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More near-surface, high-grade gold hits offer PNX bigger footprint in the NT
Mining
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More near-surface, high-grade drill results from PNX Metals’ Glencoe gold deposit have significantly added to the prospective footprint at the Northern Territory project, with further drilling underway.
Drilling by PNX Metals (ASX:PNX) has extended the strike a further 80m to the east of the September campaign, with in-fill holes intersecting several thicker near-surface zones of gold mineralisation outside of the existing resource.
The latest program has also demonstrated excellent continuity along strike for at least 450m from the historic north-central pit and identified four main gold-rich zones.
Mineralisation was intersected as close as 2m from surface.
A top hit came from the mid-central zone, where one hole confirmed the extension of a narrow zone of high-grade gold by intersecting 2m at 6.8 grams per tonne (g/t) from 28m, including 1m at 10.93g/t, just 20m from previous drilling.
Other notable intersections were 6m at 1.65g/t gold from 13m; 12m at 1.39g/t from 45m, including 3m at 2.2g/t from 69m; and 5m at 2.15g/t from 68m.
The results follow a highly successful first drill program which extended the strike by more than 200m to the southeast of the current resource. Near-surface rock chips of up to 6.02g/t were also reported in this area last month.
“We are pleased to see further high-grade, near-surface intercepts returned and to extend the strike of the Glencoe gold deposit to over 200 metres beyond the current mineral resource,” managing director James Fox said.
“We continue to increase the scale of the deposit and now have an entirely new host rock to explore.”
The latest drilling has also confirmed the dolerite/gabbro unit north of Glencoe hosts gold-bearing quartz veins. Notable drill hits included 1m at 1.04g/t gold from 75m. Further follow-up drilling in this area is planned.
Fox said further drilling would be conducted at Glencoe during November and December as PNX looked to extend the gold footprint and upgrade the confidence level for parts of the current deposit to the indicated category.
More RC drilling starts this week, with an additional 1,000m to be completed before PNX will move to drill three diamond holes in early 2022.
Three diamond drill holes for about 360m are also planned as part of the current drilling program and due to start next month, subject to weather conditions and access during the NT wet season.
Geological mapping and sampling have continued at Glencoe and Fountain Head which will contribute to improved confidence of the geological models and near-mine exploration. Forty-nine surface samples have been submitted for assay, with results due early next month.
Environmental studies, including flora and fauna surveys and water sampling, are also ongoing in parallel to the current exploration activities.
Advancing towards gold production
“Glencoe forms an important part of our development plans for the Fountain Head gold and Hayes Creek gold-silver zinc projects,” Fox noted.
Located about 170km south of Darwin and 3km north of PNX’s Fountain Head gold project, Glencoe represents a ‘bolt-on’ asset that has significantly expanded the proposed Fountain Head development.
Fountain Head – which currently has a resource of 2.94 million tonnes at 1.7g/t for 156,000oz of gold — could become a regional processing hub for mineral deposits in the Pine Creek region.
A prefeasibility study (PFS) on the Fountain Head gold and Hayes Creek gold-silver-zinc projects released in June highlighted a robust, multi-commodity, two-stage mine development that would have an initial mine life of 10 years, a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $171m and and a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 63%.
Both NPV and IRR are metrics used to assess the profitability of a project – the higher the number is above 0, the more profitable it will be.
This article was developed in collaboration with PNX Metals, 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.
