Alderan Resources commences drilling at Mizpah oxide gold deposit
Alderan managing director Scott Caithness says the drilling program should end in September with assays due before year end.
Alderan Resources (ASX: AL8) has commenced reverse circulation drilling at the Mizpah oxide gold deposit within its Detroit project in the US.
The program will comprise 20-holes for 2,000m, and aims to confirm high-grade near-surface oxide gold mineralisation.
Mizpah is located 2km north of the historical Drum oxide gold mine, which produced 125,000 ounces of gold in the 1980s.
In May, Alderan completed a drilling program at Drum with all verification holes intersecting high-grade oxide gold mineralisation of more than 1 gram per tonne, which is reported to be consistent with holes drilled more than 30 years ago.
Highlights from that program were 6.6m at 2.5 grams per tonne within 17.8m at 1.7g/t, 6.1m at 2.3g/t gold and 3.2m at 2g/t gold.
Same rock units
Mizpah, which was originally drilled in the 1980s, sits in the same rock units as Drum but as it was never developed into a mining operation, mineralisation remains at surface.
Historical drilling results from 40 holes graded more than 0.5g/t gold, with 20 of the holes grading more than 1g/t.
The highest final assay returned from a historical hole graded 9.1g/t gold.
Alderan’s modelling of the Mizpah deposit indicates exploration potential of between 40,000oz and 100,000oz of gold grading up to 0.8g/t, with the deposit open down dip to the southwest and along strike to the north and south.
Previous drill holes which intersected 83m at 0.41g/t gold and 69.5m at 0.18g/t gold respectively are located 190m and 350m to the west-northwest of the deposit and indicate that the mineralising system could be significantly larger than historically outlined.
Positive results
Alderan managing director Scott Caithness said the company is looking forward to positive results from the Mizpah campaign.
“Securing a reverse circulation rig is a great result as it will enable us to rapidly and cost-effectively delineate the gold mineralisation,” he said.
“Following the lessons learned from our recent drilling at Drum (where the rig did not drill through the target horizon due to drill rods being sheared downhole), we also plan to drill a number of angled holes aimed at testing structures with potential to host high gold grades.”
He said the program is expected to end in September with assays due before year end.