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More thick, high grades highlight the scale of De Grey’s Hemi discovery
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Special Report: De Grey has struck more high-grade gold and expanded the footprint of the Aquila zone at its Hemi discovery in WA’s Pilbara region.
Drilling about 40m west of the discovery section at Aquila returned a top result of 28m at 10.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 117m — well above the 5g/t result that is typically considered high-grade — within a broader zone of 53m at 5.9g/t gold from 117m.
Other notable results from De Grey Mining (ASX:DEG) are 29m at 3.8g/t gold from 64m, and 16m at 5.6g/t gold from 180m.
And upside potential remains.
While the Aquila zone is already well defined over a strike length of 800m and a depth of about 150m, recent aircore drilling has highlighted the potential to extend mineralisation by a further 400m to the west.
Here, notable intercepts include 33m at 1.5g/t gold from 64m, and 30m at 0.9g/t gold from 46m.
De Grey exploration manager Phil Tornatora says the identification of Aquila-style mineralisation in a highly altered intrusion 400m to the west is exciting, as it opens up the overall strike potential of Aquila while the high-grade hits demonstrate the potential to rapidly increase its gold endowment.
“We are now targeting diamond drilling to extend Aquila to at least 300m below surface along the entire strike of the deposit,” he said.
“The potential to extend Aquila a further 400m to the west under an interpreted shallow veneer of sediments is an exciting development and will also be targeted. Similar potential remains to be tested to the east under the sediment contact.”
Tornatora added that diamond core assays of the depth extensions, below the recent high-grade intercepts, are in the lab for assay with results expected shortly.
“Step-out extension diamond drilling is on-going with a further eight pre-collars already completed,” he says.
“A second RC rig arriving next week will help accelerate drilling on all mineralised zones at Hemi.”
This will take the total number of rigs operating at Hemi up to six, which is a clear demonstration of De Grey’s belief that the discovery points to a large and highly prospective gold province that could yield much bigger multi-million-ounce gold deposits.
While the company has already defined a 2.2-million-ounce resource at the broader Mallina project, the discovery of Hemi in mid-December 2019 under a shallow ‘blanket’ of transported cover has opened up a new style of mineralisation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region that had not been uncovered before.
Its discovery has clearly excited investors who sent shares in DEG rocketing 1,214 per cent between January 1 and June 15 (64.5c).
>> Now watch: Stockhead V-Con: Gold Out West – The Explorers
