ASX-listed NSW junior gold and base metals explorer Godolphin Resources says it has encountered sulphides in all reverse circulation holes drilled into the Quarry lode prospect at its high-priority Lewis Ponds mixed metals project 15 kilometres east of Orange in the Lachlan Fold Belt.
The Orange-based company says its aim with the quartet of RC holes vectoring in on the upper levels of the Quarry lode was to extend the lode mineralisation near surface and to the north of the current mineral resource estimate for Lewis Ponds.
Godolphin tabled a revised inferred resource for Lewis Ponds early this year that weighed in at 6.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 2 grams per tonne gold, 80 g/t silver, 2.7 per cent zinc, 1.6 per cent lead and 0.2 per cent copper.
Corresponding contained metal totals for the resource come in at 398,000 ounces of gold, 15.9 million ounces of silver, 170,000 tonnes of zinc, 99,000 tonnes of lead and 11,000 tonnes of copper.
The main Tom’s and Spicer’s lodes speak for the Lewis Ponds resource.
Godolphin says the Quarry lode prospect is interpreted to sit to the east of the Spicer’s and Tom’s lodes and has been previously intersected at depth in prior deeper diamond core drilling.
Its recently completed round of RC drilling intersected sulphides in all holes, with some occurrences of chalcopyrite observed in the drill chips from the most northern hole. Assay results from the chip samples are pending.
The sulphides encountered thicken considerably to the north, according to Godolphin, with about 75 metres of sulphides – including chalcopyrite, a copper mineral – lodged in the most northern hole.
Godolphin Resources Managing Director Jeneta Owens said: “It is commendable that despite Covid-19 restrictions we have safely completed the first drilling campaign by the new Godolphin exploration team at Lewis Ponds and intersecting visible sulphides in this area is very encouraging.”
Godolphin also plans to kick off infill multi-element soil geochemical sampling at the nearby Williams prospect within the Lewis Ponds project area designed to flesh out a geochemical anomaly.
The soil sampling program is awaiting landholder access approval.
A recent review of historical rock chip and soils assay data carried out by the company suggests Williams has the potential to host significant gold mineralisation, according to Godolphin.
In the past, Williams has only been considered to be prospective for volcanic-associated massive sulphide or “VMS”-style mineralisation.
Management says more recently these VMS targets have been recognised as also potentially harbouring recoverable gold.
Based on historical exploration undertaken across the Williams prospect, mineral occurrences there have been described as largely strata bound veins and stacked semi-massive sulphide lenses.
The Williams area lies within a regional magnetic low feature that Godolphin says appears similar to the features at Lewis Ponds and Regis Resources’ undeveloped McPhillamys open-pittable 2-million-ounce gold deposit about 20km south along strike.
The highest gold value registered in historic rock chips collected from Williams was an impressive 12.65 g/t and the company says the mineralisation is associated with copper, zinc, lead, arsenic and silver, forming a coherent anomaly about 1km long by 250m wide.
At Lewis Ponds, higher-grade gold mineralisation correlates well with surface soil gold geochemical anomalies.
Godolphin has one of the largest portfolios of exploration tenure in the prolific Lachlan Fold Belt region among junior explorers covering about 3,200 square kilometres.
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By Matt Birney
