- Essential Metals (ESS) has expanded the porphyry zone at the Gards prospect to more than one kilometre of strike
- The Gards prospect is located within the company’s Juglah Dome Gold Project in Western Australia
- A 24-hole aircore (AC) drilling campaign has added 700 metres of strike to the zone, which is now delineated over roughly 1175 metres
- Assay results returned 0.29g/t gold from 17 metres to end of hole, with the zone remaining open along strike to the south
- Looking ahead, ESS is planning a reverse circulation drill program to drill through the porphyry and determine the tenor of the gold mineralisation
- Meanwhile, AC drilling at the AC75, Scandia and Maximus prospects is almost complete, with assays expected in the first half of June
- Essential Metals shares have dipped 1.1 per cent at 9 cents each
Essential Metals (ESS) has expanded the porphyry zone to more than one kilometre of strike at the Gards prospect, which is located within the Juglah Dome Gold Project in Western Australia.
Gards update
According to ESS, recent aircore drilling has added 700 metres of strike to the prospective zone, which is now delineated over roughly 1175 metres, remaining open along strike to the south.
Notably, the 24-hole program was conducted southeast of the Gards prospect, where previous reverse circulation (RC) drilling returned an intercept of eight metres at 2.18g/t gold last year.
However, due to the hardness of the porphyry unit, recently drilled aircore holes were unable to penetrate more than one or two metres into the potentially mineralised zone.
Regardless, ESS intersected strongly anomalous gold mineralisation on two wide-spaced cross sections.
Assay results included four metres at 0.29g/t gold from 17 metres to end of hole (EOH). Whereas, another hole returned four metres at 0.22g/t gold from 12 metres to EOH.
Essential Metals Managing Director Tim Spencer commented on the expanded porphyry zone.
“The Juglah Dome aircore drill results show the Gards porphyry gold prospect now has a near-surface strike extent of over one kilometre,” he said.
“Importantly, the results demonstrate that it remains open to the south and there is very good potential for it to host similar grades to those intersected in the last drill campaign in December last year,” Tim added.
Looking ahead, Essential Metals will undertake an RC drilling program to drill through the porphyry and determine the tenor of its gold mineralisation.
The company anticipates the program will return thicker and higher-grade intersections, as indicated by previous drilling in December last year.
Other updates
Meanwhile, aircore drilling at the AC75, Scandia and Maximus prospects, within its Golden Ridge Gold Project, is almost complete and all assays are expected in the first half of June.
In addition, ESS is continuing exploration at the Pioneer Dome Lithium Project, where it aims to commence a drilling program early in the September quarter.
The program will seek to expand the project’s mineral resource, which currently sits at 11.2 million tonnes at 1.21 per cent lithium oxide, as well as test for new mineralised pegmatites in the surrounding area.
At the close of market this afternoon, Essential Metals shares have dipped 1.1 per cent to trade at 9 cents each.