Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) has made a series of gold discoveries, including more than 80 gold nuggets up to 5 grams in size within a new extensive gold-in-soils anomaly at Bynoe Gold Project in the Northern Territory.
In recent weeks, soil sampling, regional mapping and reconnaissance rock chip sampling have led to the discovery of a series of new gold prospects in the northern part of the Bynoe project tenements.
Four new prospects have been identified across a 1,600-metre gold trend – Windswept, Hurricane, Congo and Far East.
These prospects link together as a series of steep-dipping, north-striking sulphide-rich and gold-bearing quartz veins hosted within silicified and sulphide-altered metasedimentary rocks of the Burrell Creek formation.
“Evidence of large-scale systems”
Core’s managing director Stephen Biggins said: “We see these recent discoveries as the most significant evidence of large-scale gold mineralising systems at play in the Bynoe Gold Project to date.
“While the area has not previously been explored for gold, it is not surprising how much gold we are finding in only our first few months of exploration, given that this region hosts over 13 million ounces of gold and has produced between 4-5 million ounces of gold.
“With Core’s three lithium resource drill rigs having successfully completed assigned work at the Finniss Lithium Project nearby, Core will now conduct its first shallow gold drilling program before year-end on these new prospects to test this large gold trend for gold mineralisation below the surface.”
Shares at two-year high
The company has a market cap of approximately $94.5 million and shares have been as much as 10% higher to 10.5 cents intra-day, a new two-year high.
Biggins said: “Whilst we keep receiving positive gold results at Bynoe, Core remains absolutely focused on delivering Finniss as the most advanced lithium project in Australia toward construction in 2021, and we are pleased to see early global signs of recovery in the sector.”
Bynoe project
Core is testing and confirming the gold prospectivity of the Bynoe project by taking advantage of the vast library of lithium exploration samples collected by the company over the past five years from the Finniss tenements.
In recent months, Core has also undertaken field investigations of more than 15 targets, including mapping, rock chip sampling and soil sampling.
The assay results from this recent fieldwork are expected over the coming weeks and months, and positive results will be followed up in due course.
The company believes it is well-positioned in terms of tenure, easy access, local expertise and gold prospectivity to progress the gold exploration potential at both the Bynoe and nearby Adelaide River Gold projects.
Results from targets
Results from the four new targets:
- Windswept – 24 g/t gold rock chips and abundant gold nuggets along with multiple quartz veins with oxides/sulphides and visible gold;
- Hurricane – 21 g/t rock chips and 5g/t in soils along with multiple quartz veins with oxides/sulphides and visible gold;
- Congo – 30 g/t rock chips and 32 g/t in soils along with multiple quartz veins with oxides/sulphides and visible gold, and gold nuggets; and
- Far East, 14 g/t rock chips and 12 g/t in soils along with multiple thick quartz veins with oxides/sulphides and visible gold.
Sampling details
More than 80 nuggets measuring at up to 5 grams have been recovered by detecting work carried out by the Core field team.
The nuggety nature of the gold at the four prospects is highlighted by variable gold grades over the extent of the sampling grid, especially in the smaller -5mm soil samples.
To overcome the nugget effect, gold grades of the soil samples have been averaged for all repeats carried out.
Core has also re-sampled 20 of the poor-repeating sites using much larger samples and a more appropriate preparation technique for nuggety gold.
RAB drilling
Core is undertaking a shallow RAB (hammer) drilling program covering the entire strike extent of the gold anomaly and all four prospects.
This is designed to establish the continuity and tenor of gold mineralisation into the subsurface, the geometry of quartz veins and the relationship between gold mineralisation styles and rock type.
Holes are being drilled to provide sufficient across-strike coverage along east-west lines 200 metres apart to assess these factors before potential targeted deep drilling in the new year.