Laverton South gold assays unearth ‘robust target’ for E79 Gold Mines and St Barbara

Assays from drilling at the Laverton South project in Western Australia have unearthed a “robust target” for Pinjin joint venture owners E79 Gold Mines’ (ASX: E79) and St Barbara (ASX: SBM).

The program comprised 281 holes for 15,103 metres in three target areas across the project.

Wide-spaced reconnaissance aircore results from 81 holes at Target 3 revealed multiple coherent zones of anomalous gold and pathfinder elements across more than 1,600m of strike along the contacts of a granite and basalt unit.

Elements including arsenic, copper, zinc, lead and tungsten showed elevated values along the contact region.

A second zone of anomalism was found to the west within a basaltic unit.

Best assays

E79 reported best assays at Target 3 of 24m at 0.20 grams per tonne gold from 80m; 12m at 0.41g/t gold from 60m; 5m at 0.14g/t gold from 72m; 7m at 0.15g/t gold from 72m; 1m at 0.25g/t gold from 85m; 3m at 0.26g/t gold from 88m; and 4m at 0.15g/t gold from 80m.

Data from end-of-hole rock chips showed the anomalism is associated within an interpreted fluid mixing front, from a reduced acidic fluid (defined by muscovite and iron-chlorite) and an oxidised neutral fluid (defined by phengite and magnesium-chlorite).

The reduced acidic fluid is believed to be associated with basalt greenstones while the oxidised neutral fluid is associated with the granites.

The same fluid mixing model can be seen in several large mines in the Laverton region including Kanowna Belle, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam.

E79 said this recognition is “highly promising” as it may demonstrate that drilling is taking place within a larger-scale system.

Regional paleochannel

Several of the anomalous gold zones at Target 3 sit below the regional paleochannel and represent in-situ saprock anomalism.

Some of the holes also ended in gold anomalism, demonstrating that the mineralised system may have a depth extent which is yet to be drill tested.

E79 said the anomalous trend continued along a parallel magnetic high to the south to form part of the Kirgella’s Gift prospect, located adjacent to its tenements.

Drilling by Renaissance Minerals in 2010 at Kirgella’s Gift intersected 33m at 3.10g/t, showing that thick high-grade gold mineralisation occurs within the targeted stratigraphic package.

Laverton Tectonic Zone

The Laverton South project covers the southern portion of the Laverton Tectonic Zone, approximately 130 kilometres east-northeast of Kalgoorlie within the major gold-producing Archean Yilgarn Craton.

The LTZ is one of the world’s richest gold belts with more than 30 million ounces in historical production, ore reserves and mineral resources and hosts numerous prolific deposits including Granny Smith (3.7Moz), Sunrise Dam (10.3Moz) and Wallaby (11.8Moz).

Laverton South project hosts the Lake Yindana and Pinjin joint venture tenement packages.

The packages sit nearby to the multi-million ounce Rebecca deposit (owned by Ramelius Resources, ASX: RMS), while the Pinjin ground straddles the Anglo-Saxon deposit (Hawthorn Resources, ASX: HAW) and is south of the historic Patricia open pits (OzAurum Resources, ASX: OZM).