White Cliff Minerals Ltd (ASX:WCN) has sampled gold grades of up to 38 g/t gold from surface rock piles at the Burtville East gold prospect within the Merolia gold project near Laverton, Western Australia.
71 samples were taken with 32 samples containing potentially economic gold mineralisation.
An initial drill program has been planned with approvals expected in two-three weeks.
Todd Hibberd, managing director, commented: “Burtville East surprised us with the high grade of some of the surface rock piles.
“The size of the gold in soil anomaly combined with the substantial gold grades encountered in the rock pile sampling indicates that the quartz vein contains substantial gold mineralisation.”
Sampling results
Sampling was conducted over existing historically mined surface rock piles.
The rock piles have been sampled on a 2 metre by 2 metre grid with 71 samples collected.
Highlights include:
- 38.45 g/t;
- 6.41 g/t;
- 4.93 g/t;
- 4.62 g/t;
- 4.19 g/t;
- 3.96 g/t; and
- 3.60 g/t.
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.
Analysis
The high grade gold mineralisation indicates the potential Burtville East has to host a gold resource.
The pending drill program will assist White Cliff in understanding the extent of any potential gold mineralisation in that sampled area.
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.
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.
Share in White Cliff are trading up 14% over the past month.