TREASURE ISLAND DRILLING UPDATE
Focus Minerals Ltd. (ASX:FML), a leading Australian gold producer and explorer, is pleased to update the market with preliminary results from its recent infill drilling program at its 100% owned Treasure Island Gold Project on Lake Cowan.
Assay results for 105 infill holes have been received to date, with approximately 50% of the holes returning anomalous gold. In the original regional reconnaissance program only 2-3% of the holes returned anomalous gold.
The results from the infill data indicate that Focus is beginning to define the position of a mineralised system beneath the lake, with two targets already chosen for preliminary diamond drill testing that is expected to start next week.
“The aircore program on the lake has been testing a potential thrust repeat of the Treasure Island stratigraphy,” said Treasure Island Principal Geologist Dean Goodwin.
“What we have been doing with the infill is to drill down to the base of oxidation through the lake sediment looking for gold as it spreads out away from the primary deposit in the bedrock below (Figure 1).
“A hyper-saline environment like the lake is a perfect place to look for this supergene effect where over time the gold spreads out at the base of the water table creating a blanket. What we achieved in the regional reconnaissance aircore is to find where these blankets are, and now with the infill we are starting to pinpoint where we think the primary ore bodies might be.”
Mr Goodwin said the detailed aeromagnetics show that the structural framework in this area looks very similar to what you see at St Ives.
“There’s a lot of structural complexity evident on the eastern zone, and this level of complexity along with the favourable geology increases the chance of finding gold.
“One of the holes LCAC593 returned a 4m composite grading 1.07g/t gold (part of a 9m end of hole intersection grading 416ppb), which is a significant amount of gold for an aircore program. This is a strong indicator that we are possibly close to the primary structure.” (Figure 2)
Data is required back from the whole infill drilling program before an assessment can be made of the full potential of the area. The remaining assays for the infill aircore program are expected in the coming weeks.
A lake based diamond drill rig will be on site in the last week of March.
The Treasure Island Gold Project on Lake Cowan is located 35km south-south east along strike from the major gold camp of Kambalda St Ives in Western Australia, where over 15Moz of gold has been discovered over the last 22 years.
A reconnaissance aircore program completed in November 2011 identified a continuous 4km anomalous zone 3km east of Treasure Island, This was subject to infill aircore drilling on an 80m x 40m pattern through January and February.