White Cliff Minerals’ (ASX:WCN) initial drilling has discovered multiple zones of gold at the Red Flag prospect near Laverton, Western Australia.
Located just 25 kilometres from the existing Granny Smith Gold Mine and Wallaby Gold Mine that have ore processing infrastructure, the company could swiftly and cheaply monetise any major discovery.
Gold mineralisation occurs over 200 metres and is open along strike and at depth.
Results include a peak of 4 metres at 1.33 grams per tonne gold and warrant follow-up drilling.
Todd Hibberd, managing director, commented:
“We are very pleased with the initial drilling results which demonstrate that the project in contains gold mineralisation.
“The company is planning further drilling along strike and at depth with reverse circulation drilling methods which provide high quality samples that can be used in resource calculations.
“The identification of these mineralised zones substantially improves the likelihood of an economic outcome of the Laverton Gold project given that the Red Flag prospect is only 25 kilometres from existing mining operations (Wallaby and Granny Smith gold mines) and associated infrastructure.”
Laverton Gold Project
The Laverton gold project consists of 136 square kilometres of exploration licenses in the Laverton Greenstone belt.
Core assets are the Kelly Well and Red Flag prospects, located 35 kilometres southwest of Laverton in the centre of the structurally complex Laverton Tectonic zone and just 25 kilometres northwest of the 3 million ounce Granny Smith Gold Mine and the goliath 8 million ounce Wallaby Gold Mine.
Historic exploration at Kelly Well returned assays of 8 metres at 8.8g/t gold and 4 metres at 5g/t gold.
The Red Flag prospect consists of a series of strongly deformed mafic and felsic volcanics with banded iron and sediment units.
Mineralisation is associated with shear zones running along contacts between units and along cross cutting faults which are responsible for the deposition of the 3 million ounce Mt Morgan’s deposit.
Drilling at Red Flag West identified gold mineralisation and associated alteration and quartz veining, sulphides, limonite and goethite in the target zones which are typically associated with Archaean lode gold mineralisation.
The mineralisation is open along strike and at depth. Planned drilling only partially completed due to challenging ground conditions which are typical of mineralised systems throughout the northeastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
Further drilling is currently being planned to establish the scale and tenor of the mineralised system.
High anomalous intersections were also returned within quartz veining in a felsic volcanic unit in two structurally unique zones at the Red Flag East anomaly.
Both zones are open along strike and at depth and further drilling is being planned.
Analysis
While the discovery of gold at the Laverton project is encouraging for White Cliff Minerals, it is also worth noting that Red Flag is just one asset in a considerable gold-copper portfolio.
This stretches from Red Flag to Mt Remarkable, where gold nuggets were discovered, and the advanced high grade Aucu gold deposit at its Chanach project in the Kyrgyz Republic.
White Cliff also holds the Merolia Nickel Project in Western Australia.
Share Price Catalysts:
- Start of between 2,000 metres and 4,000 metres of reverse circulation and diamond drilling at the Aucu gold-copper deposit in August;
- Results from sampling at the Bremer Range nickel project and at the Ironstone Gold Project;
- Drilling the Ironstone gold prospect in the fourth quarter; and
- Drilling at Mt Remarkable.
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