Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR) has intersected shallow gold during a combined diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drill program at the Hilditch Gold Project in Western Australia.
The company’s first-pass drilling expands the Hilditch mineralised envelope increasing target priority and providing high potential for a material increase in gold resources.
Maximus’ 16-hole drill program across 2,200 metres has defined shallow zones of broad gold mineralisation which includes:
- 7 metres at 7.9 g/t gold from 51 metres, including 2 metres at 16.9 g/t from 52 metres;
- 7 metres at 3.7 g/t from 11 metres, including 1-metre at 18.6 g/t from 16 metres; and
- 6 metres at 3.4 g/t from 30 metres, including 2 metres at 8.1 g/t from 34 metres
Looking ahead, the completed drill program greatly improves the prospectivity of the Hilditch Gold Project and provides context for planning future exploration programs.
“Highly prospective”
Maximus managing director Tim Wither said: “These drill results deliver a very encouraging first pass at Hilditch, one of highly prospective gold deposits in the company’s Spargoville tenements.
Hilditch is ideally located on the fertile Spargoville Shear Zone, between Karora Resources’ high-grade Spargo's Reward and Maximus’ Wattle Dam Gold Project.
“The drill program successfully expands Hilditch’s mineralised envelope, testing both plunge at depth and strike length, and builds confidence further drilling is warranted.
“These results greatly increase the priority of Hilditch in the company’s focus on growing gold resources across the Spargoville tenements."
Drill program
In total, 15 RC holes across 1,852 metres and one diamond drill hole for 301 metres were drilled at the Hilditch Gold Project.
The aim of the first pass drill program was to incrementally extend the small resource at Hilditch.
Local geology at the Hilditch Project includes a sequence of felsic volcaniclastic rocks characterised by weak to moderate fuchsite alteration, pegmatite intrusives and mafic and ultramafic lithologies.
Minor interflow sediments are observed within a mafic and ultramafic sequence, similar to that observed at the company’s Wattle Dam Gold Project ~9 kilometres south along the Spargoville Shear zone.
Gold mineralisation at Hilditch is interpreted to be associated with a structurally controlled contact between mafic/ultramafic and volcaniclastic units.
Drill results from the current program confirm legacy interpretation with significant gold intersections such as 2 metres at 8.1 g/t gold occurring adjacent to the interflow sediment and ultramafic contact.
Drilling also intersected an observed zone of disseminated sulphides which was assayed for multi-elements and returned 11 metres at 0.4 % nickel from 164 metres.
Forward plan
Additional interpretation of the Hilditch assay results, in conjunction with higher resolution magnetic data, is being undertaken for the planning of future drill programs to expand the resource at Hilditch.
The company is finalising approvals for an upcoming reverse circulation campaign at the Wattle Dam Project, targeting the Wattle Dam/Golden Orb corridor, and additional drilling to test the potential of a discrete high-grade shoot at Golden Orb.
The company has also begun the Wattle Dam-Redback gold deposit mineral resource estimate update, aimed at increasing the mineral resource and defining high-grade domains within the Redback mineralisation system.