Progress has been made on Mining Lease application M25/389 for the Northern Zone Gold Project of Riversgold Ltd near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia with the 'Section 29 Closing Date' set for May 29, 2025.
On December 10 last year, Riversgold submitted Mining Lease (M25/389) application to the WA Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) for the intrusive hosted project
The Resource Tenor branch of DEMIRS has now advised that, under section 29 of the Native Title Act (NTA), the Section 29 notification period for M 25/389 ends on the ‘Section 29 Closing Date’ being May 29, 2025.
Positive step
RGL chairman David Lenigas said: “This is a very positive step forward for the conversion of the Northern Zone Gold Project to the very important status of a Mining Lease.
"Now we must embark on a quite prescriptive process with the Government to get the tenement upgraded from a Prospecting Licence.
"We have appointed lawyers to assist with NTA negotiations where necessary and we will provide material updates on the tenement tenure when available.”
Northern Zone project map showing proximity to the Kalgoorlie Super Pit.
Riversgold has aspirations for an early production scenario at Northern Zone with ongoing drilling providing evidence of a shallow extensive gold system.
Strong results
Results from aircore drilling to date include:
- 8 metres at 4.86 g/t gold from 34 metres;
- 7 metres at 4.07 g/t from 48 metres;
- 4 metres at 7.47 g/t from 49 metres;
- 5 metres at 12.27 g/t from 32 metres; and
- 16 metres at 4.69 g/t from 30 metres.
Reverse circulation (RC) has returned broad results including:
- 154 metres at 0.58 g/t gold from 98 metres; and
- 330 metres at 0.49 g/t from 30 metres including 54.79 metres at 1.15 g/t from 213 metres.
Diamond drilling has also pointed to the potential, returning 110 metres at 0.6 g/t gold from 208 metres.
Modelling points to more
Leapfrog modelling shows that the mineralisation envelope and footprint continues to grow, with the 3-dimensional model being used to refine areas for the next round of drilling.
The drilling, which has been targeting higher-grade shallow gold mineralisation, may lead to these areas being the future focus of other successful reverse circulation and diamond drilling programs, below the higher-grade oxide gold mineralisation.
Gold mineralisation remains open in multiple directions and will require further modelling and drill testing as the project matures.
Plan view of the Leapfrog software model illustrating gold-grade shells, derived from significant intercepts reported to date. Multiple areas remain undrilled with mineralisation yet to be confirmed.
Drilling results for the Leapfrog modelling came from all the drilling conducted by Riversgold and prior to that by Oracle Power Plc.
Riversgold will continue to further its understanding of the project before proceeding with a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE).
Processing scenarios
The company is encouraged by the possible ore processing scenarios demonstrated by the recent success of Black Cat Syndicate Ltd via use of a turn-key funding, development and processing package at the Myhree/Boundary open pits, 7 kilometres north of the Northern Zone Project.
Conceptually, Riversgold draws parallels between Northern Zone and Saturn Metals’ Apollo Hill Project, discerning similarities based on the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) released by Saturn Metals in August 2023, which suggests the potential for a sizeable low-grade heap leach operation.
With an MRE of 105 million tonnes at 0.54 g/t gold for 1.839 million ounces, Apollo Hill, which is 175 kilometres north of Northern Zone, serves as a benchmark for Riversgold’s aspirations, albeit with the potential for Northern Zone to be even larger.