Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) has identified its next drill targets to expand the recently discovered high grade gold-silver Silica Hill prospect within the Commonwealth Project in New South Wales.
Recent drilling at the prospect revealed grades of up to 3,600 g/t silver and 23 g/t gold.
The new targets have been generated and prioritised for drilling from a detailed interpretation of induced polarisation (IP) data and from soil geochemistry data.
A review of exploration data has demonstrated strong similarities between the mineralised system at Commonwealth-Silica Hill and the very high grade Eskay Creek Mine in Canada.
Drilling will commence once environmental approvals have been granted, which are expected within the next few weeks.
Silica Hill discovery
At the Silica Hill prospect Impact has 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.
Gold-rich VMS system
The mineralisation at Commonwealth-Silica Hill belongs to a class of deposits known as gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems.
The well-known Eskay Creek deposit in British Columbia, Canada contained over 4 million ounces of gold and 180 million ounces of silver is similar to Impact’s emerging discovery.
Eskay Creek contained numerous very gold and silver rich ore shoots over a vertical extent of at least 700 metres.
Pre-drilling exploration
The targets have been generated and prioritised for drilling from a detailed interpretation of three lines of IP data and from soil geochemistry data.
The size and strength of the IP anomalies and their coincidence with strong gold- and very strong silver-in soil anomalies is very encouraging for the discovery of further high grade gold and silver mineralisation.
The coming drill program will be highly anticipated.