A second drill rig is kicking off an RC drill program to test historic shafts at Liontown’s Gap Zone
The nine-hole program across 600m has potential to extend the gold-rich oxide zone in north Queensland
Diamond drilling continues at the Gap Zone, downhole EM surveys to follow
Special Report: Sunshine Metals has mobilised a second drill rig to accelerate exploration at its Liontown project to test extensions to high-grade gold mineralisation delineated in the footwall of the resource.
It’s a great time to get into gold, with prices going gangbusters above $3,500/oz and expected to rise even further.
Any whiff of decent grades are sending explorers digging for the shiny stuff and Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) is no exception, using $4m of recently raised capital to accelerate drilling programs at Liontown, where it has intersected up to 16.42g/t gold at the Gap Zone.
Liontown, near Charters Towers in QLD, is part of SHN’s broader Ravenswood Consolidated project, in a district where +20Moz gold and 14Mt of VMS copper-gold and zinc-lead ore has been produced.
A map of Ravenswood consolidated. Pic via SHN
RC drilling to kick off at Liontown
A nine-hole RC drill program across ~600m will test for oxide mineralisation around four historic shafts sunk into the gold and copper rich Main Feeder Zone within Liontown’s Gap Zone footwall.
“The shafts are estimated to be at least 20m deep and spoil from around the shafts suggests gold and copper were mined,” SHN managing director Dr Damien Keys says.
“The drilling has the potential to extend the gold-rich zone to a potential oxide zone at surface which would bring dimensions of the zone to ~300m x 140m.”
Trace gold and malachite in a sample collected from a spoil adjacent to the under drilled historic Sapindinus shaft. Pic via SHN
Ongoing diamond drilling
Meanwhile, Liontown diamond drilling continues, targeting extensions of high-grade gold and copper mineralisation around an interpreted feeder to the mineralisation recently defined.
SHN is targeting high-grade footwall extensions of the pumice breccia horizon east of the Main Feeder Zone and into the ~400m long Gap Zone, where only two gold-focused holes had been historically drilled into the footwall.
“Drilling in the Gap Zone is currently testing ~100m from a historic intersection that assayed 1.75m at 16.42g/t gold and 6.27% copper,” Keys says.
Gold and copper distribution across 1.6km at the Liontown project. Pic via SHN
To date, three holes within the Gap Zone program have been completed.
Assay results are expected to flow during April and May and downhole EM surveys will follow, guiding future Gap Zone drilling.
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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