Castle Minerals raises its gold allure in the Pilbara

Junior gold explorer Castle Minerals (ASX: CDT) could be on course to upgrade its gold prospects after fine-grained gold was recovered from its recent sampling programme at its Coolyia Creek and Beasley Creek gold projects in the Pilbara.

The explorer said bulk stream sediment samples contained “visible gold” which prior exploration mapping indicates could extend for over 4 kilometres of strike.

Castle acquired the Beasley project in late last year and has gone on to complete initial exploration activity during the start of this year. Castle said that the geology underpinning its Pilbara prospects potentially hosts the widely sought-after “Witwatersrand style paleo-placer gold mineralisation” that is known to occur in particular parts of the Pilbara region.

“Anomalous gold in bulk samples collected from seasonal streams draining and immediately below the Mt Roe and Hardey conglomerate horizons at its Coolyia Creek and Beasley Creek projects and the addition of visible gold in panned concentrates from these is another very encouraging development,” said Stephen Stone, managing director of Castle Minerals.

“With the prospective conglomerates extending over many kilometres at both projects, this recent sampling and the accompanying detailed mapping will enable Castle to better define localities for eventual bulk sampling of the conglomerates themselves for in-situ gold mineralisation,” said Mr Stone.

Golden results

Castle recovered several sediment samples from Coolyia Creek and after undergoing lab analysis three samples returned “highly anomalous” scores exceeding 100 parts per billion of gold. Meanwhile, samples from Beasley Creek returned scores with around 166ppb gold.

“This implies the presence of gold anomalism within sections of Mt Roe Conglomerate which recent detailed mapping by Castle has also confirmed now extends for 4km at Coolyia Creek,” according to Castle Minerals.

According to the gold junior, Castle has previously reported the recovery of 62 small gold nuggets proximal to the Mt Roe and Hardey conglomerates with historical information helping the explorer to define four broad prospect areas.

At Beasley Central, historical alluvial and eluvial gold mining of material overlying Hardey conglomerate was previously completed and an intercept grading 11.4g/t gold was confirmed as part of previous exploration work done at the project.

Castle has confirmed that Beasley Central and Beasley West prospects comprise a single 4.4 kilometre “highly prospective zone of conglomerates” and will become a key focus of future exploration campaigns, the company says.