WA focused explorer, Emu NL has identified two new high-grade gold shoots at the Gnows Nest gold project, together with a new gold zone at the adjoining Monte Cristo prospect from recent drilling near Yalgoo in the Murchison. Drilling to follow-up a suite of eye-catching results including 3m going 42.17 grams per tonne gold is now on the cards.
Emu has been extremely busy since acquiring the Gnows Nest and Monte Cristo tenements in the latter part of last year.
An 11,000m drilling campaign across the two properties has now been wrapped up, with 9,166m drilled at Gnows Nest and 1,766m some 3km along strike at Monte Cristo.
Both prospects sit on the renowned Yalgoo greenstone belt that hosts the major Golden Grove copper-zinc mine that has been in production since the early 1990s.
The campaign at Gnows Nest targeted extensions to a high-grade lode system that yielded about 28,000 ounces at a whopping average 22 grams per tonne gold from shallow workings between 1923 and 1941.
Emu says its drilling confirmed the geometry of the main shaft gold shoot mined historically whilst also delineating a separate southerly plunging gold shoot. A number of high-grade, shallow drill intercepts have given management plenty to enthuse about as they look to grow Gnows Nest’s current 113,400t resource going 3.78 grams per tonne gold for 13,777 ounces.
The 3m intercept going 42.17 grams per tonne gold also contains a bonanza grade 1m interval at 89.95 g/t gold from 78m.
Other bumper new results from Gnows Nest include 4m going 20.05 g/t gold from 51m, 4m at 20.43 g/t gold from 95m and 2m at 27.09 g/t gold from 60m.
Emu believes the high-grade shoots continue at depth and has wasted little time planning a follow-up reverse circulation program.
Some 4,500m of drilling has been tabled to test the northern shoot below the historic mine to a depth in excess of 250m, with drilling to similar depths planned at the southern shoot.
At Monte Cristo, drilling has identified a new zone of high-grade gold mineralisation with steeply east-dipping quartz veins hosted along a sheared contact between mafic sequences and north-west-trending banded iron formations.
The newly identified zone appears to be adjacent to historical gold workings located on the Monte Cristo tenure.
Monte Cristo drill hits include 7m going 5.6 g/t gold from 120m that included a head-turning 1m interval at 22.66 g/t gold from 121m.
Another hole returned 3m at 13.36 g/t gold from 67m, with 1m at 19.67 g/t gold from 68m reported in the same hole.
Emu now plans to test the resource potential of Monte Cristo by extending the drilling along the sheared contact zone that stretches for more than 6km in strike.
Meanwhile, a geophysical survey covering about 370 hectares of the project area has reportedly delineated multiple regional targets warranting follow-up. Emu says several prospective zones in the vicinity of Gnows Nest have been identified, along with a stratigraphic flexure zone south of Monte Cristo.
The company now plans to conduct further regional work focusing on a 6km strike length of prospective greenstone stratigraphy, together with the more detailed evaluation of Gnows Nest and Monte Cristo.
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