White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has drilled out more substantial gold and copper mineralisation at the Quartz Zone within the Aucu gold project located in central Asia.
Assay results include exceptional high grades including 2 metres at 79.2 g/t gold.
The newly identified high grade results extend the Quartz Zone a further 75 metres southeast of the initial drill line which identified exceptional mineralisation from surface to 65 metres depth while remaining open at depth.
Drilling has now finished for the 2016 season and assays are pending for 15 holes.
Todd Hibberd, managing director, commented: “The ongoing exceptional gold assay results from the Quartz Zone demonstrate just how remarkable the Aucu gold project really is.
“The current results are spectacular and continue to extend the scale of the mineralisation.”
Drill result details
The new high grade mineralised zones were intersected in four reverse circulation holes.
Highlights include:
- 12 metres at 15.6 g/t gold from 82 metres including 2 metres at 79.2 g/t gold;
- 5 metres at 4.5 g/t gold from 3 metres including 1 metre at 11.5 g/t gold; and
- 66 metres at 0.91% copper from 33 metres including 18 metres at 1.8% copper.
Drill defined gold mineralisation has been identified along the quartz reef over a distance of 185 metres.
Mineralised outcrop containing visible gold extends along the exposed quartz reef over a distance of 243 metres.
Background
White Cliff is advancing its 89% owned Aucu gold deposit located in the Kyrgyz Republic and its 100% owned Merolia gold project located near Laverton, Western Australia.
Aucu hosts a resource of 1.15 million tonnes grading 4.2 g/t gold for 156,000 ounces of contained gold at a 1.0 g/t cut-off grade.
Drilling has discovered significant surface expressions of visible gold along strike from this resource including 8 metres at 55.2 g/t gold and 4 metres at 59.9 g/t gold.
Merolia hosts the Ironstone, Comet Well and Burtville East gold anomalies.
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.
Analysis
Assays confirm the presence of substantial gold and copper mineralisation within the Quartz Zone at Aucu - growing its potential to host an economic resource.
Importantly, the 12 metres at 15.6 g/t gold intersection follows up the original 11 metres at 15.2 g/t gold intersection.
It is not often a gold deposit with visible gold in quartz veins at surface is backed up by such drill results.
In addition, the deposit has clean metallurgy, high recoveries and simple processing options that lend themselves to a low cost high margin mining operation.
While drilling has now completed for the 2016 season, White Cliff is still awaiting assays results from 15 reverse circulation drill holes at Aucu.
This will ensure the company remains leveraged to further exploration focused news flow over the short term from Aucu.
Furthermore, White Cliff commenced aircore drilling at Merolia in November with results expected during December.