Rockfire Resources PLC (LON:ROCK) has garnered a deeper understanding of an alluvial gold deposit next one of its key assets in Queensland, Australia.
But the company admits more work is required to find the hard rock source of the precious metal.
Rockfire’s Kookaburra tenement rings the firm’s Lighthouse property. Its technical team has sifted through historic trenching and bulk sampling data on an area called the Brigalow Alluvial Goldfield.
Calculations made in 1986 suggested there were 387,000 loose cubic metres of alluvial ore grading 0.42 grams per cubic metre, giving a total of 5,286 ounces of gold.
Wider area of gold?
The mapped limits of potholing and shafting activity on the wider Kookaburra site suggest the area could be host to up to 3.9mln loose cubic metres of material or 31-43,000 ounces of gold based on grades of 0.25-0.35 grams. These sort of deposits are economic as low as 0.2 grams per cubic metre.
Alluvial gold tends to be found in the soil of former river beds or streams.
Historic reports suggest the Brigalow gold may emanate from nearby reefs, as angular fragments of specimen gold were often recovered.
Hard rock targets
This, Rockfire said, highlights the potential for hard-rock targets in the immediate vicinity of the alluvium, including directly beneath, as well as up-stream from the goldfield.
"Management acknowledges that alluvial gold deposits are notoriously difficult to sample and estimate,” said chief executive David Price.
“The company will capitalise on the presence of such large quantities of alluvial gold by exploring the headwaters of these gold-bearing streams, as well as directly beneath the alluvium for primary, hard-rock gold deposits."
But Price said the company’s primary focus remained on its gold prospects called Double Event and Plateau, as well as the Copperhead porphyry copper project.