Navarre Minerals hits new quartz reef structure of visible gold at St Arnaud project

Navarre Minerals (ASX: NML) has intersected a new quartz reef structure containing areas of visible gold and strong sulphide mineralisation from the first holes of a phase one exploration program at its wholly-owned St Arnaud project in Victoria.

Results for the first eight diamond drill holes over 3,239 metres of the New Bendigo Line area included an intercept of 0.4m at 38.3 grams per tonne gold within a broader interval of 1m at 15.6g/t gold from 153.7m.

The new quartz reef has been confirmed on the New Bendigo Line, covering a 250m strike extent to a depth of 170m, with mineralisation open to the north and at depth.

It is believed to vary up to 8m in thickness, with textures from laminated brecciated to massive (buck), with the former relating to higher-grade gold mineralisation compared to buck vein zones.

Economic mineralisation

Navarre managing director Ian Holland said the latest results confirm potential to discover significant economic gold mineralisation near to the shallow St Arnaud workings.

“We are excited by the presence of a new, mineralised parallel quartz reef structure in the footwall of the historical high-grade main quartz reef at New Bendigo [and also by] visible gold and sulphide mineralisation,” he said.

“The next step will be further expansion and infill diamond core drill testing, ultimately aimed at defining a maiden resource to add to the existing resource base at our flagship Stawell Corridor project.”

Aircore gold hits

Navarre’s total 9,000m drilling program is following up on positive aircore gold hits around historic workings within the St Arnaud goldfield.

Phase one on the New Bendigo Line is expected to comprise 5,000m across 13 diamond core holes, which Navarre said is likely to be extended given the strong results to date.

The target area is close to the old New Bendigo mine – the second largest gold mine in the region which produced 400,000 ounces between 1855 and 1916 at an average grade of 15g/t.

Exploration history

Alluvial gold was first discovered at St Arnaud in 1855 and quickly traced to its source in outcropping quartz reefs.

By 1860, 47 hard rock mines were in operation.

From 1855 to 1916, approximately 400,000oz gold was produced at a recovered grade of over 15g/t gold from the region’s hard rock mines.

The St Arnaud goldfield consists of reef trends known as the New Bendigo (Bristol), New Chum and Nelson lines which were worked to the southern edge of the younger Murray Basin cover.

Nelson produced the most gold and was worked over a strike length of approximately 5km to a maximum depth of 685m in the deep Lord Nelson mine.