Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) plans to commence a major follow up drill program in May at its 100% owned Commonwealth Project 100 kilometre north of Orange in New South Wales.
Previous drill results show significant mineralisation has been intersected in six drill holes so far at the Silica Hill prospect, over an area of 200x100 metres down to a depth of 120 metres.
A significant number of targets for follow up work have been identified over the past 16 months of intensive work by Impact, and these have been prioritised for drilling.
An initial program of 3,000 metres of reverse circulation and diamond drilling is planned for the priority areas with scope to extend the program as warranted.
The results of this work will be used in a new resource statement for the project later in 2017.
Drill program details
A preliminary compilation of previous exploration data on Impact’s extensive regional landholdings has identified numerous areas for follow up work.
The main areas to be drill tested include:
- The down dip and along trend extensions to the Silica Hill prospect;
- Targets at depth and along trend from the Commonwealth resource 100 metres south east of Silica Hill; and
- New induced polarisation targets at the Welcome Jack prospect.
Work has also recently commenced on regional targets.
At the Greenobbys Prospect, the first regional prospect visited, an undrilled vein system at least 500 metres long has been identified and rock chip samples have returned up to 9 g/t gold and 215 g/t silver with associated metals suggesting similarities with Silica Hill.
The emergence of Silica Hill
At the Silica Hill prospect Impact has recently discovered robust widths and grades of gold and silver over an area of 200 metres by 100 metres down to a depth of 120 metres below surface.
Drill intercepts include 74.5 metres at 2.9 g/t gold equivalent including 16 metres at 7 g/t gold equivalent.
Intercepts include narrower zones of high grade gold and very high grades of silver including 0.9 metres at 3,150 g/t silver and 2 g/t gold.
The style and nature of mineralisation discovered at Silica Hill is similar to that encountered within the Commonwealth deposit.
This demonstrates that the mineralisation at the two prospects is part of one larger system and may be linked at depth.