Resolution Minerals Ltd has increased its understanding of the Drake East Antimony-Gold Project in New South Wales, having wrapped up a high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey and interpretation.
The Drake East Project is considered a high-potential brownfields asset with historical antimony production and numerous documented high-grade gold occurrences.
Antimony and gold potential
“The final LiDAR interpretation now reviewed by Riviere has provided RML further insight into the antimony and gold potential of Drake East,” executive director Aharon Zaetz said.
“This project clearly has very significant upside with nearly 800 mine workings, that in reality are too numerous to count.
“The widespread placer gold workings are in their own right a valid and exciting exploration target. That they strongly indicate a very local source of gold is equally exciting.
“And then there is of course the antimony and antimony-gold vein potential, which is very significant, believed part of the same mineral system that included Legacy’s adjacent Lunatic Antimony Field.”
The final report of the findings, prepared by GeoCloud Analytics, picked out 791 historical mine workings, comprising 742 pits, 33 shafts and 16 adits across the project area.
The majority of these workings align with 70 previously recorded antimony and gold prospects in the NSW Geological Survey’s MinView database.
While these occurrences are of historical nature and not compliant with the 2012 JORC Code, they provide a strong foundation for future exploration.
Strong structural controls
The survey identified five distinct clusters of mine workings at the Hedley’s-Gully Prospect, Hansen Hills-Hidden Treasure Area, Reliance Mine-Rileys Alluvials Area, Ottis Mine-Lanikai Alluvial Area and Pine Gully–Mosquito Creek Antimony Area.
The configuration and orientation of many mine workings suggest strong structural controls consistent with vein-hosted antimony and gold mineralisation.
Of particular interest is the Hedley’s-Gully area, which appears to be part of a broader antimony-gold mineral field extending into Legacy Minerals’ Lunatic Antimony Field, where grades up to 30% antimony and 85 g/t gold have been recorded.
Additionally, placer gold workings cover an estimated 135,500 square metres, indicating potential for near-surface gold.
RML plans to expedite fieldwork, including mapping and geochemical sampling, to ground-truth the interpreted features and prioritise exploration targets.