Platina Resources Ltd (ASX:PGM) (ASX: PGM) plans to undertake induced polarisation (IP) and electromagnetic (EM) programs with the intention of defining drill targets at its 100%-owned Xanadu Gold Project in Western Australia’s Ashburton province.
This survey work is in the final stages of planning and Platina anticipates it will start in the next three to four weeks.
The planned geophysical survey will target a 12-kilometre section of the Duck Creek Dolomite where it is affected by the Nanjilgardy fault zone and its splays.
“Assembling solid understanding”
Platina managing director Corey Nolan said the company’s strong geological data set would ensure exploration and drill programs were highly targeted and cost-effective.
He said: “Together with the reprocessing of airborne magnetic data, we are assembling a solid understanding of structures and host rocks.
“Importantly, the planned geophysical surveying will help to directly detect the target gold and sulphide mineralisation at depth for drill testing,”
Xanadu Gold Project
Xanadu is in the Ashburton province about 40 kilometres south of Paraburdoo and is close to the multi-million ounces Mt Olympus gold deposit explored by ASX-listed Kalamazoo Resources Ltd (ASX:KZR).
Platina controls a ground position of 562 square kilometres with contiguous coverage along a 60 kilometres strike length of the Nanjilgardy fault and its splays and the Duck Creek Dolomite stratigraphy which is host to gold mineralisation within the project area.
Nolan said: “Xanadu has immense appeal given the number and width of economic grade gold drill intercepts which have never been followed up with a systematic exploration campaign.
“Xanadu secured a large alteration system hosted within sediments and carbonates prospective for intrusion-related gold mineralisation such as the Telfer Gold Mine (Newcrest) and the Hemi discovery (De Grey Mining).
“The project also displays strong similarities to the Carlin gold deposits in Nevada, USA.”
Project upside
The company believes that the project offers upside due to several factors including:
- A favourable regional scale structural setting, with the multi-million-ounce Mt Olympus gold deposit 7 kilometres to the east;
- Widespread gold mineralisation identified within a large and intense hydrothermal alteration system which extends for more than 10 kilometres in strike extent;
- The host lithology, the Duck Creek Dolomite, is a highly reactive rock and favourable host to the target intrusion-related and Carlin styles of gold mineralisation; and
- Immediate targets from the surface and at depth within the interpreted east plunging alteration system.
Nolan added: “Whilst we believe there is significant potential to expand upon the known oxide mineralisation, the longer-term prize is targeting primary mineralisation within the alteration core of the system which has never been tested by historical drill programs.”