Latitude 66 has etched out a promising gold target at its Edjudina project in Western Australia’s Goldfields, with an air core drilling program targeting the bedrock at its Colossus prospect returning assays of up to 0.45 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
The notable hit was pulled up in a 1m intercept returned from the bottom of a 79-metre-deep hole at Colossus. A further 4m hit running at 0.32 g/t gold was reeled in from the bottom of a 72m-deep hole.
Anomalous gold at Colossus is hosted in silica-hematite altered granitoids cut by quartz veining, which are classic signs of hydrothermal fluid flow. Hematite staining, likely from oxidised sulphides, further supports the potential for a fertile gold-bearing system, enhancing the project's prospectivity.
Latitude has completed 88 drill holes for a total of 5093m over a clutch of significant gold-in-soil anomalies identified through previous exploration activities across the project area.
Its Spartan prospect, which ranks as the biggest of these gold anomalies, extends along a 1.8-kilometre strike and up to 500m in width, with results reaching 0.54g/t gold.
Management notes the surface anomalies are often coincident with modern and paleo-drainage channels, suggesting they have been derived from a proximal gold source.
The company has reconstructed the paleo-topography utilising all available drill information to unravel the sources of the surface gold, with the Colossus leading the charge and its nearby Hercules prospect shaping up as a worthy rival in Latitude’s Olympian hunt.
Results have been received from 36 drill holes completed across Colossus. Assays from the remaining 52 holes, drilled across Latitude’s Falcon, Hercules and Spartan South prospects are expected in the coming weeks.
Latitude 66 managing director Grant Coyle said: “The confirmation of consistent bottom-of-hole gold mineralisation, coupled with the geological setting, silica-hematite alteration and quartz veining, suggests we are vectoring in on a primary source of gold mineralisation that remains open at depth and has not yet been intersected by drilling.”
Air core drilling is a fast, cost-effective exploration technique used in the early stages of exploration. Its value lies in its ability to punch through the transported cover and sample the top few metres of fresh bedrock to “bit refusal” to define broad anomalies and guide deeper drilling programs.
The company says beneath the blanket of transported cover, the underlying geology exhibits the trademarks of Ramelius Resources' nearby 1.1-million-ounce Lake Rebecca gold project.
Gold at Lake Rebecca is hosted within a broad, northeast-trending structural corridor of felsic intrusive and granitic gneiss lithologies. Mineralisation is closely associated with silica flooding and disseminated sulphide assemblages, indicative of a large-scale orogenic gold system.
The similarity in alteration style, lithological setting and structural framework provides a compelling analogue, supporting the interpretation that Colossus may represent a comparable mineral system.
Encouragingly, Colossus remains untested at depth and is a high-priority target for the next drill phase, with deeper reverse circulation and diamond drilling planned to evaluate potential intrusion-related, structurally hosted gold mineralisation below the anomalous end-of-hole intersections.
As the gold price continues to hover well above $5000 an ounce, Latitude finds itself in an enviable position with a growing mythological cast of intriguing targets in a lucrative Goldfields patch. With assays pending from key targets and deeper drilling on the horizon, the company is poised to strike while the gold gods are smiling.
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By Helen Barling
