Helix Resources' (ASX: HLX) drilling results in April look to have confirmed the presence of a gold system at the Restdown Gold Project JV with Glencore International (LON: GLEN) in central New South Wales.
From the first 15 holes of aqua regia assays, all holes intersected mineralisation with some strong widths and continuity ofgrade in the results.
The company holds a 70% interest in the project after meeting a $700,000 expenditure in the earn-in agreement with a Glencore subsidiary holding the remaining stake.
The projects are situated approximately 40-70 kilometres south-east of Cobar in Central West, NSW with the tenement package covering an area of about 278 square kilometres (Restdown JV Project 188km², Muriel Tank JV Project 90km²).
Highlights from the recent exploration include:
- 42 metres at 1.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 15 metres, including: 5 metres at 3.3g/t gold, 6 metres at 3g/t gold and 7 metres at 2.7g/t gold;
- 14 metres at 2g/t gold from 40 metres, including: 5 metres at 4g/t gold; and
- 32 metres at 1g/t gold from 16 metres, including 5 metres at 5.4g/t gold.
Helix, manager of the JV, has met the $700,000 expenditure required to earn a 70% interest in the Restdown JV tenements. A JV meeting to discuss an aggressive forward work program is scheduled for June 2011.
From the exploration program to date, Helix should be able to define a maiden resource at the Sunrise Prospect.
The company has also begun preliminary Scoping Studies to investigate development options at the project concurrent with a High Level Environmental Impact Study.
During April, a total of 59 reverse circulation drill holes covering more than 6,000 metres tested the extensions and continuity of the company’s initial drilling program in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The width and continuity of grade in today's drilling results complement those intersected in the 2010 drilling program highlighting the mineralisation strike of more than 200 metres with results still to come from the extensions of the mineralised zone.
All zones returning less than 0.1g/t gold are undergoing re-sampling with a riffle splitter at one metre intervals and fire assayed with those results to form the basis for the resource model.
The logging of lithology in drill cuttings suggests a good correlation between quartz vein content and higher gold grades.
Helix devised a plan to test possible gold extensions at the project after looking over studies previously conducted by Glencore.
A meeting between meeting to discuss an aggressive forward work program is scheduled for June 2011.
Of interest, the Restdown Project is located approximately 20 km southwest of the historic Mt Boppy Gold Mine owned by Polymetals and 40 km to the north west is NewGold’s Peak Mine; while YTC’s Nymagee and Hera development projects are about 30 km to the south.