Mt Ida And Bottle Creek Exploration Update
Canberra, Feb 25, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - ALT Resources Limited (
ASX:ARS) is pleased to provide the following exploration update for operations at its Mt Ida and Bottle Creek Gold Projects (the Project) incorporating the Bottle Creek, Quinn's and Mt Ida South project areas, located 90km north-west of Menzies in Western Australia's Northern Goldfields.
Alt has commenced a 3,500 metre RC drilling program on Friday 21st February 2020, at the Mt Ida Project with drilling currently underway. The Company has elected to fast track exploration drilling with Challenge Drilling mobilising an RC rig to site on the 20th February.
The Company will be drilling several deposits and new prospect areas during this current program of RC drilling, including the Single Fin prospect which is south and along strike from the Boags open pit at Bottle Creek. Additional drilling will be undertaken at the Shepherds Bush deposit and the newly acquired White Eagle prospect recently purchased from Mr Bruce Legendre and announced to the market on 18th December 2019.
Alt technical staff have spent several months reviewing historical data from work undertaken by Hamill Resources Ltd, Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) and La Mancha. The stratigraphy, structure and mineralisation relating to Ora Banda Mining Ltd's (ASX:OBM) historical Timoni gold mine and the Timoni Mineralised Trend (TMT) have also been reviewed.
MT IDA PROJECT, TIMONI MINERALISED TREND
The TMT area is located approximately 6 kilometres north-east of the Bottle Creek mining leases (Figure 2*). The Company's Mt Ida tenements cover significant parts of the TMT, surrounding Ora Banda Mining's lease M29/2 and M29/165 which contains the historic Timoni underground gold mine and a current contained JORC 2004 Indicated and Inferred resource of 320,000t at 13.8g/t Au for 140,000oz Au.
The TMT is considered to be highly prospective for high grade gold mineralisation. Known deposit styles include high grade shear/vein hosted gold and base metal sulphides. Historically over 300,000 ounces of high-grade gold has been mined from the various mines in the Copperfield/Mt Ida area. Numerous brownfields exploration opportunities are present with the potential to make many potential new discoveries.
The TMT is a structure located adjacent to the western margin of the Copperfield Granite, and sits to the east of, and parallel to, the Bottle Creek Trend. The structure hosts the Copperfield Mining Centre. Mineralisation along the TMT generally comprises narrow, high grade quartz veins hosted predominantly by mafic volcanics (amphibolites), ultramafic intrusions and anorthosite. Gold mineralisation is primarily associated with NW-SE striking shear zones, that contain mineralised lenticular quartz veins. Mineralisation is observed in the form of free gold, pyrite, pyrrhotite, galena and minor amounts of chalcopyrite and sphalerite, hosted within a strongly developed carbonate-biotite wall rock alteration envelope.
The Ballard Shear zone is located in the east of the Mt Ida area and is interpreted to be the northern continuation of the Zuleika Shear. The Ballard shear hosts the Company's Quinn's, Tim's Find, Spotted Dog and the newly discovered Shepherds Bush deposits. The Ballard Fault is noted by a series of shear zones, trending north-south transecting the eastern portion of the Mt Ida area and is approximately conformable to stratigraphy.
The Ballard Shear transects a series of mafic and ultramafic flows with associated interflow sediments. Conformable dolerites and gabbros dominate, with lesser occurrences of pegmatite and aplite intrusions. The shear zone is observed at surface as an outcropping chert unit. Drilling in the Ballard shear zone has intersected silicified sediments, iron rich rocks, graphitic shales and calcareous schists with abundant sulphides. Gold mineralisation at surface is commonly seen in gossans and hosted in pyrite, arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite bearing quartz veinlets within the shear.
In the Mt Ida area, a folded greenstone belt forms a southerly plunging antiform, called the Kurrajong Anticline and the Copperfield Granite occurs within it's fold axis. The anticline is interpreted to be an isoclinal fold plunging at a low angle to the south. The fold has been overturned to the east-north east. This model is supported by the sub-vertical dips measured on the eastern Mt Ida limb and western Timoni/Bottle Creek limb. In the NE of the Mt Ida area folding is interpreted to be recumbent. Strong mineral lineations plunging to the south have been measured, this is indicative of a compressional environment and further support the proposed geological model in this area.
TMT EXPLORATION DRILLING
The company has delivered several priority drilling targets for the Mt Ida TMT. These targets have been generated by an in-depth review of all available historical data, including geophysics, structural works, geological findings and geochemical analysis.
Alt considers the TMT which incorporates several of the historically mined Timoni lodes, the TMT may extend into the Company's tenements to the south east and adjacent to the old Timoni mine. Based on the review of all available historical data the Company has delivered several priority drilling targets for the Mt Ida TMT, based on multi layered magnetic, structural, geological and geochemical results. Figures 4 and 5* provide more detail of the Company's recent review of the historical data and interpretation). The Company intends to test several of these projected load extensions with RC drilling.
TIMONI MINERALISED LODES
Historical loads of interest adjacent to Alt's tenement boundaries and within target areas generated by the Company over the past few months include the Unexpected, Federation, and Baldock lodes.
Dave and Baldock Lodes
The Dave Lode was discovered during the early development years of the Copperfield camp (Raymond, 1898). The Baldock Shoot is located to the south of the Whinnen lode towards Alt's tenement E29/0921. The upper extent of the Baldock shoot is ~100m deeper than the Whinnen Shoot, it is interpreted to gently plunge to the north and remains open at depth. A common feature of the Dave, Whinnen and Baldock Lodes are there composite natures, with as many as five distinct mineralised horizons intersected in historical drilling. Only one of these horizons has consistently returned economic values and is a marker for mineralisation, it hosts both the minearalised zones of the Whinnen and Baldock Shoots and these zones range in width from 1-4m.
The Unexpected Lode
The Unexpected load dips steeply to the west, it is hosted in a NW-SE striking ultramafic package of rocks and is situated towards the southern end of the Timoni mine area (See Figure 3*). Historic production records found in the Swan Gold Prospectus dated 11th August 2014 suggest that Unexpected produced 17,666oz Au @ 50.1g/t Au.
The highly magnetic character of the Unexpected ultramafic means that it can be traced on aeromagnetic images. High grade mineralisation was historically mined from lenticular quartz veins within the talc-chlorite schist (part of the ultramafic package). The lode correlates with a thickening of the ultramafic package, which may reflect its proximity to the hinge of the Timoni Anticline. Earlier reports (Finucane 1963) suggest the ultramafic increases in thickness to the South. The strike of the ultramafic where it hosts mineralisation is 330deg although, in the vicinity of the Main shaft, the trace of the lode is approximately north-south. High grade mineralisation was found in lenticular quartz veins within the talc-chlorite schist. The lode dips steeply to the west.
The Federation Lode
The Federation (Fred) lode is also hosted by Timoni amphibolite, some 300m west of the Timoni lode. Historic production records found in the Swan Gold Prospectus dated 11th August 2014 suggest that Federation mine produced 4,997oz Au @ 70.3g/t Au5.
Sparse historical data indicates that the nature of the structure is similar to the Timoni lode, although the host rocks are recorded as being less foliated. Historical sections of the mine development highlight the high-grade shoots plunging ~60SW within the lode.
*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/F3J6M205
About Aurenne Alt Resources Pty Ltd
Aurenne Alt Resources Pty Ltd is an Australian based mineral exploration company that aims to become a gold producer by exploiting historical and new gold prospects across quality assets and to build value for shareholders.
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