White Cliff Minerals Ltd (ASX:WCN) has expanded the bullseye gold in-soil anomaly at the Ironstone gold prospect located within the Merolia gold project near Laverton, Western Australia.
The anomaly occurs 190 metres west of recent and historical drilling that intersected 4 metres at 5 g/t gold and 0.3 metres at 25 g/t gold.
Gold grades of up to 340 ppb were found in the 240x180 metre anomalous area.
White Cliff will conduct further soil sampling of the Ironstone gold trend in October with a view to drilling late in 2016 or early in 2017.
Todd Hibberd, managing director, commented: “The Merolia gold project just keeps delivering significant gold anomalies.
“The identification of the second gold anomaly at Ironstone suggests that the whole region is prospective for quartz reef related gold mineralisation.”
Merolia gold project
Merolia hosts the Ironstone, Comet Well and Burtville East gold anomalies.
The Comet Well anomaly contains gold values up to 2.6 g/t gold over a zone of 2.7 kilometres in length and 200-400 metres in width.
Gold nuggets and visible gold were discovered at the nearby Ironstone Gold prospect during 2016.
The Burtville anomaly occurs immediately around historical workings that consist of two shafts and several mullock or ore dumps.
The historical workings targeted quartz veins within strongly foliated basalts.
Historical drilling intersected substantial mineralisation including 5 metres at 33 g/t gold, 2 metres at 6.65 g/t gold and 3 metres at 5.3 g/t gold.
The grade of the soil samples adjacent to the mullock dumps suggests that these could actually be ore stockpiles.
Background
While White Cliff undertakes fieldwork ahead of drilling at the Merolia gold project in Western Australia, the company’s flagship project remains the Aucu gold deposit.
The 89% owned Aucu gold deposit is located in the Kyrgyz Republic, which is a democratic republic bordering Kazakhstan and western China.
The company announced a maiden inferred resource for the Aucu gold deposit above a cut-off grade of 1 g/t gold of 1.15 million tonnes grading 4.2 g/t gold for 156,000 ounces of contained gold.
In 2015, drilling identified exceptional gold mineralisation east of this resource at the Eastern Gold Zone (EGZ) over a strike length of at least 500 metres.
Results included 8 metres at 55.2 g/t gold and 4 metres at 59.9 g/t gold.
Overall metallurgical recovery of all mineralised zones discovered at Aucu is 99% with gravity recoverable gold averages of 88.6%.
Analysis
The Merolia gold project in Western Australia continues to emerge as a prospective project for White Cliff alongside its more advanced flagship Aucu gold deposit.
This soil testing program has proven successful having now uncovered three gold in-soil anomalies being Comet Well, Ironstone and Burtville East.
Given this success, the company will undertake further sampling during the December quarter. Any gold anomalies identified will be followed up with infill soil geochemical programs prior to drilling.
White Cliff most recently drilled grades of up to 41.3 g/t gold and 5.1% copper in the latest set of results from the Quartz Zone within the 89% owned Aucu gold deposit
Results from multiple drill holes remain pending and the company expects to complete another 1,000-1,500 metres of drilling in 2016 at Aucu.