Sunshine Metals is looking to add more to its rich gold intersection at Liontown. Pic via Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: Sunshine Metals has resumed drilling at the Liontown prospect in north Queensland to test extensions to the 17m intersection grading a tasty 22g/t gold that it announced in November last year.
The intersection was one of multiple high-grade zones returned from a high-impact, shallow RC drill program which targeted the gold-copper rich footwall and feeder zones to the Liontown polymetallic resource of 4.9Mt @ 12% zinc equivalent.
Liontown near Charters Towers is part of the broader Ravenswood Consolidated project.
Its success validated Sunshine Metals’ (ASX:SHN) ‘Main Feeder’ zone concept – a gold-focused geological model that has already identified three potential feeder fault zones.
These are the Main Feeder within the 2.3Mt zinc-gold-copper-lead-silver VMS resource, the Carrington Feeder adjacent to the historical Carrington Main Shaft and the Gap Zone Feeder in the under-drilled Gap Zone.
SHN is hunting for large mineral systems in a district which has produced over 20Moz gold and 14Mt of VMS ore (copper-gold, zinc-lead).
VMS deposits are commonly associated with high grades of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver – and importantly, often form in clusters.
While gold has not been a focus for past explorers, the company’s use of fresh thinking and modern techniques has delivered rewards.
The company is now carrying out a five-hole drill program totalling 1,000m to test the recently identified gold-rich pumice breccia zone which delivered that rich gold intersection.
It will also test a copper-rich zone where the nearest hole returned 4.65m @ 5.48% copper and 2.05g/t gold from 188m and a deeper 6m @4.49% copper intersection from 252m that is outside the current resource as well as a gold-copper rich zone with a nearby intersection of 5.6m @ 2.06% copper, 7.45g/t gold and 2.99% zinc from 99.7m.
“We are excited to recommence activities at Liontown. The small, first-pass, 2023 drilling campaign demonstrated the potential for high-grade gold within the Liontown VMS system. The campaign also provided critical geological and geochemical information to refine the geology model,” managing director Dr Damien Keys said.
Keys said that success of the program will extend the gold-rich pumice breccia zone to a 120x120m area and test the copper-rich lens and/or potential feeder fault zone in the Carrington Lode on the western end of the Liontown resource.
This lens/potential feeder zone was identified through a combination of geological relogging and geochemical analysis.
“Results from this high impact campaign will tie in with an IP geophysical survey, scheduled for early February 2024, to guide a broader 2024 drill campaign at Liontown,” Keys added.
The planned IP geophysical survey will assess the Liontown footwall stratigraphy to highlight the high-grade gold areas including the sulphide-rich, pumice breccia horizons and the sulphide-rich portions of feeder fault zones.
Results from the drilling campaign and the IP geophysical survey will be used to inform a broader drill program at Liontown soon after.
SHN will also release a Liontown resource upgrade in February that will include the 108 holes drilled since the last resource estimate in March 2023.
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.
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