ASX-listed gold explorer, Classic Minerals, has peeled off a string of high-grade gold hits from a major infill RC drilling campaign at its advanced Kat Gap project about 170km south of Southern Cross in WA. The company also gleaned some encouraging gold sniffs in a maiden drill program at the nearby Tangerine Trees prospect.
Perth-based Classic recently completed 99 RC holes totalling 6,354m that were predominantly targeted at Kat Gap. It says that assay laboratories have been “totally run off their feet due to the surge in exploration activity throughout WA” and with a consequent large backlog of samples to process, results have been received for only 19 of the 83 Kat Gap holes.
Better intersections from the initial batch were 15m going 2.97 grams per tonne gold from 38m including 1m at 23.20 g/t from 38m, and 10m at 3.24 g/t from 54m including 1m at 18.40 g/t from 54m.
Other notable intercepts were 6m at 4.07 g/t from 61m including 1m at 16.10 g/t from 65m, 4m at 8.97 g/t from 46m including 1m at 23.40 g/t from 46m, 2m at 6.22 g/t from 56m, and 2m at 16.57 g/t from 46m including 1m at 30.30 g/t from 46m.
The infill RC holes were drilled on 20m x 10m and 10m x 10m spacings in order to generate more accurate resource model data for a Kat Gap pit design and were focused on testing the main granite-greenstone contact lode within the existing inferred resource to an average depth of 75m below surface.
The Kat Gap deposit lies adjacent to the contact between granite and greenstone rocks in the south of the Southern Cross greenstone belt where high-grade gold mineralisation is hosted within shear and breccia zones, associated with auriferous quartz veining.
Classic put out an inferred mineral estimate for Kat Gap six months ago of 975,722 tonnes at 2.96 g/t for 92,856 ounces of contained gold.
The company plans to start a deeper drilling program at Kat Gap next month that it says will entail about 30-40 holes ranging in depth from 120m to 250m for a total of roughly 4,000m honing in on down-dip and down plunge of the current inferred resource.
Classic Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Dean Goodwin said: “Kat Gap is really shaping up nicely as a near-surface high-grade gold deposit with so much remaining upside potential. The (infill) drilling program is necessary to bring the near-surface parts of the inferred resource up to indicated status prior to final pit design work.”
And following up on some historical shallow drilling from the late 1980s, the company’s first round of RC drilling conducted at the Tangerine Trees prospect – comprising 13 holes totalling 834m – yielded solid results at shallow depths.
Notable assays from Tangerine Trees, which is located 21km north-west of Kat Gap on the same granite-greenstone contact, included 2m at 3.12 g/t from 28m, 6m grading 1.57 g/t gold from 31m, 5m at 1.92 g/t from 62m and 4m at 1.61 g/t from 54m.
According to Classic, the gold mineralised system is open in all directions. Follow-up drilling is planned.
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By Matt Birney
