ASX-listed gold explorer, Classic Minerals has returned a plethora of high-grade gold hits from a significant infill and extensional drilling program at its Kat Gap gold project about 170 kilometres south of Southern Cross in WA. The Perth-based company pumped 99 RC holes totalling 8,704 metres into Kat Gap across the second half of last year. Classic was in the same boat as many other companies and had to wait its turn to receive results from assay laboratories who were faced with a massive backlog of drill core samples to analyse due to the surge in exploration activity throughout WA.
Notable drill intersections from the latest batch of outstanding assays for Kat Gap were 3m at an average grade of 12 grams per tonne gold from 127m including 1m at 17.90 g/t from 127m, 2m going 9.45 g/t from 174m including 1m at 17.80 g/t from 175m, and 4m at 7.96 g/t from 77m including 1m at 20.90 g/t from 77m.
The infill RC holes at Kat Gap were drilled on 20m x 10m and 10m x 10m grid spacings as Classic looks to convert the near-surface portion of the existing inferred gold resource to indicated status and produce more accurate resource model data for open-pit mine optimisation and design work.
Other stand-out intercepts were 5m grading 6.60 g/t gold from 159m including 1m at 20.60 g/t from 159m, and 5m at 4.77 g/t from 48m including 1m at 21.60 g/t from 48m.
Another 7m intercept went 4.2 g/t from 60m including 1m at 22 g/t from 61m and a further 2m intersection came in at 8.73 g/t from 53m and included 1m at 14.90 g/t from 53m.
Kat Gap’s inferred mineral estimate currently stands at 975,722 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 2.96 g/t for 92,856 ounces of contained gold.
The RC drilling campaign that covered an area of approximately 300m along strike to the north of the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke was largely focused on testing the main granite-greenstone contact lode within the inferred resource to an average depth of 75m below surface.
According to Classic, the drill results confirm continuity of mineralised zones within the inferred resource model north of the Proterozoic dyke.
Eighteen deeper RC holes, all situated within 100m north along strike from the cross-cutting Proterozoic dyke, down to a maximum depth of 220m were aimed at testing the potential down-plunge extent of the near-surface gold mineralisation.
Interpretation of the recently received assay data indicates a northerly plunge of about 55 degrees closely linked to the flattening or rolling of the granite-greenstone contact. The company says the gold is associated with quartz veins within weakly sheared granite, some 10m-15m in from the main granite-greenstone contact and the plunge line is open to the north.
Classic says it plans to head back to Kat Gap late next month to undertake further deeper drilling down dip and down plunge of the current inferred resource. The new program will consist of around 10-15 holes ranging in depth from 150m to 250m totalling approximately 3,000m.
A shallow RC drilling program comprising about 15-20 holes for an aggregate coverage of roughly 1500m has also been earmarked at Kat Gap targeting the granite west of the granite-greenstone contact to follow up on a large auger soil gold anomaly.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
