Investigator Resources ‘eagerly’ awaits assays from Apollo twin diamond hole
The initial diamond hole at Apollo uncovered 4m at 1,170g/t silver from 150m.
Assays are “eagerly” awaited after Investigator Resources (ASX: IVR) completed drilling of a twin diamond hole at the Apollo prospect within its wholly-owned Peterlumbo tenement and nearby to the primary Paris silver deposit in South Australia.
The hole was designed to follow-up on an “outstanding” silver intersection from a reverse circulation campaign in April and will provide structural information to inform the planning of future drilling at Apollo.
The intersection returned a high-grade silver interval of 7m grading 700 grams per tonne silver from 150m, including 4m at 1,170g/t silver.
Petrographic analysis of samples taken from reverse circulation chips revealed the silver mineralogy at Apollo is identical to that seen at Paris, 4km to the southeast.
Petrology studies further confirmed that overlying ignimbritic volcanics have identical mineralogical and textural composition to samples observed at Paris.
Future exploration
Investigator managing director Andrew McIlwain said the twin hole would feed into future exploration at Apollo.
“The fact that the mineralogy is the same as Paris, and that this is the highest grade intersection outside of the Paris resource, is significant and encouraging,” he said.
“The presence of low level gold (3m at 0.13g/t) within the same interval supports the theory that mineralising fluids are of similar origin to that at Paris, which has similar low level gold association.”
Prior to drilling the twin hole, Investigator completed 14 holes at Paris.
Mr McIlwain said data from the core would be used in a geotechnical analysis to finalise pit wall slopes and extraction sequencing.
Regional exploration program
Investigator’s regional exploration program this year was designed to follow-up on outcomes of drilling completed since 2020, and test of a number of exploration models which had incorporated soil sampling and mineral system reviews.
Drilling was completed in April and comprised 54 reverse circulation holes for a total of 7634m.
Previous work at Apollo targeted an interpreted northeast-trending structural lineament and identified gold-silver anomalism, returning a best assay of 1m at 96g/t silver.
Follow-up drilling last year comprised eight inclined holes across two traverses, and aimed to provide a better understanding of orientation.
Both traverses intersected the mineralised structure, with best results of 2m at 243g/t silver from 72m, with a further 2m at 37g/t silver from 76m and 5m at 31g/t silver.