MinRex Resources revealed some serious gold assays at its JV Sofala gold project in New South Wales, while securing more rights to explore ground in the region.

The assays – historical and recent – pertain to a number of prospects at Sofala on the East Lachlan Fold Belt, which MinRex (ASX:MRR) is exploring under a land access agreement with JV partner Wattle Resources Pty Ltd.

Assays from recent, shallow RC drilling completed by Wattle at the recently discovered Wiles prospect include:

  • 2m at 2.97 grams per tonne gold from 17m, and;
  • 9m at 2.43g/t gold from 6m.

MinRex has also received and verified historical soil sampling assay results from both Wiles and the Little Oakley prospects at Sofala, which showed highly anomalous assay results, such as:

  • 26 parts per million gold and 616ppm arsenic;
  • 28ppm gold and 732ppm arsenic, and;
  • 01ppm gold and 824ppm arsenic.

Arsenic is typically regarded as a pathfinder mineral for gold deposits.

Located in a project area with a mining history spanning back to 1851, Wattle discovered Wiles in 2018 while undertaking soil sampling.

MinRex chief operating officer Stuart Till said the results demonstrated the new potential on offer at the historic site.

“First pass shallow reconnaissance RC drill data at the Wiles prospect has identified significant gold mineralisation open in all directions,” he said.

“Drilling has validated the anomalous surface soil geochemistry completed in 2018 at the prospect which will now be the focus of additional infill RC drilling by MinRex moving forward.”

Meanwhile, a number of historical assays have also come to light. The assays come from drilling completed by Compass Resources at the Surface Ridge, Surface Hill, Whalans Hill and Caledonian prospects at Sofala between 1991 and 1994, and drilling by G Abignano Pty Ltd at Big Oakley in the 1980s.

They include:

  • 5m at 37.9g/t gold from 66.5m and 3m at 4.2g/t gold from 73m at Big Oakley;
  • 2m at 8.11g/t gold from 92m and 2m at 7.7g/t gold from 2m at Caledonian;
  • 2m at 9.81g/t gold from 38m and 16m at 3.3g/t gold from 48m at Surface Hill, and;
  • 2m at 9.85g/t gold from 46m and 2m at 3.62g/t gold from 26m at Whalans Hill.

Promising numbers indeed.

Importantly, MinRex has confirmed land access rights to the Wiles prospect. Wattle gained approval for 11 drill holes on the site and completed six last year. MinRex can use the drilling approvals on any subsequent drill campaign at the prospect.

 

Minrex
Historic drilling and sampling locations at EL7974. Pic: Supplied.

More land locked in

In addition to the most recent assays, MinRex has secured a second formal farm-in and joint venture agreement at Sofala relating to project area EL7423.

The agreement is with Fortius Mines Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Australian United Mining (ASX:AYM), and enables MinRex to earn up to an 80% share in the area, which confirms land access rights to an area known as Spring Gully.

Under the terms of the deal, MinRex has three years to earn a 51% interest in Spring Gully with a spend of $750,00 and can earn up to 80% thereafter with an additional spend of $1.5 million.

Fortius’ interest in the project would be free-carried should it fall to 10%, and the company retains a 1% net smelter royalty over minerals mined from the tenement. Fortius will also receive 50 million shares and cash payments totalling $50,000.

The rights to farm into the project area were first flagged by MinRex in October last year.

Spring Gully is an orogenic gold deposit located along strike of the Spring Gully fault. The prospect has been the subject of extensive historical drilling, with significant intercepts including 48m at 1.52g/t gold and 52m at 0.88g/t gold.

MinRex entered the East Lachlan Fold Belt region in November 2020 when it cut a suite of deals over land in the prospective area.

This article was developed in collaboration with MinRex 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.