Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report
Perth, Jan 29, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Dacian Gold Limited (
ASX:DCN) report that the exploration work completed in the December Quarter within Dacian's 100% owned Mt Morgans Project included the drilling of four diamond drill holes for 2,257m at the Westralia prospect and 14 diamond drill holes for 5,093m of drilling at the Jupiter prospect. Prospect locations are shown in Figure 1 in link below.
The drilling at Westralia consisted initially of three broad spaced infill diamond holes in the high grade Millionaires Shoot. All holes intersected resource grade mineralisation including 4m at 21.9g/t in 13MMRD021. Following the infill drilling, an updated Mineral resource estimate was completed for the Westralia deposit resulting in a 68% increase in ounces (from 364,000oz to 610,000oz) and a 74% increase in grade (from 3.4g/t to 5.9g/t).
The increase resource at Westralia has taken the overall Mt Morgans project inventory to 1.17Moz at a grade of 4.0g/t (from 0.92Moz at 3.1g/t).
Following the Westralia resource upgrade, Dacian completed a step-out diamond drill hole 100m north of the Millionaires Shoot resource boundary and intersected 11.3m @ 5.5g/t.
At the Jupiter prospect, the 14 diamond drill holes completed during the quarter continued the broad spaced testing of the 2km long structural corridor as well as selected holes being drilled to follow up the high grade mineralisation intersected previously in the Heffernan's syenite.
Numerous intersections were returned that support Dacian's view that a large mineralised system is present at Jupiter. The geology and style of mineralisation defined at Jupiter is analogous to that seen at the nearby >7Moz Wallaby deposit.
Westralia Drilling
Gold mineralisation at Westralia occurs within a well-defined banded iron formation (BIF) horizon from which approximately 900koz was produced up to 1998. Gold mineralisation is associated with pyrrhotite and pyrite replacement of magnetite within zones of silica and albite alteration of the BIF. Previous mining at the deposit has demonstrated that the gold is free milling with good recoveries achieved historically from conventional CIL processing.
Sparse drilling beneath the southern end of the Westralia pit carried out during the 1990s had returned high grade gold intersections within an area measuring 1,000m along strike and 600m down-dip. Drilling by Dacian in this area in 2013 intersected high grade gold mineralisation which is interpreted to form a steep south plunging shoot termed the Millionaires Shoot.
The deposit, including all Dacian intersections is shown in Figure 2. Cross sections through the deposit are shown in Figure 3 to Figure 6. The true thickness of the intersections is interpreted to be 60-90% of the down hole interval.
During the December Quarter, four holes were drilled at Westralia. Three of those were within the Millionaires Shoot (highlighted in Figure 2). The holes within the Millionaires shoot include:
- 13MMRD021 4.0m @ 21.9g/t Au from 490m
including 1.0m @ 48.8g/t from 493m
- 13MMRD020 4.6m @ 4.2g/t Au from 519m
- 13MMRD022 5.0m @ 1.8g/t Au from 468.8m
The results from the latest drilling support the interpretation of good continuity of high grade gold mineralisation within a highly continuous BIF sequence. The results were incorporated into the updated Mineral Resource estimate which was completed in December 2013.
A fourth drill hole (13MMRD026) was drilled approximately 100m along strike to the north of the Millionaires Shoot and intersected high grade gold mineralisation outside of the Mineral Resource boundary. This drill hole returned results (not previously reported) including:
- 13MMRD026 11.3m @ 5.5g/t Au from 417.7m
including 1.5m @ 11.2g/t from 417.7m
and including 3.1m @ 9.2g/t from 421.8m
and including 2.0m @ 8.3g/t Au from 427m
The results from 13MMRD026 suggest that further high grade additions to the Mineral Resource are likely with additional drilling. Pre-collars have been drilled for three more holes to scope out the potential of this area and diamond drilling will resume in the March Quarter.
Westralia Mineral Resource
An update of the Westralia resource estimate was prepared in December 2013 by consultants RungePincockMinarco Limited (RPM) in accordance with the guidelines of the JORC Code (2012 edition). The estimate was reported in detail in the 19 December 2013 ASX Release entitled "Increase in Westralia resource to 610,000oz lifts Mt Morgans project to over 1 million ounces."
A summary of the Mineral Resource is shown in Table 1 in link below. The resource limits are shown in Figure 2, also in link below.
The deposit has been delineated in the upper levels by face sampling of development drives, underground diamond drilling and surface diamond drilling and minor RC drilling. The deeper portion of the deposit has been delineated by surface diamond drilling. The geological interpretation has defined a highly continuous hangingwall BIF horizon which hosts the majority of the gold mineralisation. Additional footwall mineralisation is also present in a number of areas, with typically less than 10m separation from the hangingwall zone. The footwall zones frequently comprise high grade mineralised zones (such as the intersection of 17.08m @ 7.5g/t in 13MMRD003 in Figure 5 in link below).
The increase in grade and ounces in the updated Mineral Resource is primarily due to the inclusion for the first time of the Millionaires Shoot which has been largely defined by Dacian diamond drilling from 2013. The Millionaires Shoot resource includes hangingwall zone mineralisation only. High grade footwall zones parallel to the Millionaires Shoot has been report in the Westralia Other Zones in Table 1.
The previous resource of 364,000oz was reported using a 0.5g/t lower cut-off grade. The new estimate of 610,000oz has been reported at a 2.0g/t cut-off grade due to any foreseeable development being limited to underground mining. This has resulted in a loss of tonnes and ounces in the previously defined portion of the resource (Westralia Other Zones in Table 1 in link below).
Jupiter Prospect
Gold mineralisation at Jupiter occurs over a 2km long corridor and is associated with a series of syenite intrusions as well as gently dipping, structurally controlled zones within the surrounding basalt. The geology and style of mineralisation is analogous to that seen at the nearby >7Moz Wallaby deposit located 8km SE of the Jupiter prospect. The broadly north-south Jupiter Corridor (Figure 7) contains a series of mineralised syenite pipes defined by shallow historic drilling.
The northern portion of the corridor is defined by the historic Jupiter open pit where previous mine production together with the current Mineral Resource represent an endowment of approximately 300,000oz to a depth of only 150m below surface.
Dacian's objective from the initial broad spaced drilling at Jupiter was to outline the structural framework and broad geology of the 2km long Jupiter Corridor. In addition, the program was designed to test the potential of the prospect for the flat-lying, extensive high grade lodes like those mined at the Wallaby deposit.
Three broad target areas have been drilled at the Jupiter prospect and are outlined in Figure 7 in link below.
These include the Heffernan's Zone to the south, the Link Zone basalt hosted shear along strike to the north, and extensions to the known mineralisation adjacent to and beneath the Jupiter open pit.
Heffernan's Zone
Results from drilling at the Heffernan's Zone have been highly encouraging with a high grade "Wallaby style" structure intersected in five holes in syenite. The mineralisation is located 1,000m south of the existing 73,000oz Mineral Resource and the Jupiter pit where similar style lode structures were mined in the 1990s. The drilling was successful in defining high grade gold mineralisation and importantly, these results are not part of any resource estimate. Better results include:
- 13JUDD018 17.2m @ 4.8g/t Au from 160m (main lode)
including 3.3m @ 17.1g/t from 169.7m
and 3.7m @ 5.8g/t from 147m (hangingwall lode)
- 13JUDD007 6.9m @ 8.3g/t Au from 154.1m within 26m @ 3.0g/t
- 13JURD006 6.1m @ 4.8g/t Au from 166.9m within16.8m @ 2.1g/t
- 13JURD023 15.2m @ 3.0g/t Au from 206.8m (not previously reported)
- 13JURD019 6.2m @ 3.2g/t Au from 118.3m
The intersections are shown in plan view in Figure 7 and on cross section in Figure 8 and Figure 9 and listed in detail in Table 2. The high grade zones are interpreted to form gently dipping lode structures developed within or at the contact of the syenite intrusion. The zone remains open up-plunge in the syenite as seen on section 6812160N (Figure 9). In this area, the syenite body trends east-west forming a large target area for the up-dip extension of the mineralised zones intersected in holes 13JUDD006 and 13JUDD023.
Link Zone Shear
North of the Heffernan's Zone and south of the open pit, sparse historic drilling has defined a well mineralised basalt hosted shear zone over a strike length of 500m (Figure 7). Dacian completed two holes in this zone and intersected zones of gold mineralisation. Results include:
- 13JURD010 10.8m @ 2.1g/t Au from 47.2m (incl 4.6m @ 4.2g/t)
- 13JURD012 26.9m @ 0.5g/t from 137.9m
Jupiter Pit Area
The third drilling target for the Quarter was to test the potential for mineralisation beneath the main Jupiter open pit. A single pre-collared diamond hole was drilled from the eastern rim of the pit (hole 13JURD017 on Figure 7) and intersected extensive zones of gold mineralisation within multiple syenite intrusions. The hole intersected a void at 337m and was terminated in mineralisation within the main syenite unit. The hole is shown on cross section in Figure 10 and results include:
- 13JURD017 22.1m @ 1.5g/t Au from 216m
and 61.8m @ 1.1g/t from 268.5m
The results are encouraging as they confirm that the well mineralised syenite extends for at least 150m beneath the open pit and beyond the resource boundary. It also confirms that mineralisation is developed within a number of structural zones and different syenite bodies.
Now that the main syenite has been demonstrated to extend at depth, further work is planned to target the high grade zone mined within the open as well as targeting other zones with potential to host further high grade lodes.
To view all diagrams and figures, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-DCN-665318.pdf
About Dacian Gold Ltd
Dacian Gold Limited (
ASX:DCN) Mt Morgans Project hosts high grade Mineral Resources of 2.1 million ounces at an average grade of 2.6 g/t gold, including Ore Reserves of 136,000 ounces at an average grade of 6.2 g/t gold. In addition, the Company has identified multiple exploration targets and resource extension opportunities. If proven, they will enable growth of the Mt Morgans' existing Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve base.
Dacian's strategy at Mt Morgans is evolving toward mine feasibility and potential mine development. It has identified two large mineralised systems at Westralia and Jupiter where it believes mine development at each site is a possibility, and will be the subject of ongoing drilling and feasibility studies. Dacian considers a high grade Ore Reserve of at least 600,000 ounces of gold is reasonably likely to provide sufficient returns to justify the investment capital required to construct an ore processing facility at the project.
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