Special Report: Magnetic’s flagship HN9 gold discovery is increasingly looking the goods with recent work identifying at least four stacked thickened porphyry zones.
This is particularly exciting as the Hawks Nest 9 (HN9) project near Laverton, WA, shows similarities with adjacent major gold deposits such as Wallaby (7 million ounces), Sunrise Dam (10Moz) and Jupiter (1.3Moz).
Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) says the lodes are a potential indicator for deeper mineralisation because all the large deposits in the region have internal shallow-dipping mineralised lodes (shear zones) that have been defined down to a depth of 1,500m at Wallaby.
The company added that many recent discoveries had been made by drilling below 100m because historical drilling was far too shallow, pointing out that the average hole depth at HN9 is only 51m.
Managing director George Sakalidis says that with Australian gold prices at record levels and the close proximity to the Granny Smith and Jupiter operations, HN9 is shaping up to be a potential large-scale shallow deposit with the addition of a large, thickened mineralised zone trending to the northeast.
“This significant 3km mineralised zone is so far defined by 597 RC holes totalling 30,320m, is coherent and is not closed off to the west-northwest where new extensive drilling is planned and a new northeast trending thickened mineralised porphyry feeder zone is also open in both directions and is being drill tested over a 700m length,” he said.
“A very ambitious drill program of 53 RC drill holes for 4,365m is planned and we are looking forward to testing a number of promising intersections and potential extensions.”
Testing gold potential in stacked lodes
Magnetic notes that the southern part of HN9 is now interpreted to split into two northeast trending zones which are open to the northeast and southwest.
A further four holes are planned to the northeast where the thickened porphyry zone is trending as it remains open and will be testing over a distance of 700m.
Deeper drilling is now testing areas outside the soil geochemical anomalies heading towards the adjacent Lady Julie project.
The company added that north of the thickened zone there was a distinct shallow mineralised shear zone that trends to the north-northwest and is discordant with the northeast trending thickened zone to the south.
In the northern end of HN9, the trend of the gold-rich shear zone is interpreted to swing to the west-northwest and is now being investigated over a further 1.5km heading toward the HN10 soil geochemical anomaly.
Additionally, a number of holes are testing an east-northeast set of historical workings that follow the major drainage pattern.