Assays Pending: Sunshine is drilling multiple targets in a 20Moz gold district

Sunshine Metals is looking for large deposits in a QLD district which has produced over 20Moz gold, 14Mt VMS ore
Drilling completed at Coronation prospect, considered a look-alike of the historic Highway-Reward copper gold mine; assays pending
A drill rig has been moved to Carrington Lode
Planned resource upgrade due this December

Sunshine Metals is wasting no time exploring its Ravenswood Consolidated project in QLD, wrapping up first pass drilling at the Coronation prospect and now commencing RC drilling targeting the Carrington gold-copper lode at the Liontown project.

The explorer is hunting for large mineral systems in a district which has produced over 20Moz gold and 14Mt of volcanic massive sulphides ore (copper-gold, zinc-lead).

Notably, the Coronation prospect is a “geological analogue” for the nearby, historic high-grade Highway-Reward mine which produced 3.9Mt at 5.4% copper and 1.1 g/t gold.

The company has now completed eight RC holes testing six gravity anomalies, where rock chip samples up to 13.8 g/t Au have been recorded.

But this is just the start of a larger program at the Ravenswood Consolidated project, with drilling now under way at the Liontown project, ahead of planned drilling at the Cardigan Dam and Plateau gold prospects.

Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) — The Ravenswood Consolidated project with prospects in the current drill program (green) and and major nearby mines (yellow). Pic via SHN

Potential fertile gold structure

The RC program at Coronation tested six gravity anomalies (CorG1 to CorG6) with seven holes drilled (1,235m, averaging 176m depth).

One further RC hole (41m) at CorG3 tested a 3m thick, pyritic jasper that was exposed during drill pad clearing.

Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) MD Dr Damien Keys said Highway-Reward consisted of barite hosted gold overlaying copper-gold massive sulphide pipes at depth, and that the program at Coronation has “successfully identified a significant quartz barite vein system at CorG2 that extends beneath outcrop that sampled 5.33g/t gold”.

“Assays are pending and this intersection provides encouragement for continuity and thickness of a gold fertile structure,” Keys said.

Follow up IP and downhole EM surveys will be completed in the vicinity of CorG1, CorG2 and CorG5 to ensure the company understands the off hole and depth opportunities.

Resource update expected in December

The rig has now moved roughly 20km to the south-east of Coronation to the Liontown prospect to test extensions to the footwall gold-copper rich Carrington Lode with 11 holes for a 1,135m program.

The results from Coronation and Carrington Lode are expected to be included in a resource update in December 2023, which will also incorporate a further 96 holes previously drilled and not part of the current 4.94mt at 12.0% zinc equivalent resource at the project.

Following works at Liontown, drilling will continue at Plateau and Cardigan Dam. The drilling will test gold targets including the NE corner of the Plateau breccia pipe (50koz gold resource) and shear zones at Cardigan Dam.

This article was developed in collaboration with Sunshine Metals, 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.