Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR) has started its reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at Redback Gold Deposit of the Wattle Dam Project across the fertile Spargoville Shear Zone in Western Australia.
The company’s 900-metre RC campaign targets the shallow extents of the Redback high-grade gold shoot.
Furthermore, the shallow program is designed to support an updated mineral resource estimate and potentially define near-surface mineralisation that may be amenable to open-pit mining.
The Redback high-grade gold shoot is traced from 40 metres to 250 metres below the surface, with recent diamond drilling returning high-grade intersections that include:
- 10 metres at 4.6 g/t gold from 170 metres including 2 metres at 10.2 g/t;
- 1-metre at 18 g/t and 8 metres at 3.9 g/t from 193 metres including 3 metres at 7.9 g/t;
- 16.3 metres at 9.3 g/t from 229 metres including 5.5 metres at 6.7 g/t;
- 5.8 metres at 17.9 g/t from 240 metres including 1-metre at 48.4 g/t; and
- 6 metres at 9.4 g/t from 257 metres including 3 metres at 7.2 g/t.
High-grade resource
Redback deposit has an inferred resource of 440,000 tonnes at 3.0 g/t gold for 42,900 ounces and is about 600 metres southeast of the previously mined high-grade Wattle Dam gold mine.
Notably, the local geology at Redback is similar to Wattle Dam mine with a high component of visible gold hosted within deformed ultramafic lithologies.
Gold mineralisation at Redback has been modelled as three subparallel and near-vertical domains, with recent re-interpretations comprising well-developed eastern and western structures which are connected by linking shears or mineralised domains.
Assays in 3-5 weeks
Maximus expects the RC drilling to be completed in less than a week, with all samples being dispatched to the Kalgoorlie analytical laboratory for assaying.
The company expects the assay results for each of the drill targets to be received within 3-5 weeks after the completion of the drill program.