Impact Minerals claims Lachlan Fold Belt hosts bonanza silver
At the Silica Hills prospect, Impact Minerals identified 0.4m at 1.6g/t gold and 6,240g/t silver.
Impact Minerals’ (ASX: IPT) latest work at its Commonwealth project in New South Wales has highlighted the potential for high grade gold-silver as well as porphyry copper-gold.
The company holds 900 square kilometres of ground in the highly prospective Lachlan Fold Belt, which is currently experiencing a gold rush as companies search for unpegged ground.
Rising silver prices seem to have turned attention to the white metal content there with Impact now reassessing its entire Lachlan portfolio for its silver potential.
In fact, Impact has gone so far as to claim its ground has “compelling similarities” to the world-class Eskay Creek deposit in British Columbia where 160 million ounces of silver were produced over a 14-year mine life (as well as 3.3Moz of gold).
Impact reports that new airborne magnetic data and previous rock chip sampling at its Lachlan Fold Belt ground have highlighted “significant” potential for high-grade gold-silver mineralisation in addition to copper-gold.
At the company’s Commonwealth project, north of Orange, a previous rock chip sample returned 9.9 grams per tonne gold, 3.2% copper and an “exceptional” silver result of 4,550g/t.
Impact says this mineralisation is likely similar to that at its Greenobbys prospect which returned a rock chip assays up to 9.5g/t gold, 215g/t (or 7oz) silver and 745 parts per million bismuth.
“This is a new style of mineralisation for this area and is suggestive of a telescoped epithermal gold-silver system driven by the cooling of late granites,” the company stated.
Review finds bonanza silver grades
There has been no exploration of significance for this style of mineralisation on Impact’s tenements.
A review of Impact’s Commonwealth and Silica Hill deposits at a time of rising gold and silver prices has highlighted the high gold grades and bonanza silver grades within the inferred resource which at present stands at a contained 88,800oz of gold and 3.3Moz silver.
At Commonwealth, the resource remains open at depth and along trend. Previous drilling has produced intercepts of 5.7m at 3.8g/t gold, 347g/t silver, 10.8% zinc and 3.7% lead in the main shaft.
At Commonwealth South, one assay returned 4m at 41.8g/t gold, 93g/t silver, 5.5% zinc and 2.3% lead.
The highest silver grade so far at Silica Hill came back at 0.4m at 1.6g/t gold and 6,240g/t silver.
These bonanza grades have been found in both massive sulphide lenses as well as epithermal veins, “an important factor to consider given the current resurgence in the silver price,” the company said.