Marmota Energy (ASX: MEU) and Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS) are targeting potential bonanza gold zones at the Angel Wing project in the United States after recent assays more than doubled the strike length and increased the depth extent of known gold mineralisation.
Final assays from a 15-hole drilling program have been received and show encouraging intersections of up to 1.53 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 147g/t silver.
Seven drill intercepts now indicate the Da Vinci vein's strike length is about 175 metres and the vertical extent from surface is about 100 metres.
Epithermal veins similar to those at Angel Wing generally had discrete elevation intervals that contain the majority of high grade mineralisation.
Angel Wing is a sediment-hosted and epithermal vein gold project in northeast Elko County, Nevada.
The project currently has seven gold target areas identified by surface mapping of quartz-calcite veins with distinctive "angel wing" textures, rock chip and soil geochemistry, and geophysics.
Gold values above 100g/t in rock chips occur in an area 2,042 metres long and up to 914 metres wide.
Rock chip samples up to 92.5g/t occur in steeply dipping, quartz-calcite-adularia veins within the limestone and up to 1.507g/t in disseminations and quartz-calcite veinlet stockworks in altered limestone and Tertiary conglomerate.
Historic shallow vertical drilling targeted disseminated mineralisation and returned up to 1.609g/t over 15.2 metres.
Ramelius' 2011 drill program tested five of the target areas. The maiden drilling program was designed to test the Da Vinci vein with five holes and provided first-ever drill tests of the three additional outcropping veins – the Botticelli, which is a northwestward splay of the Da Vinci vein, the Rossetti and the Raphael.
Ramelius drilled a total of 1,922.7 metres in 12 reverse circulation holes for 1,682.5 metres and three core holes for 240.2 metres.