Magnetic's seismic survey is aimed at finding multiple, gold-rich thickened lodes. Pic: Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: Magnetic is ramping up the hunt for multiple, gold-rich thickened lodes at its Laverton area projects with a seismic survey set to begin in early December.
The company has enjoyed continued success with its ongoing drilling program continuing to return both high-grade gold zones and broader, lower grade intersections that point towards deeper mineralisation.
Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) is now preparing to carry out a shallow seismic survey centred on its Hawks Nest 9 (HN9) deposit and extending eastwards to the Lady Julie and HN5 deposits.
This is designed to search for prospective thickened shallow dipping gold-rich multiple lodes below areas that are already strongly mineralised near surface, look for repetitions and continuation both at depth and down dip along with finding new structures and intrusions.
Managing director George Sakalidis says that with Australian gold prices at record levels of $2,600, the HN9 and Lady Julie projects have the potential for a shallow mining centre near existing operations managed by Gold Fields Australia and Dacian Gold.
“The 2D seismic survey and supporting passive survey planned will provide a pseudo 3D framework for the structure over the HN9, HN5 and Lady Julie areas where we will be searching for the multiple thickened shallow lodes and feeder structures and intrusions. It will also show the down dip extent of the dipping zones already located,” he added.
“There are large existing drill programs being carried out and further drill targets are being planned now with a lot more deeper targets expected from the seismic work starting in early December.”
The seismic survey will use reflected waves to delineate near horizontal lodes and other targets down to a depth of 2km and assist in anticipated deeper drilling programs below the current average depth of 54m to about 400m.
This could help unlock further gold potential in the area as some of the larger gold deposits in the area have large depth extents of more than 1km.
Magnetic will also reprocess two sections of an existing Geoscience Australia 2D seismic survey.
The combined data is expected to image the geological structure of the HN9, Lady Julie, HN5 and HN3 areas, over a large 20sq km area, and tie them in with the regional architecture that hosts the Wallaby and Granny Smith deposits.
At HN9, the company has already identified at least four discernible mineralised zones that mostly dip shallowly to the east.
These stacked porphyry zones have returned some very thick intersections including 104m at 0.82 grams per tonne gold from 8m and show similarities with the adjacent Wallaby, Sunrise Dam and Jupiter major deposits, making them the main target for delineation by the seismic survey.
Magnetic is currently carrying out large programs of 87 infill holes totalling 4,677m and 53 holes for 3,105m at HN9 and Lady Julie respectively.
This work is being carried out primarily for the definition of indicated resources.
Drilling is also being planned from the interpretation of previous drill results and some core drilling that will be used for density measurements utilised in the resource study.
Additionally, deeper drilling down to 400m depth will also be planned once results of the seismic survey are known.
This article was developed in collaboration with Magnetic 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.
Mining
Mining
Mining
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
