Castile Resources strikes gold at Rover 1 IOCG prospect
The maiden drill hole at the Northern Territory project has returned gold assays grading up to 76.27 grams per tonne.
Junior explorer Castile Resources (ASX: CST) has announced “stunning” gold intercepts from the first hole of its maiden drilling program at the Rover 1 prospect in the Northern Territory.
The company today announced gold assays from this initial hole with the best intersection measuring 30.4m long, starting from a depth of 506.5m, and grading at an average 35.6 grams per tonne gold (uncut).
The intercept included 6.5m at 7.48g/t gold from 506.5m and 13.2m at 76.27g/t gold from 518.95m.
In addition, a sub-parallel zone higher up in the hole (at 492m) returned an intercept of 3.1m at 12.34g/t gold.
Castile managing director Mark Hepburn described the intercepts as “fantastic”.
“These are stunning results from Castile’s first drill hole into what is already a significant ore body,” he said.
The company is now awaiting the return of the copper, cobalt and bismuth assays, which are coincident with the gold.
Meanwhile, the second hole has been completed with samples prepared and sent to the laboratory for processing.
“Drilling is well progressed on our third hole into the Western Deeps conceptual gold target,” Mr Hepburn added.
Rover drilling campaign
Rover is located 80km southwest of Tennant Creek in the NT. It is one of Castile’s two projects, the other being Warumpi near Alice Springs.
The Rover 1 prospect is an iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposit interpreted to be a southern repeat or extension of the Tennant Creek mineral field.
It has a current JORC resource of 6.9 million tonnes at 1.74g/t gold, 2.07g/t silver, 1.2% copper, 0.14% bismuth and 0.06% cobalt containing 386,000 ounces gold, 459,000oz silver, 83,000t copper, 9,400t bismuth and 4,100t cobalt.
Tennant Creek IOCG deposits have historically produced about 157 tonnes of gold, 345,000t copper, 14,000t bismuth, 220t of selenium and 56t of silver from 130 mines.
The objective of Castile’s maiden drill hole was to extend several high tenor gold zones associated with the Jupiter Ironstone. These gold zones extend over 150m vertical, 100m along strike, encompassing up to 20m in width, plunging moderately westwards in the roots of the ironstone.
The estimated true width of the main intercept is a massive 28m, enhancing the gold zone, the company said.
Castile was formed via a demerger from Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) and listed on the ASX in February after raising almost $20 million to advance its NT polymetallic assets.