Classic Minerals is well on its way to a resource upgrade at its 100%-owned Forrestania Gold Project, about 150km south of Southern Cross, after another round of high-grade gold hits confirmed the company’s new model for gold mineralisation.
The ASX-listed junior recently completed an 18-hole RC drilling program to test a model that suggested high-grade gold shoots extended the primary Lady Ada and Lady Magdelene ore zones southeast of the existing orebodies.
The latest round of impressive gold hits from outside the scoping study pit shell confirm Classic is on the money and may suggest a potential large-scale gold system.
The results pave the way for an increase in size and grade of the current mineral resource which sits at 5.9 million tonnes grading 1.25 g/t gold for 240,000 ounces.
Among the best intercepts from the Lady Ada prospect are 4m at over an ounce to the tonne gold at 37.3 g/t from 116m, including 1m at 76.8 g/t. At the Lady Magdelene prospect, new assays include 6m at 4.9 g/t gold from 201m, including 2m at 12.55 g/t and 16m at 1.73 g/t from 40m.
The results are the latest chapter in a remarkable story that began almost two decades ago when Classic’s CEO, Dean Goodwin, discovered the Lady Ada mine and other nearby deposits as a young geologist with Viceroy Australia.
Viceroy fell into administration and WMC-trained Goodwin did not get the chance to follow up a host of new ideas he had developed from 2.5 years of mapping and interpreting the southern Forrestania gold belt.
Commenting on the new drill intercepts, Goodwin said: “We are very excited by the high grade (>70 g/t) results from Lady Ada in hole MARC023. This confirms the existence of another high-grade shoot at Lady Ada that is open down plunge and was previously missed due to the hole being positioned on the edge of the existing drilling. We will definitely follow this up in the future and will keep the market appraised of our progress.
“The quality of Lady Ada is evident – this deposit contains multiple high-grade shoots and systems that the company believes will continue to grow and eventually support a profitable mining operation.”
At Lady Magdelene, just a few kms north of Lady Ada, high-grade gold mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike. Extensional diamond drilling will begin this month with the goal of uncovering one or more high-grade, Lady Ada lookalikes between the historic wide spaced drill lines.
Meanwhile, investors will have plenty of news to follow as remaining assays from the RC program trickle through.
By Matt Birney
