Shree Minerals’ drive for gold continues as work starts in Northern Territory

Shree Minerals (ASX: SHH) has begun fieldwork at its recently acquired Bruce gold project in the Northern Territory where previous rock chip sampling returned grades up to 53 grams per tonne of gold.

The planned work comprises reconnaissance geological mapping of quartz veins, rock chip sampling and an orientation soil sampling program.

In late June, Shree formed a joint venture with unlisted Territory Lithium to explore that latter’s Northern Territory ground for gold and base metals.

That deal set up the Arunta joint venture which takes in the Box Hole, Edwards Creek and Bruce projects in the Northern Territory. Exploration results showing gold have been reported by all the previous owners of these projects.

Edwards Creek, 100km north of Alice Springs, was explored in 1980 by the former CRA Exploration.

Work will seek to validate previous assays

This fieldwork and sampling have been designed to determine the extent of the quartz veins and validate previous assay results.

Rock chip sampling of those veins by the Northern Territory Geological Survey returned the assays that included the 53g/t gold. Then the former Roebuck Resources in 1996 also produced very anomalous assays.

In 2005 the former Olympia Resources located intermittent exposure of quartz veins over a 2km strike length.

Shree says that, between the outcropping quartz veins, there are areas of shallow transported sand that mask and obscure the bedrock.

If this shallow cover provides a geochemical response, soil geochemistry may identify anomalies in areas where the veins are buried by transported sand, the company adds.

Shree has pivoted to gold projects over past 18 months

Shree, which had previously been primarily focused on developing a direct-shipping iron ore project, last year began moving into gold.

In March 2019, Shree acquired the Golden Chimney project 180km north of Kalgoorlie and 13km south of the Ulysses gold deposit originally mined by the former Sons of Gwalia and now held by Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD).

Earlier this year, the company added additional ground to Golden Chimney.

Then came the Northern Territory move, followed in mid-July by Shree securing what it called two highly prospective tenements 60km from Norseman, Western Australia, in the Albany Fraser Belt.

Shree made its most recent gold acquisition of 2020 with a move in the heart of the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW applying for ground in proximity to historic gold fields.

The ground is located just 15km from the famed Hill End goldfield where, in 1872, Australia’s biggest ever gold specimen — the Holtermann Nugget — was discovered.

Shree has lodged an application for an exploration licence for ELA6044, 15km north of the regional city of Bathurst.

This ground covers a sequence of structures similar to those of the Hill End Goldfield, 15km to the northwest.