Genesis will complete the acquisition of Metallo Resources Pty Ltd subject to meeting the final conditions of the option agreement. Reverse Circulation (RC) and aircore (AC) drilling has identified three large bedrock gold targets associated with the McNabs porphyry system, with final assay results returning impressive thick high-grade gold intercepts including hits of up to 17m at 3.36g/t Au from 49m and 9m at 18.8g/t Au from 75m.
The results to date indicate that Barimaia, which is located 10km south-east of the 6Moz1 Mt Magnet Gold Mine, operated by ASX-listed Ramelius Resources Limited, has all the hallmarks of a significant standalone gold mineralised system.
Genesis intends to pursue this exciting new discovery opportunity with vigour, with a systematic program of RC drilling set to commence next month.
Genesis Managing Director, Michael Fowler, said the results were exceptional for such early-stage and wide-spaced drilling.
“We identified this project because of its great address – on the doorstep of one of WA’s great gold mines – and it appears to be well and truly living up to its early promise,” he said. “It is already evident that there is potential for a large-scale gold system at Barimaia, particularly given the strength and tenor of the mineralisation, its proximity to surface and the wide-spaced nature of the bedrock drilling,” he said.
“The results have exceeded our expectations, and allowed us to gain a much clearer insight into the structure and geology of the mineralised system at Barimaia before deciding whether to proceed with the acquisition.
“Genesis will proceed with the option to acquire Metallo Resources and look forward to commencing a second phase of systematic RC drilling at Barimaia next month to further expand the mineralisation and scope out the potential for a large-scale gold discovery.
“We are very excited about the opportunity in front of us and look forward to moving forward with the next stage of our exploration.”
Detailed Discussion
Results from the recently-completed 84-hole/2,129m AC drilling program have confirmed an extensive area of anomalous gold mineralisation over a 1.0km x 1.5km area centred on the McNabs and McNabs East Prospects.
The strongly anomalous gold mineralisation and the targeted porphyry host rock remain open in all directions. Further AC drilling will be undertaken to extend the gold mineralised system to the north, south and east. In addition, the AC drilling has also identified a significant new target to the east and south of the McNabs Prospects.
This target area is located beneath alluvial cover, with the potential for gold mineralised porphyry intrusions hosted within an ultramafic dominated volcano-sedimentary package. This area remains untested by drilling, and the Company will shortly embark on a drilling program to test the full extent of the volcano-sedimentary package.
Two of the identified gold targets – McNabs and McNabs East – contain significant bedrock targets associated with significant high-grade gold-in-bedrock (primary mineralisation) immediately below anomalous (~0.1g/t gold) leached, weathered saprolite.
RC Drilling 1m Splits
Significant high-grade bedrock gold has been confirmed in one metre split assays from Genesis’ RC drilling at Barimaia.
These 1m splits have returned high-grade gold mineralisation from both McNabs and McNabs East including:
• 17BARC001 1m @ 11.7g/t gold from 26m (previously reported as 5m @ 1.04g/t gold)
• 17BARC002 9m @ 18.8g/t gold from 75m including 5m @ 31.8 g/t gold from 76m (previously reported as 10m @ 7.9g/t gold)
• 17BARC004 17m @ 3.36g/t gold from 49m (previously reported as 15m @ 3.05g/t gold)
These results confirm the strong potential to identify significant porphyry-hosted gold mineralisation adjacent to ultramafic contacts at Barimaia.
Aircore drilling results
The three currently defined gold targets identified within the 1.0km x 1.5km area centred on the McNabs and McNabs East Prospects (within the current limits of drilling), are associated with extensive zones of oxide gold mineralisation and anomalism under shallow alluvial cover.
The alluvial cover ranges from 2m to 12m in depth, with the depth of weathering beneath the alluvial cover ranging from 3m to 40m. Extensive gold anomalism (0.05g/t gold to +1.0g/t gold) was returned from shallow AC drilling (average hole depth 22m, with hole depths ranging from 3m to 67m), mainly within leached and gold depleted saprolitic clays.
It should also be noted that in a number of the shallow holes (<20m) the strongest gold anomalism was returned from the bottom-of-the-hole samples. An example of gold depletion in the weathered saprolitic clays can be seen, where 17BARC004 returned significant bedrock gold mineralisation at McNabs East on section 6,891,720N immediately below the extensive blanket of anomalous gold mineralisation which has an average grade of ~0.1g/t gold in leached saprolite.
Significant results from the aircore drilling program include 5m @ 1.77g/t gold from 40m, 14m @ 0.24g/t gold from 15m and 5m @ 0.53g/t gold from 15m with results listed in Appendix 3. A program of systematic RC drill testing is proposed to commence in September to test the three extensive and highly prospective bedrock gold targets defined at the McNabs Prospects.
The McNabs Prospects area is an entirely new discovery under shallow cover and comprises significant gold mineralisation associated with porphyry intrusions in an ultramafic dominated volcanosedimentary package.
Exercise of Barimaia Option Agreement Genesis has an option over the rights to Barimaia JV Project under an Option Agreement with private company, Metallo Resources Pty Ltd (“Metallo”).
Under the terms of the agreement, Genesis had a four-month period in which to complete a “proof-ofconcept” exploration program, after which it could elect to acquire 100% of the ordinary shares in Metallo for total consideration of $250,000, which may be paid in cash or shares at its discretion.
Metallo holds the right to earn-in to an initial 65 per cent interest in the Barimaia Project (the Mt Magnet JV), with the potential to earn up to a maximum 80 per cent stake. Following the very positive results generated by the exploration program outlined above, Genesis will now proceed with the option to acquire Metallo Resources subject to completing the final conditions of the Option Agreement.
