White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has identified mineralised shear zones in all holes after an initial pass of drilling at an exciting prospect of the company’s Aucu gold project in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Samples have been dispatched for laboratory analysis, with results expected early next month.
The initial drill targets of the eight-hole, 760-metre program are at Aucu’s Southern Gold Zone (SGZ) where visible gold has been identified in three separate locations over a length of 2,500 metres.
More specifically, this work targeting the western outcrop of visible gold where trenching identified 3 metres at 11 g/t gold. 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.
SGZ is just 400 metres south of the inferred Aucu gold resource of 1.2 million tonnes at 4.2g/t for 156,000 ounces and is easily accessible from existing tracks.
Ongoing drilling is also targeting the upper and lower gold zones as well as extensions of these zones to the east and west. White Cliff intends to drill up to 3,000 metres (weather permitting) over the next six weeks consisting of about 30 holes with depths ranging from 50 metres to 200 metres.
LGZ and UGZ
On completion of drilling at SGZ, the rig will move up the hill to the Lower Gold Zone (LGZ) to test extensions to the visible gold panned from a 1 kilogram sample taken from the outcrop at 2,730 metres elevation. Mineralisation occurs as a 10 metre wide zone cutting across silicified sandstone and mudstone.
This in turn will be followed by drilling at the Upper Gold Zone (UGZ), where visible gold was initially panned from outcrop at 3,200 metre elevation.
UGZ is laterally persistent along at least 3,000 metres. A second visible gold sample was collected from a trench at the site 900 metres east of the initial visible gold sample.
The UGZ resource average gold grade is 5.2 g/t. The best intersection to date is 4 metres at 22.3 g/t. Mineralisation occurs as multiple 1-3 metre wide shear zones.
Major potential
The completion of initial drilling at SGZ is contributing to expectations that White Cliff is on to something big at Aucu.
The initial aim here is to delineate a 500,000 ounce to 1 million ounce open pit, then perhaps seek listing in the UK, Hong Kong or Singapore next year to tap demand for gold assets from Asian investors.
The potential to establish a multi-million-ounce resource in this large exploration area (which remains 90% undrilled) is illustrated by the substantial endowment already recorded at Aucu’s comparatively small existing resource area.
Aucu’s initial gold resource was calculated at 1.2 million tonnes grading 4.2 grams per tonne gold for 156,000 ounces over 300 metres of length and 120 metres of depth.
Aucu is part of the Chanach porphyry copper deposit which holds an Inferred Mineral Resource of 10 million tonnes at 0.41% copper containing 40,000 tonnes of copper.
Australian assets
Exploration is also ongoing at numerous nickel sulphide targets on White Cliff’s Merolia nickel and copper project in Western Australia, where recent ground electromagnetic MLEM surveys have identified several conductors occurring along the basal contact of interpreted ultramafic units within a layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion.
Merolia is located close to the Windarra nickel mine and associated infrastructure.
White Cliff has identified five high impact nickel targets in a similar setting to Sirius Resources’ (ASX:SIR) Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper-cobalt deposits.
Three of these are untested electromagnetic conductors are on basal contacts with high nickel in-soils.
White Cliff is planning to carry out 1,000 metres of drilling to test two targets on the basal contact within a large ultramafic unit that is 7 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres.
Analysis
The identification of mineralised shear zones in all holes drilled so far at SGZ is important in that it supports expectations that the prospect could meaningfully extend mineralisation at Aucu.
Pending laboratory assays from this work as well as upcoming drilling at the UGZ and LGZ areas represent near-term price catalysts for White Cliff.
Given the dimensions of the area already containing the project’s initial gold resource, an exploration target more than 3,000 metres in length that contains visible gold represents important upside for improving inventory potentially toward a multi-million-ounce level.
Aucu also benefits from a number of infrastructure advantages, including access roads 200 kilometres to rail, power at US$0.02 per kilowatt and support in two regional mining hubs.
White Cliff is continuing to cash up exploration efforts at Aucu and its properties in WA by extending a fundraising drive initiated last month with a share purchase plan.
Investor interest in the company’s exploration success at Aucu was demonstrated on September 1, when the identification of abundant visible gold at the site sent shares flying 83% to a 12-month high of $0.014.
White Cliff locked to present at Proactive's Sydney and Melbourne Spotlight Investor Luncheons on the 20th / 21st October.
Limited registration places: Sydney Investor Luncheon, Tuesday, 20th October.
Melbourne Investor Luncheon, Wednesday, 21st October.
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