NickelX Limited (ASX:NKL) has appointed DDH1 to undertake a targeted four-hole 1,000m diamond drilling programme at the company’s high priority Black Dragon and Red Dragon gold targets within the 100% owned Biranup Project, located in the Albany Fraser Orogen, WA.
The Black Dragon and Red Dragon gold targets are located ~30km NE of the Tier 1 Tropicana gold operations and ~35km SW of the emerging Hercules gold discovery, within a ~10km X 3km, NE-SW-striking zone of significant surface gold anomalism that is spatially coincident with the Black Dragon shear zone, as well as a >250km-structural feature in gravity data that also passes through Tropicana.
“Black Dragon and Red Dragon represent compelling structural gold targets with significant historic results including rock chip samples of up to 573 g/t and 626 g/t Au and previous significant, yet limited, aircore drilling returning 9.00m @ 7.08g/t Au across a 10km by 3km gold anomaly,”
Managing Director, Matt Gauci, said.
“NickelX has designed a targeted diamond drilling program primarily seeking to understand structural and textural information on the gold mineralisation such that we can plan future programmes to explore what is a grossly underexplored target within the world class Tier 1 Tropicana trend, located in the Albany Fraser Orogen.”
The Black Dragon gold target at the Company’s Biranup Project is located in the northern Albany-Fraser Orogen (AFO), ca. 30 km NE of the Tier 1 Tropicana gold operations and 35km SW of the emerging Hercules gold discovery, all of which lie along the interpreted Northern AFO Gold Corridor.
The Black Dragon prospect is situated along the Black Dragon shear zone, a laterally extensive (>100km-long), NNE-SSW to NE-SW striking and ESE-dipping thrust separating the 2,720 to 1,700 Ma Tropicana Zone to the S and the 1,815 to 1,625 Ma Biranup Zone to the N. The Tropicana Zone is represented by the ca. 2,640 Ma Tropicana Gneiss and several intrusive units.
The Biranup Zone is mainly comprised of the 1,815 to 1,800 Ma Black Dragon Gneiss and an unnamed metagranitic unit. Black Dragon is marked by an area of sub-cropping basement surrounded and elsewhere covered by colluvium and wind-blow sand. Gold mineralisation at Black Dragon is associated with quartz veining, hematite breccia, iron-rich sheared basement schist and gneiss and sericite-altered granite with disseminated pyrite.
Individual veins are 0.3 to 5.0m-wide and can be traced at surface for 10 to 30m along strike. Multiple mineralised veins have been recorded, dominantly striking ENE-WSW and N-S. Their dips are unknown. The limited historical drilling has thus far failed to explain the surface gold-silver-tellurium anomalism or provide information about the orientation, structural controls on, genesis, or source for the mineralisation.