en.Wedoany.com Reported - Mineral exploration company Minerals Exploration (ASX: MEX) has obtained multiple high-grade gold mineralization results from its latest drilling and geological mapping at the Waitekauri project in New Zealand, including a rock chip sample from a large boulder containing abundant visible gold grading 2273 g/t gold.
At the historic Jubilee prospect, within the stockwork zone of fine-grained/weakly banded veinlets, drill hole TGW005 returned the best result of 0.5 meters at 10.5 g/t gold from a downhole depth of 90.5 meters. Drill hole TGW008 intersected a new east-west trending quartz-base metal vein, returning 27.7 meters of assay results from 184.1 meters, containing 0.08 g/t gold, 21.5 g/t silver, 0.36% lead, 0.2% zinc, and 0.1% copper.
The company also conducted geological mapping near Scotia Creek, identifying a large area rich in epithermal quartz float. Rock chip sampling results showed that a large boulder containing abundant visible gold near the Sovereign prospect assayed 2273 g/t gold. An additional mineralized zone discovered north of Jubilee returned rock chip float samples grading up to 362 g/t gold.
MEX Executive Director Brett Mitchell stated that after completing the first phase of drilling at Jubilee, the focus has shifted to the epithermal system south of Jubilee, targeting the shallow portions of the high-grade gold system historically mined at Jubilee. The system hosts open high-grade mineralization at shallow depths and continues southward to the Sovereign gold prospect, which contains mineralized breccia drilled by Amoco and Coeur. He noted that the newly discovered east-west silver-rich structure in TGW008, along with excellent gold grades in surface float at Scotia Creek and the historically open >1 g/t gold zone extending south of the Jubilee belt, provide multiple new targets for the next phase of exploration at Waitekauri.
Assays have been completed for six diamond drill holes at the Jubilee prospect, all of which successfully reached planned depths to test the vertical and strike depth extensions of the modeled gold mineralization in the Jubilee vein. Each drill hole intersected strongly pyrite-clay altered andesite containing silicified and quartz-mineralized zones at the expected target depths. The high-grade intercept in TGW005 is associated with an approximately 10 cm wide weakly banded fine-grained quartz veinlet within andesitic breccia. Drill hole TGW008, while testing the down-dip extension of the same orebody, intersected a broad quartz-base metal sulfide vein on an east-west trending structure, with a gold-to-silver ratio of approximately 1:270, which is relatively rare in the Hauraki goldfield. A systematic review of completed drill holes (TGW003 to TGW010) is underway, and drilling south of Jubilee is ongoing. This four-hole program is designed to test the southern extension of the prospect, trending toward the Sovereign prospect, with drilling at Sovereign planned to commence after all results are received.
Geological mapping in the broader Scotia Creek area near Jubilee has identified a large area rich in epithermal quartz float. In addition to the highest rock chip result of 2273 g/t gold, the volume of high-grade banded quartz float in Scotia Creek far exceeds that found in any other creek at Waitekauri. Follow-up mapping of tributaries in Scotia Creek has not yet located the source of these boulders, but a large boulder containing abundant visible gold was found near Sovereign in the upper valley. Mapping near Jubilee Creek identified a previously unrecognized late-stage mafic andesite unit trending northeast-southwest. Rock chip samples collected from banded epithermal quartz float in this undrilled area returned very high-grade gold assays. Detailed geological data review is underway, integrating data from the company's recently completed airborne magnetic drone survey covering the Jubilee, Jubilee Creek, Sovereign, Jasper Creek, Scotia, and Scotia Creek prospects. An ionic leach geochemical survey and soil geochemistry program, also incorporating airborne magnetic data, are in progress to refine future drill targets within the Jubilee, Sovereign, and Scotia gold prospects.
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