Western Gold Resources (ASX: WGR) has partnered with Australian scientific research body the CSIRO as an industry partner of the M462b UltraFine+ research project.
The project calls upon CSIRO’s world-leading expertise to analyse the soil sample geochemical assay data and provide new data analytics and targeting for mineral exploration.
The partnership between CSIRO and WGR aims to develop a robust set of measurable parameters and new data products using the UltraFine+ method (LabWest Minerals Analysis Pty Ltd, Malaga, WA) to fully assess the soil properties and relationships (to the geochemistry) to improve the chances of future discovery.
The project aims to generate new, quality targets through cover by determining the relationships of the host mineral phases, size fraction, physicochemical parameters of the samples, landform setting, and how this relates to buried mineralisation at local and regional scales.
WGR has begun a regional-scale soil sampling programme at its Prince Ivan prospect, located along the western margin of it’s tenement holdings within the Joyners Find Greenstone belt. No historic drilling or extensive soil sampling programmes have been conducted at the prospect in an area the company sees as having significant exploration potential. The soil sampling programme covers an area of approximately 12 sq. km and an estimated 2500 soil samples are to be collected.
The Prince Ivan prospect is interpreted to consist of a N to NNW-trending package of felsic sediments, ultramafics and banded iron formation. Numerous NE and NW-trending faults, interpreted from aeromagnetic data, are present within the area and are known to control gold mineralisation at the other prospects within the Gold Duke Project.
The soil sampling me is adjacent to Great Western Exploration Limited’s Firebird Gold prospect, large, a strong gold in soil anomaly (peak Au of 20ppb) and an arsenic-in-soil anomaly that is some 2.1km long and 350m wide. This anomaly is associated with a series of interpreted NNW-SSE trending splay faults on the western edge of the Joyners Find Greenstone sequence that extend into WGR tenure.
