Battery Minerals upgrades Victorian gold exploration potential after confirming IRG
Battery Minerals (ASX: BAT) looks to be on target for an upgrade of its Victorian gold exploration potential after it confirmed intrusion-related gold (IRG) and identified a wide zone of IRG alteration in its current drilling program at Coxs Find in the White Rabbit district.
The company’s ongoing diamond drilling program also identified sporadic high-grade and wide gold zones at the Frankfurt prospect.
Battery Minerals’ maiden diamond drilling program in the White Rabbit district is testing multiple IRG targets and the company has successfully completed 8 holes for 2138m to date.
Two zones upgraded
Significantly, initial results from the program have upgraded two zones of interest for significant IRG mineralisation.
In particular, a strongly developed wide zone of IRG alteration has been intersected at Coxs Find.
The indications are that drilling has intersected an encouraging alteration plume which thickens to the north as well as showing increasing pathfinder anomalism.
The results have now defined a follow up drill target at the margin of the White Rabbit diorite/granite zone.
Battery Minerals has also identified a follow-up drill target with the intersection of sporadic high grade and wide gold zones at Frankfurt at the margin of an IP chargeability feature.
Multiple targets being tested
The company’s hunt for IRG in the White Rabbit district has been designed to assess multiple targets including Coxs Find, Coxs Find North, Frankfurt and the Cosmopolitan prospects.
The company is eager to prove up the IRG potential of an area that is already recognised as a location for this type of mineralisation, most notably at the Wonga IRG deposit, located 12km to the northeast and the Stawell Gold Field at the southern end of the area.
The results to date have provided Battery Minerals with a likely IRG association, with positive mineralogy and strong pathfinder element results to date.
The company has also identified what it believes is a prospective gold host, as indicated by the mineralisation character at Frankfurt, where it carries a higher concentration of sulphides (compared to Coxs Find) and hosts gold mineralisation.
The remaining assay results from the White Rabbit program are expected to be returned in early-September 2023
Follow-up to previous assay work
Battery Minerals has revealed it is undertaking a re-assaying program after identifying what it believes may have been issues with potential assaying bias and under reporting of coarse gold in previous testing.
As part of its investigation into the matter, the company collected a selected sample for screen fire re-analysis. That sample initially returned 0.725 parts per million gold using conventional fire assay.
However, subsequent screen-fire analysis returned a substantial increase in grade at 1.34 grams per tonne with 10.85 grams per tonne gold for the oversize fraction.
The company has now pulled together a larger collection of samples to be submitted for screen fire re-analysis to better understand the impact of any potential under reporting due to significant coarse fraction gold.
Geophysics to support drilling results
To support the White Rabbit drilling program, Battery Minerals contracted an IP geophysics campaign across the Coxs Find, Coxs Find North and Frankfurt targets.
The 19.4-line kilometres of survey work was completed using a pole-dipole electrode configuration, electrodes spaced at 50m and 100m (dipoles) along 100m and 200m spaced lines.
Surveying was generally conducted along an oblique, northeast trending local grid at Coxs Find, Coxs Find North and Frankfurt, to best crosscut the main geological fabric and enabling efficient logistics. 2D and 3D inversions of the data are used to assist geological interpretation.