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Sultan’s investigation stirs further interest in Challenger gold target
Mining
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Special Report: The Lake Grace gold project in WA’s Wheatbelt region is starting to look a lot more intriguing after the junior explorer completed a detailed gravity survey.
Sultan Resources’ (ASX:SLZ) survey over 20km of gold mineralised terrain highlighted several prominent gravity targets associated with historic and recent gold mineralisation in drilling.
This includes a strong, 2km-long gravity high associated with the Challenger gold prospect that is larger than the anomaly that marks Ramelius’s (ASX:RMS) nearby 700k-ounce Tampia deposit.
“The strong gravity response at Challenger lies immediately adjacent to our recent successful RC drilling, where we have drilled the near-surface area of what looks like a very large gold mineralising system that dips tantalizingly towards a huge, arcuate (curved) gravity anomaly that has very similar properties to that which marks the Tampia gold deposit and remains untested by drilling,” managing director Steve Groves said.
“Furthermore, the gravity survey has identified a number of additional targets, all of which are coincident with historic gold anomalism. This paves the way for some exciting exploration programs for Sultan in the near future.”
The Challenger gravity high, which indicates a zone of denser rock, includes the company’s recent drilling and remains untested by deeper drilling.
All historical aircore and rotary air blast (RAB) drilling was either too shallow or stopped in highly weathered bedrock to provide an effective test of the target, while two diamond holes drilled by North Ltd intersected significant gold mineralisation that is interpreted to be dipping towards the gravity anomaly.
Gold hosting rocks are generally denser than surrounding rock.
Other gold targets
The gravity survey also revealed the Apollo and Columbia targets that are also associated with recent and/or historical gold anomalies.
Apollo and Columbia are located about 6km and 16km northwest of Challenger respectively and are adjacent to the respective historical Apollo and Columbia prospects, where shallow RAB holes returned highly anomalous gold results.
The company is also looking at a fourth target that has geological and geophysical similarities to the Griffin’s Find deposit.
Sultan plans to review the gravity results together with its recent drilling to design follow-up exploration programs with a focus on the Challenger prospect.
