Resource drilling have confirmed historical resources at Belararox’s Belara project after intersecting massive sulphide mineralisation at shallow depths as predicted.
Significantly for the company, the assay results such as 13m at 0.41% zinc, 0.24% copper, 0.11% lead, 8.27 grams per tonne (g/t) silver and 0.33g/t gold from 86m in hole BLRC014 continue a trend of wider zones of sulphide mineralisation deeper down hole than interpreted in the model.
Adding further interest for Belararox (ASX:BRX), the results from the latest batch of six holes also encountered anomalous gold which is not associated with the massive sulphide mineralisation.
Together with the higher grade assay of 7m at 2.22% zinc, 2.54% copper, 0.63% lead, 26.87g/t silver and 0.67g/t gold in BLRC013, the results reinforce the potential for a very positive outcome to the company’s plan to define a maiden resource for Belara.
“We are delighted to report on new assay results for six holes from the resource drilling at Belara. The results from these holes are significant as they intersect shallow mineralisation in previously undrilled areas,” managing director Arvind Misra said.
“Notably, the holes also confirm that the mineralisation continues to the surface and dips less steeply to the east than initially interpreted in the historic resource model.
“Additionally, we also intersected anomalous gold not associated with the massive sulphide mineralisation, which is very pleasing.”
Resource drilling
The Belara and Native Bee mine areas are the first high priority targets for resource drilling with the first phase designed to deliver the density of drill assay intersections to estimate a 2012 Inferred Resource over the known areas of mineralisation.
Assays have been returned for six reverse circulation holes targeting shallow mineralisation at depths of between 60m and 100m as predicted by the historical resource model, and a diamond hole that was drilled to provide geological, geochemical and petrophysical data to help calibrate the information from the resource RC drilling.
These new holes have all intersected massive sulphide base metal mineralisation, which has now been defined over a strike of 500m, providing more confidence in the geological continuity of the interpreted base metal mineralisation in the historical model.
Previous owner Ironbark Zinc had already defined an Inferred Resource of 1Mt at 5% zinc, 0.4% copper, 1.5% lead, 0.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 50g/t silver at a 4% zinc cutoff using the older JORC 2004 code prior to relinquishing the Belara project in 2020.
Higher grade mineralisation has been intersected at the southern end of the mineralised zone around and beneath the old Belara underground workings. This zone is more copper and gold rich and appears to plunge to the north.
Further activity
Assay results are pending for a further 1,493m of drilling while three diamond tails remain to be drilled from the Phase One drill plan.
Two additional diamond holes are expected to be drilled by the end of July to better constrain the near-surface mineralisation while resource estimation studies are expected to commence in late August.
Down-hole EM data will be collected from selected new holes, at both the Belara and Native Bee resource areas, to test extensions to mineralisation.
This article was developed in collaboration with Belararox, 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.