Australian Gold and Copper Ltd (ASX:AGC) has hit near-surface gold along the 15-kilometre Boxdale-Carlisle Reefs gold trend in central New South Wales.
The precious and base metal explorer drilled 15 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes covering 1,560 metres across three anomalous zones at its Moorefield Project’s Boxdale target.
Follow-up drilling will centre in on two newly identified anomalies at the asset.
Strong near-surface gold came back from 14 of those, including a robust 5-metre hit grading 4.16 g/t from 24 metres.
AGC has already received permitting for 30 new holes along the trend, with around 4,500 metres of drilling scheduled to recommence later this month.
“Aggressive forward program”
Speaking to the progress at Moorefield, AGC managing director Glen Diemar said: “These results are very exciting given we have only drilled three anomalies in a 15-kilometres gold trend.
“Our aggressive forward program includes 4,500 metres of RC drilling, further testing anomalies one to three and recently identified new anomalies, as well as extensive soil sampling to identify more anomalies as we move south to our Carlisle Reefs gold target, where we are awaiting assays from recent drilling.”
Anomaly roundup
Boxdale’s Anomaly 1 delivered strong gold results during a drill campaign in 2013, including 4 metres at 4.3 g/t gold from 120 metres.
This round of drilling aimed at extending the gold southward and multiple gold zones were intercepted, with gold grading up to 5.24 g/t.
Anomaly 2 boasts Boxdale’s highest gold in rock float samples, 8.3 g/t and 10.2 g/t gold, and hosts one previously drilled hole.
Drilling here has now intercepted broad gold in two of the drill holes and is open in every direction.
The next round of drilling will look to expand and join Anomaly 1 with Anomaly 2, a strategy underpinned by results from previous auger drilling.
Anomaly 3 also intersected strong gold — up to 6.74 g/t. This gold zone is interpreted as a southward plunging lode from near the surface.
A 300-metre southern extension has been defined in soil sampling for arsenic, as well as a new, high tenor anomaly called Anomaly 4.
Further drilling is planned to extend these results and test new soil anomalies being generated such as Anomaly 4 and 5.
Hunting for orogenic gold
AGC is out to discover orogenic gold deposits across the Moorefield project.
Essentially, this style of deposit occurs when gold has strong ties to arsenic mineralisation and the precious metal is hosted in brittle fractures in the rock.
Examples of these structures include the world-class, multi-million-ounce Victorian gold deposits — the biggest being Bendigo and Fosterville, which is operated by fellow ASX-lister Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.
Outside of Moorefield, AGC is developing its Cargelligo Copper-Gold/Base Metal Project in the southern Cobar Super-Basin, where it is exploring for Hera- and Federation-style mineralised deposits.
It’s also advancing the Gundagai Gold Project, a target prospective for multi-million-ounce McPhillamy’s-type gold deposits.