Horizon Gold Ltd (ASX:HRN) has delivered further assay results indicating high-grade gold mineralisation at the Premium lode and Butcherbird shear within its Western Australian Gum Creek Gold Project.
The 4,897-metre diamond drilling program was completed in August and 9 of the 12 assays have been received to date.
It aimed to assess the validity of Horizon’s exploration targets by drilling a broad spread of holes to test and support the predicted thickness and grade of the geological models in the area.
The company plans to prioritise diamond infill drilling once the current program is complete and a comprehensive economic evaluation of the results is undertaken.
‘Results warrant additional drilling’
Highlighted results include 8 metres at 19.7 g/t gold from 297 metres and 6.6 metres at 10.9 g/t from 265.9 metres.
Horizon non-executive chairman Peter Harold said the company was very pleased with the results from the initial drilling program.
Harold said: “[The results] demonstrate the prospectivity of the Premium lode/Butcherbird shear.
“Given the size of the estimated exploration targets for both the Premium lode and Butcherbird shear, these results warrant additional drilling.”
Potential to increase underground resources
Horizon recently undertook a reinterpretation of the area’s geological controls on high-grade gold mineralisation.
This highlighted the potential to increase the underground mineral resources in the area with additional exploration drilling.
Following the reinterpretation, Horizon estimated exploration targets between 30,000-100,000 ounces of contained gold for the Premium lode and 270,000-800,000 ounces for the Butcherbird shear.
Assays support exploration models
In most holes the drilling intersected zones of quartz flooding with minor sulphide mineralisation at the anticipated target depths.
True widths of the quartz flood zones intersected are estimated to be up to 5 metres.
Horizon believes the assays received so far are supportive of its modelled exploration targets.