Zenith Minerals confirms large scale gold zone at Split Rocks
Zenith Minerals chairman Peter Bird said the next drilling program will attempt to “join the dots” of the gold mineralisation currently identified.
Gold grades up to 14.4 grams per tonne have been reported by Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC) from its reverse circulation drilling at the Split Rocks project, located south of Southern Cross in Western Australia.
Split Rocks lies to the south of the Marvel Loch 3 million ounce mine and the Yilgarn Star 2Moz deposit and north of the 2Moz Bounty gold deposit.
Split Rocks covers 650sq km of the underexplored Forrestania greenstone belt.
In October the company announced it had defined a “very robust” gold target within the existing Dulcie laterite pit.
Now the drill results are in.
Of the 27 holes drilled for a total 3,026m, assays are back from the first 18.
Highlight results were 8m at 7.1g/t (including those 4m at 14.4g/t), 12m at 3.1g/t, 8m at 1.1g/t and 4m at 1.8g/t.
These results were aimed at following up earlier aircore drilling where some holes intersected mineralisation from surface.
Bedrock zone extends over 2km
Zenith’s geological team had previously identified 18 targets over a 18km strike length in the northeast section at Split Rocks.
The company says the latest drilling shows that the large-scale gold bearing bedrock zone extends over 2km in strike and remains open down-dip, with a thickness ranging from 4m to 40m.
A second phase of RC drilling will begin in early 2021.
The Dulcie laterite pit is one of three priority targets being evaluated at Split Rock.
The other two are Dulcie North, which has returned intercepts up to 32m at 9.4g/t, and Dulcie Far North where there was recorded an intercept of 5m at 5.6g/t.
Zenith is now awaiting permitting for follow-up drilling at these other prospects.
Chairman Peter Bird, commenting on the results from the laterite pit, says the target is large both with respect to lateral surface extension and at depth.
“Our next phase will attempt to ‘join the dots’ in relation to the gold mineralisation currently defined,” he added.
“The greater Split Rocks property is rapidly evolving into a significant value initiative for a company which has an extensive portfolio of higher order gold and base metal assets.”
Previous drilling focused on nickel
Historic drilling more than 20 years ago at Split Rocks was mainly in search of nickel and carried out at a time when the gold prices were significantly lower than today — for example, the average price in 1999 was US$278.88/oz.
Zenith’s target study has identified several “high-order” geochemical anomalies that were either never, or poorly, drill-tested.
In addition to the gold targeting exercise, Zenith has previously reported that it has also been systematically exploring Split Rocks for lithium.