Gold Grades Continue to Impress at Northern Zone – 25km East of Kalgoorlie
Riversgold Limited (ASX: RGL, Riversgold or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has received further assay results from aircore (AC) drilling undertaken during July 2024 at the Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project, located 25 km east-south-east of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit in Western Australia (refer to Figure 1 for location) and readily accessed from the Bulong road, which is paved to within 9km of the prospect site. The last 9km consists of 4km of a high-quality haul road with the last 5km on a station road.
Highlights
Highest grade interval to date from shallow drilling of 27.5 g/t gold (NZAC033) reported in recently completed drilling at Northern Zone Gold Project, located only 25km east of KalgoorlieRecently completed 1,903m of new shallow drilling to blade refusal has successfully targeted an overlying blanket of shallow gold mineralisation in oxide zone above gold mineralised porphyry system in follow up to previous reported1 18m at 4.14 g/t Au from 36m (NZRC001)Significant shallow gold intercepts include:16m at 4.69 g/t Au from 30m (NZAC033)4m at 6.9 g/t Au from 39m (NZAC029)3m at 3.32 g/t Au from 35m (NZAC030)9m at 1.2 g/t Au from 31m (NZAC048)3m at 2.68 g/t Au from 31m (NZAC043)3m at 2.11 g/t Au from 46m (NZAC044)4m at 1.47 g/t Au from 30m (NZAC053)Single metre assay of NZRC001 has now been completed returning a higher-grade core that includes:10m at 4.94g/t Au from 39m (NZRC001)1; or14m at 3.6/t Au from 39m; or18m at 2.8g/t Au from 36m (if the same interval as the composite)Further infill and step-out targeted drilling is now being planned over the expanded footprint of the mineralised porphyryRiversgold is funded to continue drilling operations at Northern ZonePreviously announced Exploration Target at Northern Zone Gold Project of 200Mt – 250Mt at a grade of 0.4 g/t Au – 0.6 g/t Au for an Exploration Target of 2.5Moz – 4.8Moz of gold.2
The Northern Zone Project has an Exploration Target of 200 to 250 million tonnes at a grade of 0.4 g/t to 0.6 g/t Au for an Exploration Target of 2.5 to 4.8 million oz of gold, as announced by RGL to the ASX on the 9 May 2023.
Cautionary Statement: The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. The reader is advised that an Exploration Target is based on existing drill results and geological observations from drilling as well as interpretation of multiple available datasets. The Exploration Target is based on historical and Oracle drilling results. It uses data from 53 historical drillholes drilled between 1998 and 2012, and 7 drillholes drilled by Oracle in 2021. Refer to Appendix 1 of the announcement dated 9 May 2023 for further information with respect to these exploration results.
David Lenigas, Chairman of RGL, said: “These latest gold results are very exciting for this Project and it is great to be able to back up our initial results at Northern Zone with this latest run of assays so quickly after the recent success of our latest RC and AC campaigns that we reported on in July. These results have exceeded our initial expectations and indicate that we have very significant shallow supergene and oxide gold mineralisation that overlays our main hard-rock porphyry target area.
“The fact that this gold project is so close to Kalgoorlie, with all of its associated infrastructure and third-party processing plants, makes it very attractive for us, especially with the AUD$ gold price increase. The next drilling program will focus on heading to the north-east, north-west and south-east, where the maiden diamond drilling traverse intersected mineralisation down to 450 metres and in excess of 150 metres thick in the unweathered underlying porphyry. The identification of a fault, believed to be a controlling feature of mineralisation in the area will also be targeted in a follow up drill program, that will be finalised shortly. We look forward to the results from the next round of drilling which we are hopeful of starting within weeks.”
Drilling contractor, Australian Aircore Drilling (Mick Shorter), completed a further 26 holes for 1,903m of AC drilling at Northern Zone using a blade to drilling refusal, with the cuttings being logged by RGL geologists. The detailed logging and assays continue to show that a significant gold mineralisation event has occurred in the project area. The drilling targeted the shallower, up dip portion of the mineralised system, that yielded a significant composite intercept of 18m at 4.14g/t Au from 36m (NZRC001)3.
Single metre assay of NZRC001 has now been completed returning a higher-grade core of 10m at 4.94g/t Au from 39m or 14m at 3.6/t Au from 39m or 18m at 2.8g/t Au from 36m if the same interval as the composites is used.
Recent aircore drilling has replicated zones of gold mineralisation seen in NZRC001 with 16m at 4.69 g/t Au from 30m (NZAC033), 4m at 6.9 g/t Au from 39m (NZAC029), 3m at 3.32 g/t Au from 35m (NZAC030) and 9m at 1.2 g/t Au from 31m (NZAC048).
Mineralisation remains open in multiple directions, necessitating further drilling campaigns. Refer to Figure 2 for drilling locations, and Tables 1-4 for location and assay results.
Saturn Metals Limited has released a Preliminary Economic Assessment( PEA) on the Apollo Hill Gold Project which is located 175km due north of Northern Zone. With a resource estimate of 105Mt at 0.54g/t gold, totalling 1.839Moz4, this development serves as a benchmark for our aspirations at Northern Zone, albeit with the potential for Northern Zone to be an even larger project.
Conceptually, the Company draws parallels between Northern Zone and Saturn Metals’ Apollo Hill Project, discerning similarities based on the PEA statement released by Saturn Metals (ASX 7 August 2023), which suggests the potential for a sizeable low-grade heap leach operation.
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