High-grade gold and copper intersections are putting the shine on the Liontown Gap Zone. Pic: Getty Images
Sunshine Metals hits thick, high-grade gold and copper in the Liontown Gap Zone
Mining
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- Sunshine Metals intersects high grade gold and copper in the Liontown Gap Zone
- Drill results of up to 6.2m at 9g/t gold and 2.52% copper highlight potential to grow resources
- More diamond drilling to extend newest intersections will begin later this month
Special Report: Sunshine Metals is well on the road towards a bigger resource at its Liontown project in Queensland after drilling returned high-grade gold and copper in the under drilled Liontown Gap Zone.
Diamond holes drilled in the 400m Gap Zone between the Liontown and Liontown East deposits, which have resources totalling 4.4Mt at 10.7% zinc equivalent, returned assays such as:
- 16.2m grading 4.54g/t gold and 1.11% copper from 319m including 6.2m at 9g/t gold and 2.52% copper from 329m (24LTDD024); and
- 16.7m at 3.73g/t gold and 0.53% copper from 229m including 7.7m at 6.43g/t gold and 0.85% copper from 238m (24LTDD011)
The Liontown polymetallic project near Charters Towers is part of Sunshine Metals’ (ASX:SHN) broader Ravenswood Consolidated project in a Queensland district that has produced over 20Moz gold and 14Mt of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) ore (copper-gold, zinc-lead).
Recent drilling carried out by the company has focused on the high-grade copper-gold present at the project.
The unmined and under drilled Liontown Gap Zone is one of the priority targets given its potential to link the Liontown and Liontown East areas, which will likely deliver a significant uplift in resources and potentially simplify future mining logistics.
Gold-copper growth potential
SHN’s three-hole diamond drilling program targeted high-grade extensions of the gold-rich Liontown Footwall Lode into the Liontown Gap Zone.
The step-out holes were drilled ~250m east of the Liontown resources and are spaced ~100m vertically apart and ~90m above a historical intersection of 7.6m at 3.91g/t gold and 1.82% copper from 416.9m.
Besides returning high-grade gold and copper intersections, the holes also confirmed previous observations that the mineralisation becomes more copper-rich at depth and that the sulphides in the high-grade footwall zones are dominated by chalcopyrite and pyrite.
Managing director Dr Damien Keys said the thick, high-grade intersections demonstrate the resource growth potential present within the Liontown Gap Zone.
“The Gap Zone intersections are interpreted to be an extension of the Liontown Footwall Lode where recent drilling intersected 20m at 18.2g/t gold (from 107m, 24LTRC005) and 17m at 22.14g/t gold (from 67m, 23LTRC002),” he added.
“The broader footwall lode system (incorporating Carrington, Au FW Gold Zone, Gap and Liontown East) now extends for ~1.6km and over a vertical distance of ~350m.
“Gold mineralisation in the footwall, despite being consistent, is not always easily identified in drill core. This presents a significant opportunity for previously unrecognised gold mineralisation in historic drilling at Liontown East, where only ~25% of the footwall was sampled. The unsampled core will be analysed throughout 2024.”
Further activity
Besides analysing historical core from the Liontown East footwall, SHN also plans to carry out further diamond drilling to extend the copper-gold intersections in the Gap Zone later this month.
This article was developed in collaboration with Sunshine 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.
