Si6 Metals is gearing up to spin the drill bit at its Monument gold project in Western Australia, 38km west of Laverton.
The 140-hole, 5000m air core program is expected to run for two weeks as the company tests its high-priority intrusive targets identified from the first air core campaign in late 2021.
Several high-priority structural targets located along major regional structures identified from detailed geophysics interpretations will also be tested
The explorer notes the previous, broadly spaced and shallow drilling lit up 18 prospective targets whilst encountering an encouraging result of 4m at 1.38 g/t gold from the surface, among others.
Si6 Metals highlights that the focus was to map out the distribution of targets based on multi-element signatures and the work did not specifically target gold. However, numerous zones of strongly anomalous gold mineralisation above 0.1 g/t gold further confirm its intrusive targets are fertile and prospective for bulk tonnage gold mineralisation.
Si6 Metals’ Monument project covers 310 square kilometres in WA’s highly-prospective and world-class Laverton Gold District.
The district is said to contain some 30 million ounces of gold, pegging it as the second-highest gold endowed district behind Kalgoorlie. The company notes its neighbourhood of major gold mining companies includes Goldfields and its 8-million-ounce Granny Smith and Wallaby Mines and AngloGold Ashanti and its 9-million-ounce Sunrise Dam Mine.
Most relevant, however, the company’s holding appears to capture 30km of relatively untested gold-hosting banded iron formation that it interprets to be the same unit hosting Dacian Gold’s 2.1-million-ounce Mt Morgan gold project that borders to the southeast.
Si6 Metals’ 30km length of interest contains its Korong and Waihi deposits, contributing to a mineral resource estimate of 154,000 ounces of gold it tabled in August 2021.
The explorer says only a small portion of the prospective unit has been drilled to date and its 2021 air-core program was co-funded by the WA government through the exploration incentive scheme.
Si6 Metals also holds seven exploration licenses in eastern Botswana that cover 1500 square kilometres prospective for nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group elements, gold, silver, lithium and tantalum. The company says it has passed its plans to get drilling into gear to its joint venture partner for review and approval.
Whilst gold has slipped from its graceful highs in March, the World Gold Council observes the average quarterly price of US$1877.2 per ounce was around 5 per cent higher than in the first quarter of last year.
The Council also notes first quarter 2022 gold demand jumped 34 per cent on the first quarter of 2021, driven by strong ‘exchange-traded fund’ inflows.
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