Niuminco reports high-grade gold from Edie Creek vein
Niuminco has uncovered 4.11g/t gold and 125g/t silver at its Edie Creek project in Papua New Guinea.
A newly-discovered high-grade gold vein at Niuminco Group’s (ASX: NIU) Edie Creek mining lease in Papua New Guinea has returned “highly promising” gold and silver results during drilling.
Fire assays on samples from the main Karuka and Enterprise areas in the northwest part of the lease revealed best results of 4.11 grams per tonne gold and 125g/t silver over 2.3m from a significant quartz-limonite-sulphide vein structure discovered in September and believed to be up to 7m wide.
The vein, which has not had previous significant workings, is thought to be the south-west bounding structure of the Karuka stockwork zone, estimated to be up to 400m wide and bound to the north-east by the main Karuka vein.
Exploration drilling also returned 1.47g/t gold and 123g/t silver over 2m.
Promising results
“These are very promising results which point to increased potential for future gold and silver discoveries within the leases,” said managing director Tracey Lake.
Mr Lake said Karuka South vein and adjacent alteration channel is up to 7m wide, dips 60 degrees towards north-north-east and comprises a quartz-limonite-pyrite mineralisation with a “pyritic bluish grey white puggy clay hanging wall alteration on outcrop exposure”.
He said the Enterprise area also showed significant potential for a large disseminated bulk-tonnage gold system.
Enterprise is a 400m by 100m diatreme breccia pipe and apron which is a central feature of the Karuka-Enterprise broad elongate stockwork zone.
Diatremes were a main feature of mineral haloes found at the historic Wau gold mines, to the east of Edie Creek.
Defined by extensive trenching to bedrock, the stockwork zone is 600m by 300m and may be open in all directions.
A cumulative length of 2732m of trenching with 1,366 continuous chip samples of 2m intervals showed an average gold grade of 0.53g/t, excluding high-grade samples of a cumulative 60m at 9g/t on the Enterprise vein and a 643g/t sample within Karuka.
Strongly anomalous
Recent mapping has demonstrated that many of the strongly anomalous gold channel samples at Edie Creek relate to a stacked system of east-trending gossanous dilational veins linking Karuka and Enterprise.
Further exploration drilling to investigate the stacked vein system, parallel veins and the bulk-tonnage targets is planned for the near future.
Niuminco shares spiked 100% on news of the high-grade assays, to settle at $0.002 by end of trade yesterday.