White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has announced the recovery of two substantial gold nuggets that improves the prospectivity of the Mt Remarkable gold project in Western Australia’s Northern Goldfields region.
The shares should climb on the news as the value of the property increases.
The nuggets were recovered by a local prospector operating under a tribute agreement in an area associated with quartz reefs that trend NNW within felsic and mafic schists.
Several minor gold nuggets were also recovered.
This area has had minor previous exploration including two trenches and surface sampling.
However, the quartz reef has not been tested and the company will conduct further exploration to assess the potential for substantial gold deposition.
The two nuggets are 248 grams (8 ounces) and 310 grams (10 ounces) and at the current Australian gold price of A$1512 per ounce are worth approximately A$27,000 dollars.
“The discovery of two gold nuggets of that size is a significant find that upgrades the prospectivity of the Mt Remarkable project,” managing director Todd Hibberd said.
“The size and strength of the gold anomaly is highly encouraging and warrants follow up drilling.”
Gold mineralisation is generally restricted to the margins of the quartz reef and within fractures in the bounding mafic rocks.
Large nuggets can form in the adjacent soils via capillary action where the water or water vapour can carry tiny amounts of gold through the soil to the water evaporation interface.
As the water evaporates, gold is left behind and can accumulate into nuggets.
Mt Remarkable
The Mt Remarkable project is located about 170 kilometres north-northeast of Kalgoorlie and about 25 kilometres southeast of Kookynie in the Northern Goldfields.
Included in the project area are the historic mining centres of Mt Remarkable and Yerilla which consists of several old workings.
Major mines in the surrounding area include the Jaguar VMS deposit and the Sons of Gwalia, Tarmoola, Carosue Dam, Granny Smith, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam gold deposits.
The project covers approximately 70 square kilometres of Archean greenstone and granitoid sequences prospective for shear and vein hosted gold deposits, ultramafic hosted nickel sulphide deposits and volcanic hosted base metal deposits.
Analysis
The discovery of two substantial and several minor gold nuggets has sent the value of the Mt Remarkable property, which is within hauling distance to Leonora, rocketing.
The Nugget formation is related to the adjacent mineralised quartz reef that has not been tested. Further exploration will see if the company can unlock substantial gold deposition.
White Cliff will carry out some reconnaissance work in June, possibly some scout aircore drilling.
With major deposits in the surrounding area that include the Jaguar VMS deposit and the Sons of Gwalia, Tarmoola, Carosue Dam, Granny Smith, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam gold deposits, this will be a fascinating exploration program unfolding.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.