King River Resources Ltd’s (ASX:KRR) reconnaissance exploration at Kurundi Project in the Tennant Creek/Davenport region of the Northern Territory has returned high-grade gold, silver and copper rock chip samples.
There were 80 grab samples taken from newly granted exploration licences EL32199 and EL32200.
Results were very encouraging with high-grade gold results from multiple locations including:
- 16.05 g/t gold, 141 parts per million silver and 6.4% copper from veining at the main Kurundi workings;
- 13.55 g/t gold, 124ppm silver and 0.37% copper from veining over 100 metres SE of the main Kurundi workings;
- 17.25 g/t gold and 115ppm silver from veining 700 metres NW of the Kurundi workings; and
- 16.25 g/t gold, 138 ppm silver and 0.18% copper from veining 700 metres NW of the Kurundi workings.
Kurundi results
KRR’s new EL32200 tenement, Kurundi, covers part of the Kurundi Anticline and includes the main Kurundi historic workings where historic rock chip sampling returned +5 g/t gold and copper values up to 9.7%.
Reconnaissance of the workings revealed a NW-SE trend to the vein mostly obscured by shallow cover with grab samples returning strong gold values along an interpreted 2-kilometre strike.
An estimated 25-75 kilograms of gold were mined from historic workings in the Kurundi Goldfield, according to Results NTGS.
The area has never been drilled with previous exploration limited to minor rock chip sampling and prospecting.
Edmerringee results
Mapping and sampling of the EL32199, Edmerringee, area have identified multiple veins sub-cropping from under large areas of alluvial cover with three of the veins returning +0.1 g/t gold and results of up to 2.47g/t gold, 4.7% copper and 0.16% bismuth.
Mapping showed that the main Whistle Duck prospect is on a broad NW trending vein, with +0.1 g/t gold results returned along a strike of 155 metres.
There has been no other historic exploration at this prospect other than rock chip sampling at the main historic digging.
Davidsons area
The northern part of EL32199 covers Warramunga Formation rocks and includes the Davidson gold prospect.
Reconnaissance of this prospect located the historic diggings but the strike of the mineralised structure was not evident due to alluvial cover and historical scrapings.
Mineralisation was in quartz hematite rocks with the best results of 2.74 g/t gold with 0.13% bismuth and 10% iron.
The elevated iron, copper and bismuth values suggest possible similarities with the main Tennant Creek iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation.
Tennant Creek holdings
The company holds 7,900 square kilometres in 16 tenements in the Tennant Creek region around the Tennant Creek, Rover and Kurundi goldfields, covering four main project areas: Tennant Creek East, Tennant East/Barkley, Rover East and Kurundi.
The Tennant Creek and Rover goldfields are hosts to high-grade IOCG deposits with more than 5.5 million ounces of gold mined from Tennant Creek and a resource of 1.2 million ounces of gold estimated in 2010 at Rover.
Recent drilling by Castile Resources Ltd (ASX:CST) at Rover returned impressive results of 30.4 metres at 35.6 g/t gold.
The Treasure Creek holdings cover areas along strike of both the Tennant Creek and Rover goldfields with areas of similar stratigraphic and structural settings.
Past exploration in these project areas has been brief, sporadic and disjointed, with many areas under shallow Cambrian cover restricting exploration by historic explorers and preventing discovery.
Next steps
The company plans to continue exploration in the region during the first half of 2021 including reconnaissance at the Kurundi Project and surrounding tenements, soil sampling in the areas around Edmirringee and Whistle Duck, ground magnetics and gravity on EL31619 and further airborne magnetics in the Barkley region.
Work in the first half of the year will be in preparation for the drilling of the best targets later in the year.