Special Report: There’s no better time for a company to be further proving it is potentially sitting on a large, shallow gold deposit than when the price of the precious metal is continuing its record run.

Magnetic Resources’ (ASX:MAU) Hawks Nest 9 (HN9) discovery is already shaping up as a potential multi-million-ounce deposit, and now the company has pinpointed a further 20km of thickened porphyry units.

Within the 3km long mineralised gold zone envelope there are 6km of interpreted porphyry units. The 3km zone has been defined by 20,484m of drilling across 465 holes.

And a detailed ground magnetic survey has now highlighted this further exploration potential.

The area that has the most thickened gold mineralised porphyry, which is up to 70m thick in the southern part of the 3km mineralised zone has a distinct magnetic low signature.

Magnetic says these negative magnetic zones are effectively outlining the subsurface thickened porphyries, some of which are expected to be mineralised and are high priority targets.

The company’s project areas are surrounded by mammoth gold deposits like Wallaby (+7.1moz), Sunrise Dam (+10moz), Granny Smith (+6moz) Gwalia (+7.3moz), Westralia (+2.4moz) and Jupiter (+1.3moz).

“With the Australian gold price at record levels of $2,518, the HN9 project being only 15km northwest of the Granny Smith operations owned by Gold Fields Australia Pty Ltd and only 10km northeast of the Jupiter operations owned by Dacian Gold Ltd at Laverton, WA, is shaping up and has potential for a large-scale shallow deposit,” managing director George Sakalidis told investors today.

He said the 3km gold zone is coherent and not closed off to the north, south or at depth.

On top of that, the new thickened mineralised porphyry zone is also open in both directions and is being drill tested over a 500m length.

Sakalidis said the discovery of a mineralised porphyry zone up to 70m thick and an “outstanding” intersection of 16m at 12.5 grams per tonne (g/t) from 96m, including 4m at 49g/t from 104m, augured well for the potential northeast extension of this thick mineralised zone.

3km gold zone outlined in yellow, interpreted porphyries in pink, with thickened drilled porphyries labelled and overlaid on anomalous gold soil geochemistry image.

There’s also plenty more upside – the areas within the 3km-long gold zone envelope have only been partially tested, with drilling testing the near-surface shallowly dipping porphyries within the first 50m.

This means drilling has more than likely missed other potential thick porphyries, which can be found down to at least 100m depth, according to Magnetic.

The multiple newly discovered shallow dipping zones at HN9 are a potential indicator for deeper mineralisation.

These shallow zones are a common feature within the nearby large deposits including Wallaby, Sunrise Dam and Jupiter, and have been defined down to 1500m depth at the Wallaby deposit.

The length of Magnetic’s 3km mineralised zone is also the length of the Jupiter, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam mines.

Magnetic noted that many discoveries in recent times had been made by drilling below 100m because historical drilling was far too shallow.

At HN9 the average hole depth is only 46m providing “tremendous scope for upside potential”, the company said.

Adding to the growth potential, there is a further 14km of interpreted porphyries outside the 3km long gold zone.

“Importantly, the recognition that the ground magnetics uniquely defines the thickened

mineralised porphyry down to at least 100m depth is a fantastic tool to find other similar

zones, both within the existing 3km mineralised zone and outside this zone where there

are respectively 6km and 14km of subsurface porphyry targets interpreted which are

currently being investigated with 41 holes totalling 3,330m,” Sakalidis said.

“Also extending the ground magnetic survey over the Lady Julie area will allow the subsurface mapping in areas where there is known mineralised porphyry intersections closer to surface.”

Investors are clearly confident in Magnetic’s strategy, having just recently tipped a fresh $3m at 62c a share into the gold hopeful to enable it to gear up resource and exploration drilling at HN9.

The company is confident further drilling will result in the delivery of a JORC-compliant resource for the project, which could become the Laverton region’s next multi-generational gold mine.

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Magnetic Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.