Albion Resources defines significant gold corridor at Ives North

• Undrilled Ives North area reveals multiple 1 km-scale fault zones.
• 51 ppb Au outline a 1.5 km × 700 m gold in soils anomaly
• Rock chip samples across quartz veins and altered granite return up to 42.1g/t gold
• Drilling planned mid-November after heritage clearance at high-priority targets

Special Report: Recent soil sampling at Albion Resources’ Yandal West project in the northern Yandal Greenstone Belt of WA has defined a previously unrecognised gold corridor at the Ives North area.

Soil sampling at Ives North, which has remained completely untested by drilling, had outlined a coherent 1.5km by 700m gold-in-soil anomaly with a peak grade of 51ppb gold.

Rock chip samples collected across quartz veins and altered granite returned results of up to 42.1g/t gold and 22.4g/t gold, accompanied by elevated silver, bismuth, tellurium and molybdenum.

This is indicative of a fertile intrusion-related system occurring along major northwest and northeast-trending structures interpreted from magnetics and gravity data.

Albion Resources (ASX:ALB) notes the magnetics and gravity data have defined several 1km scale fault zones, which often follow mafic rafts interpreted to have acted as fluid pathways within the granite margin indicating possible gold deposition.

The geochemical association of tungsten-molybdenum-tellurium-bismuth pathfinders suggests a magmatic-hydrothermal source.

“This new interpretation marks a genuine step forward in understanding the Ives Granite system. We’ve defined multiple 1 km-scale corridors within the granite margin, supported by strong geochemical and geophysical evidence,” chief executive officer Peter Goh said.

“High-grade gold, bismuth, and tellurium anomalies align with key fault structures and, with Collavilla’s success just 2 km to the south, Ives North stands out as one of our most exciting undrilled targets within Yandal West.

“We’ve been steadily building a funnel of high-quality targets across the project, and Ives North is rapidly rising to the top of our drilling priorities. Heritage clearance is being fast-tracked so we can commence first-pass drilling as soon as possible.”

Ives North

The Ives North area is about 2km northwest of the Collavilla prospect where drilling had returned high-grade intersections topping out at 11m grading 20g/t gold, 33g/t silver and 0.22% lead+zinc.

It was first identified during the company’s regional targeting program, which integrated high-resolution gravity, magnetics, and geochemistry,

This work highlighted Ives North as underexplored despite historical reconnaissance sampling returning up to 2.3g/t gold.

Recent gravity interpretation demonstrated an unusually high concentration of dense lineaments that is interpreted to represent mafic rafts and structural corridors within and along the margin of the Ives Granite.

These are features known elsewhere in the belt to be associated with high-grade gold mineralisation.

ALB noted the data defines a possible intrusive-related, structurally controlled orogenic gold system where late-stage mineralising fluids migrated along the Ives Granite contact and into the adjacent mafic greenstones.

Gold is then precipitated within quartz–sulphide veining at trapsites such as structural intersections and dilational zones.

Additionally, the association between gold and pathfinder metals along the major interpreted controlling structures reflects quartz-sulphide vein mineralisation and granite-derived fluid input typical of intrusion-related gold systems.

This geochemical metal assemblage and spatial association is displayed in a variety of deposits in the Yilgarn.

Watch: Albion squares focus on Yandal gold hunt

Next steps

ALB will carry out further rock chip sampling to field check new gold and pathfinder metals anomalies and structures at Ives North.

A gradient array induced polarisation survey is scheduled to start in early November at May Queen to map sulphide-rich zones and refine additional targets for reverse circulation drilling.

The company also completed a heritage survey last week that’s focused on cleared ground at the May Queen and Duck-Duckling target areas suitable for near-term access.

A second heritage survey is planned for early November to focus on Ives North and additional areas at May Queen.

Drill mobilisation is planned for mid-November to target highest priority zones along the newly defined May Queen corridor and additional targets at Duck-Duckling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Albion Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.