Amaroq Minerals Ltd (TSX-V:AMRQ, AIM:AMRQ) has provided the results of its 2022 exploration programme at the Vagar licence in Greenland which showed anomalous gold was intersected in all completed drillholes.
In a statement, Eldur Olafsson, CEO of Amaroq, commented: "We are just starting our journey to explore this opportunity. Current drill intersections suggest that a large tonnage Intrusion Related Gold system is in play, with significant depth potential bolstered by high-grade vein-hosted gold. Meanwhile, surface sampling at the East Ridge continues to illustrate the true scale of the deposit."
He added: "The results are a positive step towards realising the potential of Vagar Ridge, a target with a broad-spanning surface footprint, which we believe holds significant resource. We plan to deploy the same exploration strategy of carefully targeted scout drilling and geological modelling that we have successfully implemented at our cornerstone Nalunaq project, which will improve confidence ahead of more intensive resource drilling. Further, we see some opportunities for geological synergies between the deposits, which means our geological team will be one step closer to unlocking this key exploration asset."
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The 2022 exploration programme focused on drilling a small portion of the Vagar Ridge target and confirming the scale of the wider area at East Ridge.
Activities included the following:
- Initial Scout Drilling - A total of 1,445 metres (m) drilled from four drill-pads within a constrained area at the northern extent of Vagar Ridge. These were designed to identify the style and attitude of vein and granite-hosted (Femøren-type) gold mineralisation ahead of more systematic exploration. Despite unseasonally bad weather conditions, 60% of the scout drilling programme was completed, with a large area of key Femøren-type targets remaining and scheduled for the next phase of scout drilling.
- Surface Sampling - 76 samples and geological data were acquired in the field over a previously untested region of East Ridge, and in the vicinity of Vagar Ridge. The aim of this work was to determine the scale and prospectivity of target areas identified during the 2021 campaign.
- Geological Mapping - Data was collected by Amaroq Minerals geologists from across the Vagar Ridge and East Ridge areas, including structural measurements, to further develop understanding of lithologies and controlling structures across the target zones.
- Camp Construction - to facilitate this programme, a small remote service camp was constructed to support the drilling and other activities. Following these results, the company is now considering plans towards establishing a permanent satellite camp to Nalunaq.
While the centre of the mineralisation may not have been intersected in this first scout drilling campaign, elevated gold concentrations were intersected, including 0.5m at 3.07 grams per ton gold (g/t Au) and 1m at 1.27 g/t Au. These results also coincided with elevated grades of other signature elements such as tungsten and bismuth.
Results confirm mobility and emplacement of gold in hitherto untested areas perpendicular to the orientation of known SW-NE (SouthWest -NorthEast) trending veins which remain open along strike. This work has expanded the footprint of known gold mineralisation at depth and enhanced Amaroq's understanding of the controls which will inform planned work during the 2023 campaign. This includes the importance of competency differences at lithological boundaries, including cross-cutting pre-mineralisation dykes, as favourable fluid pathways.
These geological controls are reminiscent to those known to control the high-grade mineralisation at Nalunaq, and as such similar exploration theories and techniques may now be deployed at Vagar Ridge.
Drilling revealed faults, shears, and extensive intervals of granite-hosted xenoliths which act as zones for enhanced fluid movement, and distinctive alteration patterns, potassic feldspar, actinolite, albite, epidote and silica being the most frequent. Sulphide minerals observed included pyrite and pyrrhotite.
Gold was encountered in surface sampling at both Vagar Ridge and East Ridge. These include samples grading up to 2.22 g/t Au at East Ridge and 0.24 g/t Au at Vagar Ridge in a sample of altered granodiorite - Femøren-type.
The company said it believes that the Vagar Ridge project warrants a carefully focused exploratory programme in order to understand the mineralisation within a robust geological model before a more systematic and intensive drilling programme is deployed, while noting that a target of this scale will require significant drilling before its full potential can be understood and robustly quantified.
The Vagar licence is situated 25 kilometres to the north of the Nalunaq project and Amaroq Minerals' exploration camp and centre of operations. Historical exploration of the Vagar Ridge target provided initial indications of both Orogenic and Intrusion Related Gold mineralisation with up to 2,533 g/t Au in auriferous quartz veins and up to 14.4 g/t Au in the host granodiorite.
Amaroq Minerals' principal business objectives are the identification, acquisition, exploration, and development of gold and strategic metal properties in Greenland. Its principal asset is a 100% interest in the Nalunaq Project, an advanced exploration stage property with an exploitation license including the previously operating Nalunaq gold mine. The company has a portfolio of gold and strategic metal assets covering 7,866.85 square kilometres, the largest mineral portfolio in Southern Greenland covering the two known gold belts in the region.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com