Petratherm Limited (ASX: PTR) has defined six high tenor arsenic (As) soil anomalies over the eastern portion of the Yuengroon Gold Project in Victoria.
Yuengroon (EL6897) is a large licence area of 683 km2 over a portion of the Bendigo Zone, covering the historic northern Wedderburn Goldfield and extends westwards over several important historical gold occurrences.
The targets were identified by a large soil geochemical sampling programme. To date 1248 samples have been collected over a regular grid and analysed for As content using a portable handheld XRF.
The surveys were undertaken over areas of shallow cover beyond the limits of historical shallow mining.
Exploration Manager Peter Reid said this work has identified several coherent As anomalies of considerable magnitude and area extent. Typically, arsenic values in excess of 50 ppm are considered anomalous warranting further investigation.
Each of the new targets defined have coherent As trends well in excess of 100 ppm extending for several hundred metres and include several exceptionally high As values.
The tenement area is blanketed mostly by shallow cover sediment concealing the prospective basement rocks and as a consequence has only been lightly explored.
Mr Reid said arsenic anomalism in soil is derived from the breakdown of the sulphide mineral arsenopyrite which is found to occur with gold mineralisation in the underlying bedrock.
“It is principal path finder element used to locate primary gold mineralisation in the Victorian Goldfields.”
Mr Reid said the company intends to drill test these targets, but at this stage is uncertain of the timing of when this will occur, due to the current Coronavirus Pandemic.