Pursuit Minerals Limited (ASX: PUR) has encountered a thick zone of lead-zinc mineralisation in the first hole of a new drilling campaign at the Paperbark Project in north-west Queensland.
Hole PB01-17, the first drill hole of a planned 1,500-2,000m drilling programme at Paperbark, intersected a 73m down-hole width of the JB Zone zinc-lead mineralisation.
Pursuit Minerals Managing Director Jeremy Read said this was a promising result at the very start of a sizeable programme.
He said drill hole PB01-17 was designed with a dual purpose; to provide further information on the distribution of the higher-grade zinc and lead mineralisation within the JB Mineral Resource and to test the lateral extension of copper mineralisation occurring below the Mineral Resource.
“It is very encouraging to intersect such a substantial thickness of the JB Zone Mineral Resource in our first hole at Paperbark, as this will greatly add to our knowledge of the Mineral Resource,” Mr Read said.
“We also tested the stratigraphic position which is mineralised with copper in historical hole JB008, and now we wait for the geochemical data to be returned from the laboratory.”
The Paperbark Project is located approximately 215 km north‐northwest of Mount Isa and 25km south-east of the Century Mine in north-west Queensland.
It occurs within the Lawn Hill Platform of the Western Succession of the Mt. Isa Province.
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The project consists of two exploration permits (EPM’s 14309, 25191), covering an area of approximately 110km2. Previous exploration focused on the JB Zone, where a Mineral Resource of 10.4Mt @ 2.7% Zn, 0.2% Pb, 1g/t Ag at 1.5% Zn cut-off grade and classified as Inferred in accordance with the JORC Code (2012), has been defined.
Drill hole PB01-17 was completed at a down-hole depth of 536.2m in Kamarga Volcanics. Consequently, the hole successfully drilled through the entire sequence of the target Paradise Creek Formation and the underlying Mt Oxide Chert, Gunpowder Creek Formation and Torpedo Creek Sandstone.
A total of 166 samples were taken of the JB Zone zinc-lead mineralisation and underlying copper mineralisation. The geochemical results are expected to be announced to the ASX prior to the end of November 2017.