Catalyst Metals records ‘outstanding’ drill results at Boyd’s Dam

Gold explorer Catalyst Metals (ASX: CYL) has announced its “best ever” result to-date from a diamond drilling campaign at the Boyd’s Dam zone within its 50%-owned Four Eagles project in regional Victoria.

The company reported that within a 16m intersection in FERC222 at Boyd’s Dam that assayed 63 grams per tonne gold, a 1m interval returned an “outstanding” 810g/t gold.

The assay is the highest ever recorded for an interval at Four Eagles and follows positive results received from 20 other holes drilled at Boyd’s Dam.

Better intercepts from those holes included 21m at 5.5g/t gold, 10m at 10.5g/t gold, 14m at 10.1g/t gold and 5m at 36.2g/t gold.

All assays quoted to-date are from 25 gram samples using aqua regia digest and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) methods, with a bulk cyanide leach assay on 2 kilogram samples still to be carried out on all anomalous sections to confirm the results.

The company said these two methods have shown good correlation in the past and indicate that the gold is finely disseminated and much less nuggetty than previously discovered at Bendigo.

High-grade potential at Hyanmi and Discovery prospects

The drilling program at Boyd’s Dam has been the first test of the mineralised system to a depth of 250m and provides Catalyst with vital information on positions of the anticline and significant faulting and quartz development in the zone.

Very high-grade gold intersections have also been recorded at the neighbouring Hayanmi and Discovery prospects but all are in the top 100m from surface with limited drilling done below.

Catalyst said there is good potential for high-grade shoots of gold mineralisation at those prospects below a vertical depth of 100m, as stacked ore zones were also a characteristic of mining at Bendigo which historically produced 22 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 15g/t gold.

They are also the basis of mining at the nearby Fosterville mine, operated by Kirkland Lake Gold (ASX: KLA).

Catalyst technical director Bruce Kay said the company has been encouraged by what he terms “the best greenfield gold intersection in Australia this year”.

“Four Eagles is producing some very high-grade gold intersections of reasonable width which gives us [the opportunity for] open pit and underground high-grade potential at Boyd’s Dam and Hayanmi,” he said.

Four Eagles is located along the Whitelaw fault corridor, which is considered to be a major structural control of gold mineralisation north of Bendigo.

Catalyst manages the entire Whitelaw gold belt and has interests in eight exploration licences which extend for 75km along the Whitelaw and Tandarra faults north of Bendigo.

Gold Exploration Victoria (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting) earned a 50% interest in the project by spending A$4.2 million on exploration.

Current exploration expenditure is jointly funded by Catalyst and Gold Exploration Victoria.

By midday, shares in Catalyst had risen 27.98% to A$1.40.