Rimfire Pacific Mining NL (ASX:RIM) is planning a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program to test the potential for gold mineralisation in bedrock at Northern Gold prospect within the wider Fifield project in western New South Wales.
There is an extensive area of shallow historical gold workings covering 350 metres by 80 metres strike length in what is interpreted as a gravel-filled poorly formed valley.
Encouraging results
Following an initial auger drilling program, which was completed to test the valley fill and underlying insitu geology, results indicated anomalous gold within the weathered bedrock below the gravels.
The degree of weathering is high which creates the potential for gold depletion near the surface.
One 36-metre deep aircore hole was also completed, which supports an interpretation of easterly dipping geology.
READ: Rimfire Pacific completes aircore and auger drilling around Sorpresa resource at Fifield
The weathered bedrock samples indicate that the host rocks are not black silica lithology as at the Sorpresa deposit.
More work is required to understand controls of what may be a related but different mineralisation setting to Sorpresa.
Rimfire managing director Craig Riley said: “The recent work at the Northern Gold prospect confirms the prospectivity of this plus-350-metre strike length zone of historical mining pits for coarse gold.
“It is exciting to have such quality targets which have never had a single drill hole to test the bedrock zones below these surficial workings.
“To think that the deposit style could be something different to Sorpresa while being in such close proximity to the existing gold mineralisation at Sorpresa means positive results could substantially change the potential monetisation pathways for Sopresa.”
The company is excited by the upside potential of the drilling as no RC or diamond drilling of bedrock has been undertaken in the vicinity of the extensive surface workings.