Diablo’s diamond drilling has struck a new gold discovery at King Solomon. Pic: via Getty Images
High grade discovery confirmed: Diablo pulls up 13m at 12.28g/t gold as it drills to unlock the mysteries of King Solomon
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- New gold discovery with a thick, shallow and high-grade intercept
- King Solomon is close to Revival’s 4.5Moz Beartrack-Arnett project
- More drilling underway to improve understanding of the discovery
Diablo has made a new discovery at its appropriately named King Solomon project in Idaho with all three of the words that gold explorers love – thick, shallow, and high-grade.
A maiden drill program – the first at the project in 30 years — sought to follow up on historical results such as 18m grading 3.75 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a down-hole depth of 36m.
Results from the first two holes were outstanding and included a highlight result of 13m at 12.28g/t gold from 46m including 4.1m at 26.26g/t gold (LP23-04).
The true width of the hit in Hole LP23-4, drilled proximal to the historical hole that intersected 18m at 3.75g/t gold, remains unknown at this point and further drilling is being undertaken to determine its orientation.
Assays are currently pending for the remaining three completed holes, with drilling continuing.
“These are a terrific set of initial drill results received from our maiden drill program at the King Solomon project, which is open along strike and at depth,” Diablo Resources (ASX:DBO) non-executive chairman Paul Lloyd said.
“The geology seen in in our core drilling to date has supported some of the interpretations and assumptions made by previous explorers.
“With drilling ongoing and further assays pending, we look forward to continuing to unlock the full potential of King Solomon.”
A 4.5Moz Beartrack-Arnett lookalike?
King Solomon, formerly known as the Lone Pine project, comprises two Patented Mining Claims about 10km west of Salmon and 6km east of Revival Gold’s 4.5Moz Beartrack-Arnett project, where mineralisation is hosted in similar rocks to that seen at King Solomon.
Gold was first discovered in 1882, with the project hosting numerous shallow pits and three adits ~ 800m southeast of the Lone Pine Vein Zone (LPVZ) that was targeted by the company’s maiden drill program.
Previous exploration consisted of mapping and sampling in 1990 that was followed by two rounds of reverse circulation drilling that targeted broad stockwork quartz veining in sericite-chlorite-tourmaline alteration zones in both granite and sediments.
However, its ongoing diamond drill program has shown the orientation of geological contacts and lithologies vary considerably, being tightly folded in places and differing in part to that assumed by previous explorers.
Diablo believes this might indicate that there is potential for several zones of mineralisation hosted by structures with varying orientations, with the mineralised quartz veins exploited in the historical adits being an example of one such trend.
Known gold system
The Trans-Challis Fault System that hosts the King Solomon project is a broad northeast trending regional structural system that has been traced for over 300 km across the centre of Idaho, from Idaho City and the Boise Basin in the southwest, to the Montana border beyond the city of Salmon, in the northeast.
The Boise Basin is particularly interesting as it produced 2.9 million ounces of gold from 1863 to 1980, more gold than any other mining locality in Idaho.
Its proximity to Beartrack-Arnett, which has similar geology, is also encouraging as it hints at the potential for a sizeable find.
This article was developed in collaboration with Diablo 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.
