Mining

Golden Deeps confirms gold at Tuckers Hill with rock chips returning up to 9.64g/t

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Golden Deeps Saddle reefs Tuckers Hill GED ASX

Historic rock chip sampling at Tuckers Hill returned up to 705g/t gold.

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Golden Deeps (ASX: GED) has confirmed gold mineralisation at Tuckers Hill in New South Wales, with a sampling program uncovering up to 9.64 grams per tonne gold.

The company undertook reconnaissance geological mapping and rock sampling at the project’s Tuckers Hill and Eldorado prospects, which are northeast of the historic Hargraves Goldfield.

All-up, Golden Deeps collected 41 rock chips from historic workings. Samples collected from a ferruginous quartz vein at Tuckers Hill returned the peak 9.64g/t gold result.

Other samples taken from quartz veins along the same trend produced gold assaying 4.25g/t, 1.71g/t and 1.62g/t.

The quartz veins at Tuckers Hill have been mapped over 1.5km of strike with individual mineralised veins extending for more than 300m.

Re-assay of rock chips may produce higher grades

Golden noted the gold at Tuckers Hill and nearby Hargraves Goldfield was “nuggety”. As a result, Golden said it could result in high variability of grade within the quartz veins and lead to variability in assay values for a sample.

Due to the style of the gold, the company believes the assay method used may not fully represent the grade of the material sampled.

To overcome this, Golden has resubmitted all rock samples for laboratory analysis using the Leachwell process, which evaluates 1kg of the rock chip to provide a “more accurate” gold value, compared to the previous technique analysing 10-25g samples.

Advancing Tuckers Hill

Golden is planning a diamond drill program at the project with provisional sites already identified.

The program is designed to drill under historic workings to target the quartz veins.

In readiness for the program, Golden has begun land access negotiations with the assistance of Rangott Exploration.

Golden secured the Tuckers Hill exploration licence last month for a six-year term from the NSW Department of Mining, Exploration and Geoscience.

Tuckers Hill has undergone limited modern exploration. Historic data from the project shows 1,900t of ore has been mined from 1896 to 1908 and 1916 and 1939.

The average gold grade mined was 38g/t.

Additionally, previous exploration at Tuckers Hill in 1963 unearthed a peak rock chip of 705g/t.