Maiden drilling at Red Mountain yields strong gold results for Zenith Minerals
Zenith Minerals has unearthed high-grade gold that points to a potentially significant mineralised system at the Queensland project.
A maiden drilling campaign at the Red Mountain gold project in Queensland has encountered significant high-grade, near surface gold mineralisation for owner Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC).
Assays from the 10-hole reverse circulation program returned “highly encouraging” high-grade results such as 14m at 5.5 grams per tonne of gold, including 6m at 12.3g/t gold from surface, and 5m at 3.5g/t gold including 2m at 8g/t gold from a 64m depth.
Other assays were 12m at 1g/t gold from 42m including 4m at 2.1g/t gold from 50m, within a broader mineralised interval of 56m at 0.4g/t from 6m.
Drilling has tested approximately 250m of strike from a 1,200m-long, high-order gold anomaly with surface soil gold values including 2.2g/t, 1.6g/t, 0.56g/t and 0.33g/t, and gold in rocks to 2g/t gold and 114g/t silver.
Zenith managing director Michael Clifford said the program has been a “significant success” with strong gold results returned from only a portion of a larger target area.
“The target generated by our exploration team is panning out to have the hallmarks of a significant mineralised system and we are very excited about the project’s upside,” he said.
Robust target
The Red Mountain project is located on a remote grazing property in Queensland, within 100km of operating gold mines at Cracow and Mount Rawdon, owned by Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN).
Drilling to test a robust, high-order gold target previously generated by Zenith’s exploration team commenced in May, after initial delays due to COVID-19.
Assays confirmed gold mineralisation at the project occurs in sericite altered, pyritic and quartz veined granodiorite and dolerite host rocks on the western margin of the newly-recognised felsic volcanic breccia complex.
The complex was identified in mid-2019 during initial sampling which returned rock chip results up to 0.69g/t gold and 114g/t silver.
Further field work in late 2019 returned rock chip sample results of up to 2.01g/t gold and 52.5g/t silver about 800m north of the best results from the initial sampling.
In addition, systematic geochemical sampling outlined a 2km by 1.5km zoned soil anomaly with a peak soil result of 2.2g/t gold.
Mineralisation at Red Mountain locally occurs coincident with induced polarisation geophysical chargeability highs.
Mr Clifford said this will provide Zenith with a tool to guide a substantial follow-up drilling campaign planned for July.
In morning trade, shares in Zenith were trading 40.42% higher at $0.115.