Critical Resources Ltd (ASX:CRR, FRA:9S70) has identified multiple arsenic-antimony-tungsten (As-Sb-W) soil anomalies across the Stony Creek target at its Lammerlaw Gold Project in Central Otago, New Zealand, sharpening the company’s focus on areas warranting further exploration.
Follow-up soil geochemistry returned arsenic values of up to 238 ppm, while anomalous responses were concentrated across an approximately 3.2-kilometre section of Stony Creek within a broader 5.4-kilometre sampling transect.
The program comprised 143 new soil samples, with sample A1583 returning the strongest result of 238 ppm corrected arsenic and 25 ppm antimony, around 14 times the program median arsenic value of 17 ppm. Other results included up to 31 ppm antimony and 36 ppm tungsten.
Importantly, the results are portable XRF (pXRF) measurements used for exploration targeting rather than laboratory assays, and the company has not reported gold grades from the program.
Location of Critical Resources' New Zealand gold projects and major gold mining projects.
Multiple anomalies sharpen Stony Creek target
Critical Resources said 10 of the 143 samples returned at least 30 ppm corrected arsenic, with several coincident arsenic, antimony and tungsten responses defining areas for more detailed follow-up.
The main group of elevated responses stretches between samples A1675 and A1682 over around 3.2 kilometres, although the company stressed this represents the distance between anomalous samples rather than evidence of continuous mineralisation or a defined strike length.
Stony Creek was originally prioritised because historic antimony workings, known tungsten anomalism and a regional airborne electromagnetic feature occur within the same broad area. Critical Resources said the latest soil results add another exploration dataset pointing towards the target corridor.
Managing director Tim Wither said the program had reduced the 410-square-kilometre permit to a smaller number of areas requiring closer investigation.
“We have identified multiple arsenic-antimony-tungsten anomalies across Stony Creek rather than a single isolated response,” he said, adding that the overlap with historic workings, tungsten geochemistry and the electromagnetic feature gave the company greater confidence in its targeting approach.
Lammerlaw Gold Project
Lammerlaw covers about 410 square kilometres on the southwestern flank of the Central Otago Antiform within the Otago Schist Belt, a geological setting considered prospective for shear-hosted orogenic gold mineralisation and associated tungsten-antimony systems.
Stony Creek is one of three priority exploration areas identified across Lammerlaw, alongside the OPQ Trend, including Devils Creek, and the interpreted TZ3-TZ4 Structural Boundary.
Elsewhere within the permit, previous rock-chip sampling at Devils Creek returned gold assays of up to 5.42 g/t, providing broader district-scale evidence of gold mineralisation.
Lammerlaw soil pXRF pathfinder results at the Stony Creek target.
Next steps
Critical Resources plans closer-spaced soil sampling around the strongest anomalies, structural and geological mapping and further rock-chip sampling.
Selected soils will also be submitted for accredited multi-element and gold laboratory analysis. The company will integrate these results with geological, LiDAR and geophysical datasets before determining whether any targets warrant drilling.