White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has revealed the final assays from 2015's reverse drilling program at Aucu Gold Project (89% WCN) in the Kyrgyz Republic, and they continue to impress.
The Tien Shan gold province hosts some of the largest deposits in the world.
Aucu is similar to the 20 million ounce Kumtor deposit, high grade, visible gold, high gold recovery, virtually no refractory minerals and hosted in a sandstone that is easy to mine and low cost to process.
With only 10% of the tenement area explored and already four major mineralised shear zones discovered, all containing visible gold at surface and over an elevation range of 600 metres, the potential for a “multi-million ounce” deposit grows.
Todd Hibberd, managing director, commented: “We are very pleased with the final batch of assay results for the Aucu gold project.
"Drilling has confirmed that high grade gold mineralisation is widespread and occurs in all the four major structural zones identified to date.
"In some zones the gold grades are exceptional with wide intersections at +1 Oz/tonne gold”.
Highlights include:
New Camp Gold Zone (CGZ): 9 metres at 6.83 g/t gold from 29 metres.
New Eastern Gold Zone (EGZ): 3 metres at 4.33 g/t gold from 3 metres; 3 metres at 6.97 g/t gold from 45 metres; and 3 metres at 3.86 g/t gold from 84 metres.
Upper Gold Zone (UGZ): 3 metres at 5.34 g/t gold from 26 metres; 1 metre at 9.82 g/t gold from 108 metres; 2 metres at 3 g/t gold from 7 metres; and 1 metre at 3.86 g/t gold from 147 metres.
Hibberd added: “The 2015 drill program was designed to demonstrate that high grade gold mineralisation occurs over extensive distances in the major structures and to confirm economic mineralisation in newly discovered structures.
"We believe the drilling has been exceptionally successful."
Next steps
A major resource definition drilling program will be planned for 2016 with the objective to define a major gold resource at surface and within open pit design parameters.
Also, metallurgical test work is currently being undertaken.
The work will focus on confirming the level of gravity recoverable gold, cyanide extractible gold and to guide development of preliminary process parameters.
This information will assist in the economic assessment of the deposit.
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