Solstice Minerals Limited (ASX:SLS) has obtained “very encouraging” gold and multi-element assay results from a recent soil sampling programme over the Cosmo East (E31/1173 & P31/2119), and Cosmo North (E31/1244) Licences (which together with Cosmo (E31/1175) form the Cosmo Licence Group or the Licences), within the Yarri Project.
The Cosmo Licence Group is located approximately 150km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, within the Murrin Domain of the Kurnalpi Terrane of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton.
Encouraging initial reconnaissance UltraFine fraction (UFF) surface sampling in 2021 generated a significant gold-in-soil anomaly in the northwest of Cosmo (E31/1175). The recent UFF sampling extended the initial survey over the other licences within the Cosmo Licence Group.
Interpretation of the new results has defined three new significant and coherent >10ppb gold-insoil anomalies:
- The Granites Prospect is defined by an extensive 3km x 0.9km zone of significant gold anomalism up to 65.2ppb and correlates with nearby historical RAB drilling from the mid1990s which returned 5m @ 1.94g/t gold from 9.0m. The bulk of the anomaly is not tested by any drilling.
- The Jackknife North Prospect is defined as a zone of gold anomalism >10ppb up to 2km in strike and 0.5km in width with a peak assay of 100ppb gold. Localised historical RAB drilling completed in the mid-1990s in the area returned 4m @ 0.29g/t gold from 36m.
- The Jackknife South Prospect is defined as a zone of gold anomalism >10ppb up to in 0.9km strike and 0.6km in width with a peak assay of 81ppb gold. Localised historical RAB drilling by BHP in the mid-1980s approximately 400m to the southwest of Jackknife South Prospect returned 2m @ 0.40g/t gold from 20m.
Executive Director, Alastair Morrison, said the Jackknife North and Jackknife South Prospects may represent a continuous anomalous zone. Less than 10% of the Prospect areas have been tested by historical drilling.
He said the extent and tenor of the UFF gold-in-soil anomalism and the intersection of prospective structures within greenstone geology, combined with the historical drill results are extremely encouraging.
Follow-up work for the Cosmo Licence Group will include detailed geological and structural interpretation of airborne magnetic and radiometric data, as well as landform mapping. These results will assist with planning for an aircore drill programme to test the gold mineralisation associated with historical drilling, as well as exploring the broader (as yet untested) areas of the UFF soil anomalies.
The extensive surface soil anomalies, with up to 100ppb gold, associated with prospective lithological and structural hosts, combined with significant gold anomalism in historical drilling indicate that the Granites and Jackknife Prospects are quality exploration targets,” Mr Morrison said.
“Any gold discovery in the Cosmo Licence Group would complement and enhance the value of the company’s key Hobbes Gold Prospect, located only 15km to the south.”
