Visible gold prompts quick follow-up drilling for Zenith in QLD

Zenith Minerals has the rods turning again at its Red Mountain gold discovery in Queensland, after recent diamond drilling threw up a potentially massive intrusion related gold (IRG) system with shows of exciting visible gold.

The company says a 4000 to 5000m reverse-circulation (RC) program is getting underway in search of shallow strike extensions of a broad gold system already partially proven by diamond drilling to more than 500m in depth.

The final assays for the most recent diamond hole at Red Mountain confirm a hefty 350m intersection of gold grading 0.47 grams per tonne (g/t) from 232m, with high-grade kickers like 5.57m at 6.32 g/t and the first visible gold at depth.

The results signal a substantial gold system which remains open in all directions that is packing a potential scale that is impossible to ignore.

Zenith’s RC campaign is about speed and scale as the planned 10-15 holes will map the near-surface gold in the rhyolite rock host and test uncharted zones to the west and north.

Once the birds-eye expression of the deposit is uncovered, the holes which are maxed out for depth will be at the ready for diamond tails to chase richer zones into the heart of the IRG system.

Early data is already refining the hunt for the high-grade core of the system, which according to the company shares DNA with some of Queensland’s multi-million-ounce deposits like Mt Wright and Mt Leyshon.

A 0.5m hit at a whopping 19.8 g/t from 395m hints at a system that is heating up to the west where vein density and brecciation thicken. The hotter parts of the system are where the high-grade gold – and sometimes copper – lie.

Shallow RC from prior campaigns delivered hits like 13m at 8.0 g/t gold from surface and 5m at 10.4 g/t, with positive metallurgy already boasting 95.8 per cent recoveries for the system via cyanide leaching.

Red Mountain keeps getting bigger — and now we’re moving faster. With final assays from ZRMDD066 confirming a continuous gold system extending beyond 530 metres vertical depth, open in every direction, and featuring the first visible gold at depth, we’re seeing genuine scale emerging.

Red Mountain lies within the Auburn Arch near its IRG kin in Mt Wright and the plus 5-million-ounce Mt Rawdon.

A recent $7.65 million strategic investment from established gold miner Ida Metals is set to fund Red Mountain and the company’s Dulcie gold projects RC push.

Back at the extensive 9000–12,000m RC campaign at Dulcie in Western Australia, diamond tails are being prepped as drilling targets a substantial 300,000-to-800,000-ounce exploration target atop an existing 8.2 million tonne resource grading 1.15g/t for 302,000 ounces.

Both projects have been earmarked for a girthy $3 million of drilling over a six-month period, indicating it is all systems go for the dual-pronged gold explorer.

Gold’s run past US$4000 an ounce (A$6100) doesn’t hurt either and lines up nicely with Zenith’s acivities.

Assays from the RC program will roll in progressively.

If the shallow zones expand outward to reveal an extensive IRG target that could continue to depths beyond the already tested top 500m, all that will remain for the company is to find that steaming hot high-grade core of the system and Red Mountain will be off to the races.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au