works undertaken as part of the bulk sampling programme.
One-meter top grade assays of blast holes include:
- H12-8 – 97.0 g/t Au from 8m
- H13-9 – 46.8 g/t Au from 2m
- H13-9 – 81.4 g/t Au from 3m
- H13-8 – 38.7 g/t Au from 2m
- H33-8 – 21.0 g/t Au from 3m
“The 7km long Revere Reef system has delivered prolific gold from surface over many years so it’s pleasing to receive assays consistent with the smaller bulk sampling programmes previously completed over the tenure. EMC regards this bulk sampling programme as the beginning of what will be a systematic and methodical approach to ultimately unlocking what we believe to be a large orogenic gold system – the Revere Reef system,” Executive Chairman, CEO, Mark Caruso, said.
The Company has completed initial drill and blasting for its 36,000 tonne bulk sampling program of the Revere Reef system which commenced in early April 20241. The programme will delineate the extent of high-grade gold mineralisation contained in the reefs. Bulk sampling and processing will be completed over Q2 and Q3 of 2024. The location of the pits has been designed to provide geometallurgical variability data as well as confirming geological assumptions in relation to the Project.
This Bulk Sampling program will assist the company in identifying the extent of the mineralisation in just a small section of the 7km’s of identified “Revere Reef”. The company expects meaningful gold recoveries from the programme using a simple gravity gold circuit for processing Revere ore as well as generating a substantial JORC resource through the conversion of historical high-grade mineralisation results (17g/t to 325g/t Au) into an inferred/indicated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
Additionally, the processing of this ore sample will assist in calibration of mining and metallurgy parameters. The entire programme is expected to take approximately 6 months to complete. Following the bulk sampling program, EMC will progress an air core drilling campaign to establish additional JORC compliant resources with near surface gold potential.
Bulk samples were planned from where high and low-grade material was estimated and exposed at surface.
For the bulk sampling site, 96 blast holes for a total of 1,152 metres were drilled by an air blast rig and sampled at one metre intervals. The drilling was completed on a grid of 3.6 by 2.8 metres and drilled to a depth of 12 metres each, along a northeast southwest trend for a length of about 110m. Blasting of each drill pattern was then completed. One-meter samples were collected from the drill cyclone from a depth of 2.0 metres to the end of the hole (12m) and 10 samples were collected from each hole. No samples were taken from the surface to a depth of 2 meters due to the potential presence of ex situ material caused by site preparation and historical surface work.
In total, 960 samples were sent to the ALS laboratory in Perth and samples were assayed by PhotonAssay, a high energy X-Ray fluorescence technology. Accurately assaying high nuggety gold samples with fire assay is always challenging due to the small sample size (10-50 grams). PhotonAssay offers an environmentally friendly alternative to fire assay, analysing larger sample sizes (typically around 500 grams), which allows for a more representative sample. This technique is well-suited for coarse gold mineralisation, with a detection limit ranging from 0.03 to 350 ppm.
