Astro Resources NL (ASX:ARO)’s drilling campaign at the Needles Gold Project in Nevada, USA, has wound up with a fourth drill hole designed to test for possible gold mineralisation within a subsidiary geophysical anomaly.
The company recently tested the main anomaly with diamond drilling.
Pyrite intersected
The current interpretation of one of the holes in question (21ND_004A) is that from surface to 248 metres it drilled through propylitically altered dacitic tuffs and a feldspathic latite with minor to 2% pyrite.
From there to the end of the hole (407 metres), drilling intersected andesite generally containing up to 3% pyrite with zones up to 10% locally, usually in silica and carbonate veins, similar to the andesites intersected in previous Astro holes.
Alteration is generally weak to strongly propylitic with occasional silicification.
Pyrite veined andesite found in 21ND_004A.
The level of pyrite in the hole and in particular the andesites is consistent with the outlying DC/IP chargeability anomaly but, until assays are received, the company cannot determine if there is gold mineralisation within the target zone.
Assay results pending
The company awaits assay results from drill hole 21ND_003. The top part of 21ND_004A is being cut and prepared for analysis while remaining core from this hole has just been delivered to the laboratory in Arizona for cutting.
The rig and support equipment are being moved off-site now that the 2021-22 drilling program is complete.
About the Needles Gold Project
The Needles Gold Project, in the US state of Nevada, is around 100 kilometres southeast of the 15-million-ounce Kinross' Round Mountain open cut gold mine, considered one of the world’s largest epithermal, low-sulphidation, volcanic-hosted gold deposits.
Nevada is considered to be a gold hotspot, having produced more than 215 million ounces since 1835.
The Needles project was historically mined for epithermal gold and silver mineralisation in the early 1900s and geophysical exploration has since identified the potential to host an orebody of similar size and structure to Round Mountain deposit.
Astro has been involved in drilling activity since October 2021 on four planned holes at the site, with a view to reviewing and confirming the geophysical work done in January last year.
The 2022 program included four holes to a notional depth of 500 metres (consisting of reverse circulation (RC) pre-collared holes to 200 metres and diamond tails to total depth), and two holes per section in a configuration and direction similar to holes one and two of the initial drilling program.