Essex Minerals Inc said its initial six-hole program of diamond and reverse circulation drilling has been completed at the Drummer Fault gold project in North Queensland, Australia.
The six holes, which totaled a combined 952 meters (m), were designed to test for continuation of surface gold mineralization below the previously mined surface (15m) oxide zone on the eastern end of the Drummer Fault within the Mt Turner project area.
Five holes were drilled under the Drummer Toy pit and one hole under the Drummer West pit.
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According to Essex, all six holes encountered favourable structure and geology, with abundant sulfides reported in logging.
Additionally, all drill holes were pre-collared with reverse circulation (RC). The first two holes were completed with approximately 100m of HQ size (63mm) diamond core each, to confirm geological structure.
While, holes four to six were completed with RC.
The collected samples have been submitted for assay in Townsville, Queensland, and will be reported when all results have been received and plotted by the Essex geological team.
"The Mt Turner project comprising the Drummer Fault gold target and the associated, but as yet untested, gold-copper-molybdenum porphyry complex represent significant exploration targets for Essex,” company president and CEO Paul Loudon said in the statement.
“We are particularly excited to be the first company to test the gold mineralization below the shallow (15 meter) Drummer Fault oxide zone and look forward to reporting assay results when they are to hand."
The program was completed on time and within budget.
Gold was mined along the Drummer Fault in the 1990s from a series of six shallow pits in the oxide zone from the Rocky Reward Pit in the west to the Drummer Toy Pit in the east, a distance of 7.5 kilometers. Each pit is at least 150 meters long and 25 to 40 meters wide.
On the financial side, Essex and KNX each own 50% of the Mt Turner property and 44% of the Cumberland and Compass Creek properties. On March 29, Essex announced that it had agreed to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares in KNX in exchange for the issuance of five million ordinary shares in Essex to the shareholders of KNX.
The agreement was subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and the listing of Essex subsidiary Optegra Capital Corporation by August 27.
As the company explained, the establishment of Optegra as a streaming and royalty company focused in the renewable energy sector remains a business priority for Essex, however the original timeline has been impacted by changing market conditions.
As such, Essex has submitted a revised offer to KNX which removes the Optegra listing pre-condition.
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