Mandalay Resources Corp. (TSX:MND, OTCQB:MNDJF) has updated on the drilling campaigns at the Robinson and True Blue Prospects at its Costerfield Operation in Victoria, Australia, with highlights including confirmation of gold anomalism.
The company said its 12-hole diamond drill program confirms the presence of gold anomalism along the Wolfe Trend at the Robinson Prospect.
It added that deep drilling at the True Blue Prospect has identified subvertical quartz-stibnite veining west of the historically mined lode with substantial grade intercepted in two drill holes:
- 3.8 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 4.3% antimony over 2.57 metres (m) (estimated true width (ETW) of 1.65m) in TB010, including 20.2 g/t gold and 20.3% antimony over 0.44m (ETW 0.31m); and
- 4.4 g/t gold and 4.3% antimony over 1.82m (ETW of 0.91m) in TB012
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"The initial results of the True Blue program are encouraging and the best results so far are within the theorized, favourable stratigraphic setting. The intercepts are similar in grade and minerology to the upper mineralized levels of the central corridor where mining began in 2006, supporting the updated mineralization model. Drilling will continue on the True Blue prospect applying understanding from the Augusta to Youle mineral corridor as an analogue to potentially find a new high-grade mineral field," Dominic Duffy, president and CEO of Mandalay, said in a statement.
Robinson Prospect
Located approximately 2 km east of the Augusta mine site in the Costerfield State Forest, Robinson Prospect is characterized by extensive surface workings and several shafts that were sunk on the two historically mined lodes, the Cochrane and Robinson lodes. Mandalay designed and executed a drilling program in 2022 to identify the continuation of the Robinson line of lode at depth, as well as strike extensions.
Drilling delineated an area of gold anomalism broadly continuous along 350m of strike. Intercepts within this trend are either well-developed quartz breccia like the intercept in RB008 or zones of intense stockwork veining with strong sulfide wall rock alteration like the intercept in RB016. Despite the lack of structural continuity, the spatial distribution of mineralized structures clearly defines a mineralized corridor of roughly north-south strike interpreted to be parallel to the historic Robinson workings.
This newly discovered mineralized corridor named Wolfe Trend appears to be a continuation of the surface mineralization of Robinson's Lode progressively stepping westward at depth across several thrust faults.
Outlook
In the newly discovered Wolfe Trend, the 2022 drilling program successfully identified some of the strongest mineralization in the district and demonstrated the presence of a well-endowed mineral system extending at depth at the Robinson prospect. However, the gold mineralization appears to be dispersed across an extensive quartz-filled fracture network and gold-bearing structures are challenging to continuously intercept. This complex structural environment is largely a consequence of the brittle nature of the host sandstone layers of the Wapentake Formation, which accommodated the strain accumulated between the steep faults during the mineralizing event by developing a brittle, anastomozing fracture network.
Recent drilling at the True Blue prospect is building on the favourable lithostratigraphic setting model and, once further supported, a deep drilling campaign will be designed to test the setting under Robinson.
2022 True Blue Deeps Program
The True Blue Deeps drilling program has successfully confirmed the depth continuation of the mineralization intercepted during the 2020 drilling campaign. More importantly, the deep drilling indicated the potential for a significant upgrade in gold grades at depth below the Quartz Fault, the company said.
Future drilling will focus on further testing this newly discovered line of lode on the west limb of the True Blue anticline and below the Augusta Beds to identify a continuation of the mineral system into the same litho-structural setting that hosts the classic high-grade Costerfield style-mineralization of the Youle and Cuffley deposits.
Mandalay Resources is a Canadian-based natural resource company with producing assets in Australia (Costerfield gold-antimony mine) and Sweden (Björkdal gold mine), with projects in Chile and Canada under closure or development status.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com