First Au hits paydirt with discovery of new gold system at Haunted Stream

First Au’s maiden drill program at its flagship Haunted Stream project in Victoria has proven to be immensely successful with the discovery of a new gold system.

Assays that led to the new discovery include a thick 36.9m intercept grading 1.61 grams per tonne (g/t) from 70.6m in hole ERN005, which includes higher grade zones of 3.4m at 4.16g/t gold from 70.6m and 2.8m at 4.4g/t gold from 104.2mm as well as 8m at 3.45g/t gold from 69m in ERN004B.

Notably, all five holes received to date intersected extensive shallow mineralisation to a vertical depth of 95m.

The result reinforces First Au’s (ASX:FAU) belief in the prospectivity of Haunted Stream as they demonstrate the persistence of mineralisation at depth below the first two holes which returned assays of 12.9m at 3.57g/t gold and 11.1m at 2.65g/t gold.

Drilling is now complete with assays pending for the remaining four holes in the program.

“These new results are a great follow up to the assay results from the first two holes that FAU announced from the drill program and provide further evidence of a large mineral system with gold present at shallow depths,” managing director Ryan Skeen said.

“All five holes that have been assayed to date from the drilling have successfully intersected gold mineralisation.

“The upside to this project remains significant and FAU is only beginning to scratch the surface of the potential of the Haunted Stream goldfield with a significant number of prospects along an 8.5km strike for the company to explore.”

Haunted Stream diamond drilling

The Haunted Stream project contains over 150 historical workings which produced gold from the 1860s to the early 1900s that extend over a strike length of 8.5km. This was initially focused on alluvial gold before transitioning to hard rock reef mining in the 1880s.

Historical production results typically ran around 15g/t to 30g/t gold, with some reefs producing over 150g/t gold.

First Au’s proposed targets are hosted, but not limited to a >500m long corridor from the historical Ernestine to Hibernia workings.

Ernestine produced 927oz of gold at 39g/t while Hibernia produced 816oz at 17g/t.

First AU now has clear evidence there’s still plenty of gold to be mined at Haunted Stream with its diamond drill program of 11 holes having identified a new shallow high-sulphidation gold system from 38m depth.

Additionally, holes ERN003, ERN004B and ERN005 also intersected a broad mineralised zone with higher grades of gold mineralisation where black shales occur adjacent to sandstone units and broader lower-grade zones where sandstone sequences dominate.

This article was developed in collaboration with First Au, 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.