Rimfire Pacific Mining NL (ASX:RIM) has returned an 86-metre gold hit grading 0.63 g/t in diamond drilling at Transit prospect within the Golden Plains Resources (GPR) earn-in area of the Fifield Project in central NSW.
The partners recently set out to further explore the gold prospect by drilling diamond hole Fi2080, testing for deeper extensions to gold mineralisation after completing a reverse circulation (RC) drill hole in the same area.
Promisingly, the diamond hole extends the prospect’s anomalous gold geochemistry zone to 107 metres in downhole depth.
Moving forward, Rimfire and GPR intend to conduct further drilling at the Transit prospect to test for mineralisation extensions.
Broadly, the gold and copper explorer is working to realise the potential within its largely contiguous tenement package, which spans 915 square kilometres across New South Wales’ prolific East Lachlan Fold Belt.
At the 103-square-kilometre Fifield project, the company is working alongside GPR, which has the opportunity to earn a 50.1% interest in the joint venture area under a $4.5 million earn-in agreement.
Results support ongoing potential
Ultimately, drilling at Transit indicates there is potential to extend mineralisation along strike of existing intersections, down-dip of current drilling and into an undrilled area.
Speaking to the diamond drill results, Rimfire managing director Craig Riley said: “These recent results support the ongoing potential for further mineralisation at the Fifield Project within close proximity to the Sorpresa discovery and previously reported JORC resource.”
Specifically, Rimfire’s latest diamond drill hole at Transit intersected 86 metres at 0.63 g/t gold from 21 metres, including 9 metres at 1.72 g/t from 21 metres and 4 metres at 1.48 g/t gold from 98 metres.
It was collared close to reverse circulation hole Fi2072, which returned a 55-metre intercept grading 0.94 g/t gold from 6 metres in late February and drilled in the same orientation in a bid to extend Transit’s gold geochemistry zone.
Drill holes overlayed on auger geochemistry.
Diamond hole deepens understanding
According to the company, the new drill hole has better shaped its understanding of the prospect’s geological features, such as its lithology and structure.
One of the key insights from the diamond hole was the identification of a broad halo of elevated gold geochemistry within a strongly sheared, quartz-veined carbonaceous siltstone host rock, where the highest grades appear to lie within steep structurally controlled breccias.
Rimfire also recognised that mineralisation roughly trends from the northeast to the southwest, bordering a magnetic high (intrusive rock). This means there is potential for an additional extension of mineralisation along this structural trend.
The Fifield Project’s broader program at Transit has also identified a zone of significant elevated gold geochemistry coincident with surface soil and auger bedrock samples approximately 150 metres to the northeast.
To date, only a small area of surface anomalism has been tested with a range of auger, reverse circulation and diamond drilling.
As a result, the broad zone of anomalous geochemistry may represent a significant intrusion-related gold system (IRGS) deposit-style opportunity for Rimfire.
What’s next?
So far, six of the eight drill holes at the Transit prospect — testing the highest surface gold anomalism zone — have intersected significant gold zones.
Moving forward, the company intends to step out and test the prospect’s proximal surface anomalies and the interpreted structural trend.
In the meantime, Rimfire has obtained the regulatory and landowner approvals to move into the next phase of drilling at Transit. At present, however, wet ground conditions and drilling equipment availability have delayed the start of this program.