Nexus Minerals Limited (ASX: NXM) has received significant high-grade gold assay results from regional exploration drilling completed at the Branches Prospect, within the company’s Wallbrook gold project, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
To have received such strong gold results from this early-stage drilling at Branches validates our exploration strategy, which continues to reap rewards and demonstrates our growing understanding of the district mineralisation,” Managing Director, Andy Tudor, said.
“This early success in testing the first prospect outside of our CrusaderTemplar Prospect, really opens up the opportunity of the four mineralised corridors to host significant gold mineralisation. These results are extremely positive and lead Nexus to believe that we may be sitting on a significant gold camp.”
Initial follow-up regional drilling has concentrated on the Branches Prospect, that lies along strike from the Company’s Crusader-Templar Prospect three km to the south. The prospect sits on mineralised corridor 1 (MC1) that has been defined over five km in length and some 300m wide.
The mineralised corridor remains completely open and remains untested to the north, where Nexus tenure continues along strike for a further 5km to beyond The Gap Prospect. Three parallel potential gold mineralised corridors (MC2, MC3 and MC4) lie to the east of the Crusader to Branches prospects corridor (MC1) and remain to be tested.
Drilling at the Branches Prospect consisted of a 3,750m, 26-hole RC programme. The programme was designed to:
1) Step-out and explore for mineralisation to the north-northeast of the previous Nexus drill program
2) Infill areas of mineralisation identified in the previous Nexus drill programme with several fence drill lines to better understand the mineralisation style.
The drilling successfully achieved the program goals and intersected mineralisation associated with sheared and hematite altered mineralised quartz porphyry units – “the right rocks”. These are the same rocks that host the gold mineralisation at the company’s Crusader-Templar Prospect located 3km to the south, and Northern Star’s multi-million ounce Carosue Dam Gold Project a further 30km to the south.
Cross-section A-A 6700550mN demonstrates the vertical continuity of mineralisation and the RC drill chip photos from the three holes on the section confirm the relationship of the gold mineralisation to the hematite altered porphyry unit (the red rocks).
The style of mineralisation also mirrors that of the Company’s Crusader-Templar Prospect, with broader lower grade mineralisation in the shallow oxide zone giving way to narrower high-grade mineralisation in the fresh rock that extends to depth (4m @ 7.47g/t Au within 8m @ 3.96g/t Au and 4m @ 7.23g/t Au within 10m @ 3.33g/t Au).