Diamond drilling on a new orientation at Classic Minerals’ Lady Magdelene deposit in the Marvel Loch region has backed up the company’s exciting theory about the potential for high-grade cross-cutting gold shoots scattered amongst the lower grade shutes.
In an update lodged with the ASX recently, Classic Minerals reported that both new diamond drill holes at Lady Magdelene had revealed several quartz veins and narrow shear zones with similar orientation characteristics to the high-grade gold lodes at the neighbouring Lady Ada deposit. Assays are due in the next few weeks.
The result is very significant because the historic neighbouring Lady Ada mine was thought to be a low-grade deposit just like Lady Magdelene until a new drilling orientation discovered high-grade cross cutting zones in 1999.
In its day, Lady Ada turned out 95,865 tonnes grading 8.81 g/t gold for 27,146 ounces.
If Classic’s theory checks out, the new drill results will have significance beyond Lady Magdelene. They will strengthen the case for a large, high-grade gold system and dramatically boost the prospectivity of a much-wider area.
The creator of Classic Minerals’ exploration strategy is recently appointed CEO and geologist, Dean Goodwin, who discovered Lady Ada and its hidden high-grade gold lodes back in the late 1990s.
Goodwin said the latest drill results were an important development for the company’s 80%-owned Forrestania Gold project, located 150km south of Southern Cross in the Marvel Loch area.
He said; “These two holes have confirmed categorically that Lady Magdalene hosts structures similar in orientation to the high-grade Lady Ada deposit. This exciting new data suggests that Lady Ada is not an isolated occurrence and that other high-grade cross cutting gold lodes potentially exist within the Lady Magdalene system.”
The mineral resource at the Forrestania Gold project currently stands at 5.9 million tonnes grading 1.25 g/t gold for 240,000 ounces, however this doesn’t incorporate a recent series of high-grade results outside the current scoping study pit design.
Among the best intercepts from an area around the old Lady Ada mine were 4m at 37.3 g/t gold from 116m, including 1m at 76.8 g/t. At Lady Magdelene, the highlight was a 6m intersection grading 4.9 g/t gold from 201m, including 2m at 12.55 g/t and 16m at 1.73 g/t from 40m.
Classic is already planning a close-spaced RC drill program at Lady Magdelene based on the new structural data about potential high-grade cross-cuts.
The follow-up program could potentially confirm the existence of the high-grade zones and begin to delineate their grade, size and extent.
Classic is cashing up for the next round of drilling activity with a shareholder purchase plan offering investors the opportunity to top up their holdings at a 20% discount. The company’s share price has soared in the past month as investors take note of the company’s impressive exploration results.
By Matt Birney
