RC Drilling Delivers Outstanding High-Grade Gold Intercepts at Forrestania Gold Project, WA
High Grade Results at Forrestania
Perth, July 24, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - WA-focused gold exploration and development company Classic Minerals Limited (
ASX:CLZ) ("Classic", or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has received assays results from its recent RC drilling program at its Forrestania Gold Project (FGP) in Western Australia. In this round of drilling, the Company has drilled a total of 22 holes for 1,990m - 12 holes for 1052m at Kat Gap and 10 holes for 938 metres at Lady Magdalene with the aim of improving/increasing known mineralisation at Lady Magdalene and Kat Gap.
Highlights:
- Kat Gap returns significant high-grade gold intercepts from 11 of the 12 holes drilled. Best results from most recent assays include:
o 8m @ 19.05 g/t Au from 32m including 4m @ 28.80 g/t Au from 32m
o 12m @ 7.52 g/t Au from 39m including 2m @ 20.20 g/t Au from 48m
o 12m @ 5.39 g/t Au from 30m including 1m @ 20.80 g/t Au from 30m
o 3m @ 10.70 g/t Au from 69m including 1m @ 23.10 g/t Au from 69m
o 2m @ 15.39 g/t Au from 70m
o 4m @ 9.53 g/t Au from 70m including 1m @ 26.60 g/t Au from 72 m
o 8m @ 7.14 g/t Au from 82m including 1m @ 21.10 g/t Au from 82m
- RC drilling at Kat Gap conducted over 140m of strike. System remains open along strike and down dip
- New gold zone identified 30m west of main Kat Gap mineralisation hosted within granite and totally missed by previous drilling. Results include:
o 8m @ 7.14 g/t Au from 82m including 1m @ 21.10 g/t Au from 82m
o 4m @ 7.44 g/t Au from 92m
o 3m @ 10.70 g/t Au from 69m including 1m @ 23.10 g/t Au from 69m
- Drilling at Lady Magdalene uncovers three potential cross-cutting quartz veins similar in orientation to the high-grade Lady Ada deposit. Better assays from the new quartz veins include:
o 1m @ 13.40 g/t Au from 64m
o 1m @ 9.36 g/t Au from 44m
o 4m @ 3.90 g/t Au from 46m
- Lady Magdalene main ore zone yields further thick zones of gold mineralisation. Results include:
o 10m @ 2.10 g/t Au from 43m
o 11m @ 2.39 g/t Au from 38m
o 10m @ 1.51 g/t Au from 65m
o 12m @ 2.12 g/t Au from 55m
o 15m @ 1.41 g/t Au from 36m
- Composite sampling of historic RC holes at Kat Gap returned 2,260ppm Li2O in LCT-type pegmatites
1. INTRODUCTION
Drilling results from Kat Gap confirms the discovery of a significant new zone of gold mineralisation within the granite which was previously thought to be barren. Drilling at Kat Gap also showed that high-grade gold mineralisation has effectively dammed up against a cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke. Drilling at Lady Magdalene yielded impressive results further confirming the existence of a number of high-grade, cross-cutting gold lodes previously missed due to the wide spaced drilling.
Classic CEO Dean Goodwin said:
The Forrestania Gold Project continues to deliver fantastic results for Classic and its shareholders. We encountered high grade zones of mineralisation at each of the drill targets which all remain open along strike with high priority zones requiring urgent follow up. Kat Gap is shaping up to become a prolific shallow high-grade gold deposit with so much remaining upside potential. We have only tested 140m of 3.5km of potential strike along this granite-greenstone contact and received excellent gold grades from 11 of the 12 holes drilled.
At Lady Magdalene, we have proven the existence of 3 potentially new high-grade cross-cutting quartz veins. As previously posited, these quartz veins could be analogous to those at Lady Ada - reinforcing the view that plenty more high-grade ounces are potentially hiding between the existing drill lines at Lady Magdalene. We will track these new quartz lodes both east-west and test for additional cross-cutting veins all the way south to Lady Ada.
We are planning to restart drilling at Kat Gap and Lady Magdalene in early August. This program will also include the drilling at Lady Lila and Van Uden West so there is plenty of good results to look forward to.
These new results bode well for the whole Forrestania project given that the main granite-greenstone contact, of which we have 40 km of strike, has been largely overlooked. I'm quite confident that new, high-priority gold targets will come to light elsewhere within the project area.
We should also point out that this drilling program, along with all associated assays and additional technical work cost less than $150,000 AUD. This is another notable example of CLZ's "new" approach to exploration planning and spending at FGP - we carefully plan all exploration activities and keep a tight control on costs to ensure shareholder funds are wisely spent with the goal of delivering value to all shareholders.
2. KAT GAP DRILLING - MULTIPLE HIGH-GRADE GOLD LODES
Classic drilled 12 holes for 1052m at Kat Gap and is pleased to confirm that eleven holes returned gold mineralisation striking in a north-south direction. The drilling was conducted over approximately 140m of strike with mineralisation open in all directions.
The majority of the drilling was focused on testing the main granite-greenstone contact which has been the sole focus of drilling since the prospect was discovered by previous holders. A few holes were also drilled up against a cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke where high-grade gold mineralisation is believed to have concentrated. Drill holes FKGRC006 - FKGRC010 (inclusive), FKGRC012, FKGRC013 and FKGRC015 all tested the main contact lode with hole FKGRC008 drilled close to the Proterozoic dyke. Better results from these holes included: 8m @ 19.05 g/t Au from 32m including 4m @ 28.80 g/t Au from 32m in FKGRC008; 12m @ 7.52 g/t Au from 39m including 2m @ 20.20 g/t Au from 48m in FKGRC006; 12m @ 5.39 g/t Au from 30m including 1m @ 20.80 g/t Au from 30m in FKGRC012 and 4m @ 9.53 g/t Au from 70m including 1m @ 26.60 g/t Au from 72m in FKGRC014.
It should be noted that holes FKGRC006 - FKGRC009 (inclusive), FKGRC010 and FKGRC011 were also drilled relatively close to the Proterozoic dyke to test CEO Dean Goodwin's theory that gold is concentrated up against the dyke. With the promising high-grade results returned from these holes, Classic will continue to track mineralisation against the dyke and follow it down plunge. It is currently believed that two high grade gold shoots exist either side of the Proterozoic dyke contact. The strike and down-plunge extent of these shoots is currently unknown.
Holes FKGRC010 - FKGRC012 (inclusive) all drilled into a newly discovered footwall lode located approximately 30m west of the main granite-greenstone contact lode hosted within the granite. Better results from these holes included: 8m @ 7.14 g/t Au from 82m including 1m @ 21.10 g/t Au from 82m in FKGRC010; 4m @ 7.44 g/t Au from 92m in FKGRC011 and 3m @ 10.70 g/t Au from 69m including 1m @ 23.10 g/t Au from 69m in FKGRC012. This new position is totally open along strike and down dip. Previous explorers in the area have assumed that the granite surrounding deposits/prospects is barren. The discovery of granite-hosted gold at Kat Gap is significant as the same geological setting may be repeated elsewhere throughout Classic's significant >500km2 landholding. Classic will continue to track this unexpected high-grade granite-hosted gold mineralisation in its upcoming drill program at Kat Gap and elsewhere throughout the project area.
Historical RC drilling is currently on 100m - 200m line spacings. There is strong potential for additional mineralisation to be identified up-dip, down-dip and along strike, both outside of and within the existing RC drill coverage. Only about half of the 5 km long >50 ppb Au gold-in-soil anomaly has been tested by RC drilling along the granite/greenstone contact.
There is a further 5 km of strike of prospective granite-greenstone contact along-strike from the Kat Gap zone within E74/467 that has seen little or no exploration.
Classic has already planned follow up drill holes to be commenced in early August.
3. DRILLING AT LADY MAGDALENE - CHASING TRANSFORMATIVE HIGH-GRADE MINERALISATION
Lady Magdalene hosts high-grade cross-cutting lodes in a similar orientation to Lady Ada (600m to the south). Structural readings taken from recent orientated diamond holes MADD003 and MADD004 (see ASX announcement dated 22 March 2018) revealed several quartz veins and narrow shear zones exhibiting similar orientation characteristics to Lady Ada. Classic drilled 10 RC holes for 938m on two north-south oriented traverses, as opposed to all historical drilling which is east-west, in an attempt to locate east-west striking Lady Ada style high-grade cross-cutting quartz veins. Of the 10 holes completed, 3 intersected quartz veining in a potential east-west orientation. These holes returned high-grade results including: 1m @ 13.40 g/t Au from 64m in MARC058; 1m @ 9.36 g/t Au from 44m in MARC059 and 4m @ 3.90 g/t Au from 46m in MARC056. The 3 new cross-cutting quartz veins initially appear narrow but have the potential to thicken rapidly over short strike lengths similar to Lady Ada.
RC drilling also intersected thick zones of lower grade gold mineralisation similar to that intersected previously during the recent resource definition drilling. Typically, Lady Magdalene alteration assemblage consists of strong biotite alteration, silicification with fine disseminated sulphides arsenopyrite and pyrite. These lower grade mineralised zones are typified by the absence of quartz veining. Results received from within the Lady Magdalene ore zone include: 11m @ 2.39 g/t Au from 38m in MARC059; 12m @ 2.12 g/t Au from 55m in MARC058; 10m @ 2.10 g/t Au from 43m in MARC056; 15m @ 1.41 g/t Au from 36m in MARC057 and 10m @ 1.51 g/t Au from 65m in MARC061.
The latest drilling confirms the existence of significant gold-bearing quartz veins between existing drill lines. As with Lady Ada's high-grade sapphire shear zone, these veins are low angle reverse thrust faults that dip gently to the south. In upcoming drilling, Classic will track the quartz veins from east to west and will also drill south of the existing lines to determine how many additional lodes are located within the Lady Magdalene resource footprint. This is a very important development for the company as the drilling confirms that the current large, modestly graded Lady Magdalene deposit hosts high grade cross cutting zones of gold mineralisation which are analogous to the high-grade Lady Ada mine.
Follow up drilling will commence in early August.
4. KAT GAP - LITHIUM PROSPECTIVITY
With the Forrestania belt hosting world class LCT-Pegmatites (KDR/SQM's Earl Grey deposit and multiple Li prospects), Classic embarked on a lithium orientation sampling program of previous historical RC holes at Kat Gap. 12 holes were selected based on pegmatites being logged in the hole. No previous assays had been undertaken for lithium.
2 composite RC chip samples were collected from the 12 holes containing pegmatites, 6 holes approximately 300m north and 6 holes approximately 300-500m south of the current gold drilling. The northern composite sample (355150) returned no significant values but the composite sample (355149) collected from the southern 6 RC holes returned anomalous lithium results.
Results of the composite sample 355149 include:
----------------------------------------------------------------Element Assay (ppm) ----------------------------------------------------------------Lithium Oxide (Li2O) 2,260 ppm Tantalum 58 ppm Titanium 100 ppm Caesium 123 ppm Tin 20 ppm ----------------------------------------------------------------
A number of pegmatites were mapped during Dean Goodwin's targeting and mapping project completed in the early 2000's. Classic plans to continue field work to test these pegmatites and identify more potentially li-bearing pegmatites at its 100% owned Kat Gap project. This will involve ongoing field mapping and soil geochemical sampling. The company will keep the market appraised of any meaningful updates but sees exciting potential for Li mineralisation at Kat Gap, particularly as the Li anomaly is along strike from Western Area's (ASX:WSA) recently announced lithium exploration results - 50m @ 0.95% Li2O including 9m @ 2.85% Li2O (SID017) as spodumene.
5. ABOUT THE FORRESTANIA GOLD PROJECT
The FGP Tenements (excluding Kat Gap and Lady Lila) are registered in the name of Reed Exploration Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX listed Hannans Ltd (ASX:HNR). Classic has acquired 80% of the gold rights on the FGP Tenements from a third party, whilst Hannans has maintained its 20% interest in the gold rights. For the avoidance of doubt Classic Ltd owns a 100% interest in non-gold rights on the Kat Gap and Lady Lila Tenements including but not limited to nickel, lithium and other metals.
The FGP contains an existing Mineral Resource of 5.3 Mt at 1.39 g/t for 240,000 ounces of gold, classified and reported in accordance with the JORC Code (2012), with a recent Scoping Study (see ASX Announcement released 2nd May 2017) suggesting both the technical and financial viability of the project. The current post-mining Mineral Resource for Lady Ada, Lady Magdalene and Lady Lila is tabulated below.
Additional technical detail on the Mineral Resource estimation is provided, further in the text below and in the JORC Table 1 as attached to ASX announcements dated 14th March 2017 and 21st March 2017.
To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/644XV3VM
About Classic Minerals Limited
Classic Minerals Limited (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz).
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