Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R)’s reverse circulation (RC) drilling has confirmed that local geology of the Marylebone target closely follows the geological sequence at the Paddington gold deposit, around 10 kilometres along strike to the northwest.
With the similarities between Marylebone and the Paddington deposit, the company remains confident about the opportunity for a new gold discovery at Gidji, including at Marylebone.
Miramar, which has been actively exploring at Gidji since October 2020, believes there is potential for the discovery of one or more significant new gold deposits within its strategic 60-square-kilometre land package, 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie.
“Right rocks, the right structures”
Miramar executive chairman Allan Kelly said that given the many similarities between Marylebone and the Paddington deposit, the company remained confident about the opportunity for a new gold discovery at Gidji, including at Marylebone.
“At Marylebone, we have the right rocks, the right structures and lots of smoke in the form of aircore gold and pathfinder anomalism.
“Our task is to find the source of that smoke as cost-effectively as possible.
“In addition to Marylebone, we have also identified many other drill targets at Gidji including Blackfriars, Highway, Boorara North and The Jog, and look forward to systematically testing each of these.
Awaiting results
Miramar is waiting on a substantial number of assay results from the extensive 10,000-metre aircore programme completed in December 2021.
Marylebone drilling
In the meantime, the company completed a number of RC holes over the Marylebone target, aimed at seeking information about the bedrock geology of the Marylebone target.
The main component of the programme was a “fence” of 50 metre-spaced RC holes drilled across the Boorara Shear Zone in the centre of the Marylebone target.
The Boorara Shear Zone appears as a zone of deeper weathering, and more abundant quartz veining, between holes GJRC012 and GJRC009.
The gap between GJRC009 and GJRC011 is due to a pipeline.
Drilling intersected porphyritic basalt, equivalent to either the “Paddington Volcanics” or the “Victorious Basalt”, and a sequence of sedimentary and ultramafic rocks within the wider shear zone.
Gold assays have been received and, while they repeat the supergene gold anomalism seen in the aircore drilling, they did not intersect significant bedrock gold mineralisation on this cross-section.
It appears both the Panglo Mafic and Paddington Dolerite mafic intrusive units are present, with GJRC008 intersecting 3 metres at 1.16 g/t gold directly above the Panglo unit, and quartz veining present at the contact between the interpreted Paddington Dolerite and the interpreted Mt Corlac Ultramafics.
Miramar is waiting on multi-element results for this drilling, including pathfinder elements such as silver, arsenic and tungsten, which, along with the outstanding aircore assays, will assist in further understanding the bedrock geology and help focus in on the bedrock source of the extensive regolith gold footprint.
Blackfriars and Highway
Miramar is finalising plans for aircore drilling over the large Blackfriars and Highway targets parallel to the Marylebone target.
Drilling at Blackfriars will infill a 1 kilometre long +1 g/t aircore gold anomaly at the contact between the Black Flag Beds and the porphyritic basalt, similar to Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX:ARL)’s recent “Aphrodite North” gold discovery.
The drilling at Highway will test the kilometre-long historic auger gold and arsenic anomaly for the first time.
The programme is expected to commence in early April and take around three weeks to complete.
Boorara North
A drone magnetic survey is planned over the 4 kilometre-long Boorara North target, which is due to be completed within the next two weeks.
The data will be used to refine the first pass aircore drilling of this target following receipt of all approvals.
The Jog
Results of modelling of geophysical data over The Jog target, at the southern end of the Gidji JV Project, have been received.
The Jog target has never been drilled. The model, constructed by Core Geophysics from open file gravity data, shows a 3.5mgal anomaly caused by a dense body around 1 kilometre x 600 metres in size and coming to within 150 metres of the surface.
Miramar will submit an EIS application to test this target with a series of RC and/or diamond holes.
Gidji JV Project
The Gidji JV Project, about 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, is close to a number of gold mining and processing operations.
Miramar purchased an 80% interest in a number of tenements along the Boorara Shear Zone, as part of the October 2020 IPO and ASX listing.
It has been actively exploring the project, resulting in the discovery of several new targets including the Marylebone target, which has similar geology, structure and scale to the nearby Paddington deposit.