West Australian focused explorer Iceni Gold Ltd (ASX:ICL) has identified a slew of gold-bearing quartz veinlets at the Christmas Gift prospect – part of the company’s 14 Mile Well gold project – with some grading more than 18 gram per tonne.
Picked up through additional fieldwork at the prospect, the veinlets were found within a narrow, sheared basalt-interflow sediment contact, with rock chip assays showing grades of 18,207 grams per tonne (g/t), 18,179g/t, 16,776g/t, 16,659g/t, 14,780g/t of gold.
Iceni has been able to expose the structure over a strike length of 20 metres – and which is open – and this has enabled the company to start building drill targets from a geological model, and provide a particular focus to the Everleigh area of 14 Mile Hill, where the prospect is located.
In addition to this, ore taken from the quartz veinlets has been added to a crushed bulk sample of gold to produce a 9.5 gram per tonne gold doré bar.
Now the focus is on delineating the nature of the Christmas Gift shear, especially its down dip position, and drilling for this is set to begin in the June quarter, with site prep already commenced and planning well-advanced.
Managing director Wade Johnson said discovery of these veinlets had provided a boost to Iceni’s expectations for the area.
“The shallow excavation and sampling activities at Christmas Gift exposing the rich gold bearing quartz veinlets within the shear zone is an exciting development for the company,” he said.
“The additional fieldwork has improved our knowledge of the host structure, that has advanced our understanding to further explore the Christmas Gift structure, but also provides a geological model that we can apply elsewhere in the Everleigh Well area.
“The strike length of the structure is open, drill sites have been prepared and we are looking forward to commencing drilling shortly to evaluate the down dip extent of the structure and rapidly advance this priority target.”
The territory around Everleigh was once part of the historic Redcastle gold mining centre – first established in 1894 – from where many noted gold nuggets were taken.
It comprises several historical prospecting pits, shafts and shallow workings and a multiplicity of alluvial gold workings across a large space. Christmas Gift is found at one of these workings, where sampling work done by Iceni last year identified a narrow high-grade quartz vein with abundant visible gold.
The territory lies long WA’s Laverton Greenstone Belt.
Iceni Gold has been trading at 2.3c.