Ahead of an RC drilling campaign later this month, battery metals and gold explorer Askari Metals has uncovered up to 31.9 g/t gold in stream sediment from a loaming campaign at its Horry copper and gold project in WA’s Kimberley region.
The company’s gold loaming campaign included panning creeks and tributaries, metal detecting and collecting rock chip samples.
Loaming is an explorative technique whereby the prospector follows up the best results until the source of gold in the waterways is identified.
As part of the loaming process, stream sediment sampling returned results of up to 31.9 g/t gold whilst rock chip sampling revealed grades of up to 3.82 g/t gold and 4.3 per cent copper.
Thirty-six stream sediment samples were collected throughout the tenement, with four samples returning more than 9 g/t gold and a further six samples returning grades between 1 g/t and 6g/t.
Visible gold was observed during panning, with a total of 31 gold nuggets collected across 20 sites.
A follow-up soil sampling campaign was performed over the gold-rich areas with assays now pending.
Askari Metals Vice-President of Geology and Exploration, Johan Lambrechts said: “The gold loaming campaign has identified areas of high-grade gold mineralisation in zones which were previously untested and demonstrate the significant exploration upside at this project.”
Most of the sampling was conducted north of the project’s Horry Horse copper-gold prospect where in January Askari raked in a high-calibre of rock chips going up to 8.5 per cent copper and 0.71 g/t gold.
Previously, the mineralised trend at Horry Horse was defined across a length of more than 400m, however the new 4.3 per cent copper-rock chip sample collected to the south-west potentially extends the trend for another 480m.
The high-grade gold was uncovered to the north of Horry Horse, at the project’s Leo, Mt Dockrell South and Martins Find prospects in addition to other areas throughout the tenement.
Askari believes the widespread nature of the mineralisation indicates the sub-surface gold tenor may be substantial and not confined to one area.
Interestingly, one rock chip sample grading a solid 3.82 g/t gold and 2.03 per cent copper was picked up at Mt Dockrell South, near an area where most of the gold nuggets were collected during the sampling campaign.
Until now, Askari has been busy preparing access and drill pads for the upcoming drill program with a focus on the Horry Horse prospect.
However, given the standout gold results from the north, the company is planning to plunge some additional holes into the new untested areas at Mt Dockrell South and is waiting for the results from its soil sampling before finalising the northern extents of the drill program.
Askari expects the drill bit will start spinning at the project late this month.
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By Matt Birney
