PNX Metals (ASX:PNX) has identified new prospective targets within the same host stratigraphy as the nearby >1.2 Moz Cosmo gold mine between the company’s Glencoe and Fountain Head gold deposits in the Northern Territory.
Highlights:
- A 1,238 line-km drone magnetic survey, flown by SensorEM, covered PNX’s 100% owned zinc-gold-silver Hayes Creek, and Fountain Head and Glencoe gold projects.
- Targets appear to have the same orientation as gold-rich sheeted-quartz veins in the Tally Ho deposit, and recently reported high-grade gold in surface rock chip samples from Glencoe.
- Follow-up work programme in planning to test the newly delineated sub-surface magnetic stratigraphy and lineament corridor by shallow drilling and geochemistry.
The 1,238 line-km drone magnetic survey, flown by SensorEM, covered PNX’s 100% owned zinc-gold-silver Hayes Creek, and Fountain Head and Glencoe gold projects. The images generated show much greater detail than previous surveys and permit confident delineation of the folded and faulted magnetic stratigraphy, particularly where it is covered by transported sediments.
The survey was co-funded by Grants NT Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations programme and is part of the Northern Territory Government’s ‘Resourcing the Territory’ initiative.
The detailed drone-mag geophysical survey flown over the Fountain Head/Glencoe gold projects has highlighted new targets within the same prospective stratigraphy that hosts the nearby >1.2 Moz Cosmo Howley gold mine,” Managing Director James Fox said.
“The Hayes Creek zinc-gold-silver project survey has also generated much higher resolution images with several discrete magnetic responses similar to the known VMS deposits at PNX’s Mount Bonnie and Iron Blow deposits, and these magnetic responses warrant further on-ground investigation.”
Glencoe and Fountain Head Flight Area
The drone-mag survey generated detailed images of an ~1.2 km wide package of highly magnetic rocks covered by transported sediment between Glencoe and Fountain Head. Based on the known regional geology, the magnetic units are interpreted to be iron-rich horizons within the Koolpin Formation that hosts several nearby gold deposits, including Cosmo-Howley (Agnico Eagle; 15.6 Mt at 2.6 g/t Au for 1,287,000 oz), Mount Porter (PNX; 0.68 Mt at 2.2 g/t Au for 48,200 oz Au) and Golden Dyke (historic, PNX; 0.11 Mt at 7.66 g/t Au for 27,100 oz Au).
The new, much higher resolution magnetic images also show folds sub-parallel to the known anticlines at Fountain Head and Glencoe which are a common structural control to gold mineralisation in the Pine Creek area.
North-south trending faults which can be traced in the images, are most intense in a ~1.5 km wide corridor between Glencoe and Fountain Head and are subparallel to the Tally Ho gold lodes at Fountain Head and gold- bearing quartz veins at Glencoe.
Surface rock chip samples at the Glencoe gold deposit identified new gold-bearing quartz veins oblique to the main gold lodes; assays include;
- 33.1 g/t Au in GLFS035c,
- 15.5 g/t Au in GLFS043,
- 35.8 g/t Au in GLFS046a, and
- 15.9 g/t Au in GLFS046c.
The combination of prospective folded stratigraphy, oblique cross-cutting structures with the same orientation as known high-grade gold mineralisation at the Tally Ho deposit (part of Fountain Head), and similarly trending gold bearing quartz veins at Glencoe, all support this location as highly prospective for new gold mineralisation and warrants drill testing.
There has been limited previous exploration in the new structural corridor identified between Glencoe and Fountain Head. Previous work included 8 lines of vacuum drilling completed in 1993-94 that identified anomalous levels of gold, arsenic (a pathfinder element for gold in the Pine Creek region), and base metals. These results are encouraging and were not followed up at the time.
Proposed follow-up
- Shallow RAB drilling within the north-south structural corridor between Glencoe and Fountain Head to obtain broad-spaced geochemical information relating to the bedrock situated under transported cover.
- Recent RC drilling at Glencoe tested three target areas, including 10 holes positioned to test north-south- trending quartz veins consistent with the lineaments defined in the drone magnetics. Laboratory assay results are pending.
