White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) is edging closer to a highly anticipated drill program at the Aucu Gold Deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic where visible gold discoveries at surface were made.
Recent surface exploration uncovered the gold in the Upper Gold Zone, Lower Gold Zone and Southern Gold Zone and each extend over 3,000 metres in length and contain visible gold at surface.
Notable results to date include 1 metre at 35 grams per tonne gold, 4 metres at 22.3g/t gold and 3 metres at 11g/t gold.
These are located at elevations from 2,500 metres to 3,200 metres, indicating that the Aucu gold system is extensive both along strike and at depth (700+ metres).
Aucu currently has a Resource of 156,000 ounces of gold though the rock sampling, trenching and drilling to date.
However, based on exploration finds and the footprint of the gold structures, the number of ounces looks set to increase. Given the discoveries in the region there must be potential for the project to host multi-million ounces of gold.
White Cliff is currently continuing trenching and sampling to refine the location of the mineralised zones along strike to assist with identifying the optimal drill hole positions.
Drilling of each of the 3 separate structures is expected to commence shortly.
Southern Gold Zone
Abundant visible gold has been panned from an exceptionally rich mineralised outcrop at surface at the eastern end of the SGZ.
This new outcrop extends the SGZ to at least 3,000 metres with visible gold identified at three different locations spread along 2,500 metres of the strike length.
Mineralisation occurs as a 3-5 metre wide shear zone and the mineralisation cuts across granodiorite, conglomerate and mafic volcanics. Mineralisation including visible gold occurs in all three rock types.
The SGZ is just 400 metres south of the Inferred Aucu gold resource of 156,000 ounces and is easily accessible from existing tracks.
Notably, the zone has yet to be drill tested.
Lower Gold Zone
Visible gold was panned from a 1 kilogram sample taken from the outcrop at 2,730 metres elevation.
Mineralisation in the LGZ occurs in as a 10 metre wide zone cutting across silicified sandstone and mudstone.
The sedimentary rocks are intruded by late stage granodiorite dykes that have fractured the sandstones allowing substantial gold deposition.
There are several small (<2 metres) mineralised shear zones south of the main zone.
Upper Gold Zone
Visible gold was initially panned from outcropping mineralised zone at 3,200 metre elevation from what is now the UGZ.
The UGZ is laterally persistent along at least 3,000 metres.
A second visible gold sample was collected from Trench 21 around 900 metres east of the initial visible gold sample.
The UGZ JORC compliant resource average gold grade is 5.2 g/t.
The best intersection to date is 4 metres at 22.3 g/t gold. Mineralisation occurs as multiple 1-3 metre wide shear zones.
Analysis
With visible gold discoveries at surface now established at three separate zones, White Cliff Minerals is now edging closer to a highly anticipated drill program at the Aucu Gold Deposit.
Each of three structures extend over 3,000 metres in length and could be very depth persistent given that they are located at elevations from 2,500 metres to 3,200 metres.
It all bodes well for the potential for Aucu to host multi-million ounces of gold.
This is supported by the presence of the giant Kalymakyr Area (93 million ounces of gold) and Terek Sai deposit (7.5 million ounces of gold) in the region.
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