The company has recently completed a comprehensive auger geochemistry programme ("the Auger Programme") with the purpose of identifying further drill targets that could potentially add to the Company’s existing 602,000 oz Au JORC code compliant resource.
The Auger Program was conducted over eight high-priority gold targets within the Project area thought to be prospective for further gold mineralisation, of which six returned a number of anomalies.
The method of augering used by the Company provided its geologists with a sample of Bottom-of-Transported ("BOT") material, which significantly improves the chances of detecting a buried gold deposit. Please refer to figure 1, which is a map showing the prospects over which the Auger Program was conducted.
After a thorough review of the results of the Auger Program, the Company will now focus its exploration on two prospects, named AK02 and AK04, both of which returned strongly anomalous results (of gold values between 44 and 244 parts per billion of gold – 0.044 and 0.244 parts per million of gold) and which are positioned along the south-west strike extension of the structural zone that hosts the existing Homase/Akrokerri gold resource. Importantly, both prospects occur over what is interpreted to be a major flexure of the structural zone that hosts the Homase/Akrokerri gold resource to the north-east.
The AK02 auger drilling anomaly can be traced continuously over approximately 1,500m and is contained mostly in proximal colluvium that is interpreted to overlie bedrock gold mineralisation or have travelled a short distance from it.
Several anomalous in-situ laterite (a hard, iron-rich soil formed by prolonged chemical weathering in tropical environments) samples of a similar gold tenor in close proximity to this prospect provide additional confidence that gold mineralisation is proximal to these defined auger anomalies. Three lines of historic, shallow reverse circulation ("RC") drilling, completed in 1998 and 1999, are thought to intersect the interpreted AK02 zone locally.
Results from the historic RC drilling of 5m @ 1.3 g/t Au from 39m (99AKRC083), 6m @ 1.6 g/t Au from 24m (98AKRC028) and 2m @ 3.1 g/t Au from 21m (98AKRC021) are encouraging. However, the results from the Company’s Auger Program suggest that the strongest anomalies have yet to be drilled at depth.
At AK04 the Auger Program also yielded a very consistent east-west gold anomaly over a strike of 800m. The anomaly is, as at AK02, contained in colluvial regolith that is interpreted to be very close to a bedrock gold source.
Historic RC drilling was conducted over only 100m strike length of the anomaly with mixed results including 1m @ 8.4 g/t Au from 20m (00AKRC109) and 3m @ 2.3 g/t Au from 40m (00AKRC104).
Additional infill auger sampling will now be conducted before a drilling program can be considered. The program will sample AK02 and AK04 on a 100m x 25m grid. This will provide the Company’s geologists with sufficient density of data and confidence of provenance of gold mineralisation to be able to plan a drilling campaign.
