Matador Mining hits high-grade gold at Central Zone target within Cape Ray project
Matador Mining’s latest assays from Cape Ray include 8m at 5.5g/t gold, which was hit 70m outside of the existing resource.
Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ) has hit high-grade gold mineralisation at the Central Zone of its Cape Ray project in Canada.
The results were among the first assays from the company’s inaugural winter drilling program, conducted between February and April.
Best intercepts were 6 metres at 13.3 grams per tonne gold from 214m, including 1m at 45.8g/t from 217m, and 1m at 11.7g/t from 219m; and 6m at 7.1g/t gold from 228m, including 1m at 22.4g/t from 229m.
Also returned were assays of 5m at 5.4g/t gold from 53m, including 2.9m at 8.9g/t from 53m; and 2m at 11.1g/t from 64m, including 1m at 13.6g/t from 64m.
Results are still pending for 29 diamond holes at the Window Glass Hill Granite, PW East and Stag Hill targets; four geotechnical holes at Central Zone; the remainder of a power auger sampling program at Stag Hill; and 96 gold grain samples from the Malachite greenfield reconnaissance program.
Increased understanding
Matador chief geologist Warren Potma said the initial set of results had helped increase the company’s understanding of Central Zone.
“It appears some of the historic drilling in this area may have reported anomalously low grades relating to variable core recovery associated with the highly-sheared host rocks,” he said.
“We have increased our understanding of the structural controls of gold mineralisation at Cape Ray, which is particularly important as we step out to explore new greenfields targets such as Malachite.”
He said the results indicate potential for higher grades and increased widths for Central Zone’s mineral resource estimate.
Increased landholding
The new assays follow a move by Matador last month to increase its landholding at the Cape Ray project.
The company staked a series of new claims immediately adjacent to its existing tenements to expand its acreage by 62 square kilometres (or 6%) to 1,033sq km.
The new package is believed to present multiple prospective elements including highly anomalous historic lake sediments coincident with the projection of second order faults and shears splaying off the largest regional flexure in the Cape Ray Shear Zone.