PNX Metals Ltd (ASX:PNX) has intersected extensive gold mineralisation in an initial drilling program at the Cookies Corner prospect within its wider Burnside exploration project.
The 16-hole, 1,100-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program aimed to identify the source of a 1-kilometre-long gold-in-soil anomaly with surface rock chips grading 28.7 g/t gold.
All holes intersected gold mineralisation associated with quartz-sulphide veins along the target structure and several holes ended in mineralisation and will be extended with further RC drilling.
The Burnside project is in the Pine Creek region of the Northern Territory, an area which has produced over 3.2 million ounces of gold, and less than 30 kilometres from PNX’s Hayes Creek Zinc-Gold-Silver Project.
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Highlighted result intersected over a continuous 500-metre strike include: 20 metres at 1.93 g/t from 12 metres, including 8 metres at 4.29 g/t from 12 metres; and 6 metres at 3.72 g/t from 71 metres.
PNX managing director James Fox said: “There is compelling data to support the prospect of a new gold camp within the northwest corner of the Burnside project, which adds to a number of significant gold systems already identified by PNX in the NT.
“The success of this program at Cookies Corner, which is still in its early stages, gives us a new level of confidence regarding the other numerous soil anomalies within our NT tenements that are either untested or have received virtually no exploration for decades.”
PNX's Northern Territory project locations
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Cookies Corner is one of a cluster of gold targets in the northwest of Burnside at the convergence of two major gold-producing structural corridors – the Howley anticline, host to Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd’s (TSX:KGI) Cosmo Gold Mine, and the Pine Creek shear zone.
Higher gold grades generally occur in the fresh rock below the base of oxidation at a vertical depth of about 25 metres, with the mineralisation open in all directions.
The initial drilling was designed only to test a portion of the large geochemical anomaly at Cookies Corner, but the strong results have prompted PNX to plan a follow-up program.
The anomaly is directly analogous to that observed at the historic Goodall Mine located 4 kilometres to the southwest.
Goodall was discovered with geochemical sampling in 1981 and produced an average of 41,5000 ounces of gold a year from 1988 to 1993.
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Drilling at Cookies Corner is part of a broader exploration campaign PNX is conducting on its NT projects, aimed at defining additional resources that can either supplement the Hayes Creek project or support the development of a stand-alone mining operation.
PNX holds a 51% interest – excluding uranium – in the Burnside project which comprises 16 tenements covering 940 square kilometres.
The company will increase its interest in Burnside to 90% with the completion of the drill program at Cookies Corner.