Navarre has completed the acquisition of the Jubilee mine and is now preparing to start aircore drilling. Pic: Getty Images
Navarre poised to drill historical gold mine in Victoria
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Special Report: Navarre has completed the acquisition of a high-grade gold mine in central Victoria that had been left almost untouched since production stopped more than a century ago.
The historical Jubilee Mine within the 122sqkm Jubilee project produced 130,000oz of gold at an average grade of 12 grams per tonne (g/t) from a single east-west trending quartz reef between 1887 and 1913. Importantly, this reef is discordant to the north-south ‘grain’ of the host rocks and has a structural setting almost identical to the high-grade Swan – Eagle zone at the Fosterville Gold Mine.
Despite this and its location in a world-class gold district, just 25km from the 12 million oz Ballarat Goldfield, Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) noted that no significant modern exploration has been undertaken at Jubilee since mine closure in 1913.
This lack of interest is the company’s gain as it has just uncovered three main targets areas, using geophysics, that are thought to be potential repetitions and extensions of the historical Jubilee reef.
Managing director Ian Holland says the acquisition is an ‘exciting expansion’ of the company’s regional gold assets in Victoria.
“The Jubilee mine workings have seen no real exploration in over a century despite having a history of delivering relatively uniform and continuous high-grade gold mineralisation from within quartz lode structures, all just 25km from an operating mine with significant processing capacity,” he added.
“The existence of transverse quartz reefs represents a rare opportunity for exploration as these structures have never been drill tested.”
Gold exploration potential
Since signing the agreement to acquire the project in June this year, Navarre has compiled historical reports while carrying out surface geological mapping and completing a geophysics program using both induced polarisation and magnetic methods.
This work led to the identification of the target areas near the mine along with other prospect areas on the broader Jubilee tenement.
These targets will initially be tested by aircore drilling in November ahead of diamond drilling.
Navarre had acquired Jubilee through initial cash payments totalling $40,000.
It will pay the vendor a further $50,000 in cash on announcement of a JORC 2012 or equivalent resource along with a 1 per cent net smelter return on gold and metal production.
This article was developed in collaboration with Navarre Minerals, 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.
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