ASX-listed junior explorer Si6 Metals has secured an aircore rig for a forthcoming drilling program at its Monument gold project about 40 kilometres west of Laverton in WA as it looks to build on its existing 150,000-ounce-plus resource in the prolific Laverton gold district. The Perth-based company says it expects to kick off the 125-hole regional program totalling about 5,000 metres by the end of this month.
Si6 is on the hunt for bulk-tonnage, syenite or “intrusive” igneous rock-hosted gold mineralisation within the Laverton Tectonic Zone or “LTZ” at its Monument project that spans a project area of 310 square kilometres.
The LTZ plays host to several relatively close syenite-related gold resources including Gold Fields’ seven-million-ounce orebody at Wallaby and Dacian Gold’s one-million-ounce-plus Jupiter deposit.
Last month Si6 released an inferred mineral resource statement for its Korong deposit at Monument of 3.03 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.4 grams per tonne for 139,000 ounces of contained gold.
It also declared an inferred mineral resource for the Waihi deposit about 6-7km north-west of Korong of 223,000 tonnes going 2.1 g/t for 15,000 ounces of contained gold.
The new resource numbers factored in the results from the company’s first round of reverse circulation drilling undertaken this year that was aimed at delineating banded iron formation-hosted gold mineralisation.
Stand-out intercepts from the 34-hole RC program totalling 4,363m at the Korong and Waihi prospects were 4m grading an average 5.89 g/t gold from 62m, 6m at 3.15 g/t from 95m, 5m at 3.22 g/t from 130m and 5m at 2.56 g/t from 124m.
According to Si6, the impending aircore campaign at Monument will be the maiden exploration drilling program focusing on high-priority syenite intrusion-related gold targets.
Earlier this year the company received the nod for co-funding of exploration from the WA Department of Mines, who has agreed to provide Si6 with a 50 per cent refund on some of its direct drilling costs through the state government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme or “EIS”.
The $20 million market-capped company envisages the co-funding amount will be in the order of about $75,000.
Si6’s EIS grant was awarded on the back of an aeromagnetic survey carried out across the Monument project that culminated in at least 60 felsic intrusive targets prospective for bulk-tonnage gold mineralisation similar to Wallaby and Jupiter being identified.
Korong and Waihi occur along an under-explored gold-bearing banded iron formation that runs for about 30km within the Monument tenements.
Si6 interprets the banded iron formation that takes in the Korong-Waihi mineralised corridor to be the same geological unit that hosts Dacian’s 1.4 million-ounce Westralia gold deposits near its Mt Morgans mining centre immediately south-east of Monument.
Only 10 per cent of the 30km strike length has been RC drilled, according to Si6.
More drilling is planned for the corridor in addition to the company’s quest to unearth bulk-tonnage, syenite-hosted gold mineralisation.
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