MAJOR EXPLORATION THRUST AT YANDAL GOLD PROJECT
- More than 12 gold targets to be tested
- 9 metres @ 7.15g/t Au in recent drilling at Forked Stick
- Independent review by Behre Dolbear Australia concludes Yandal Project is “highly prospective” and lies within a fertile greenstone belt that has produced 4 multi-million ounce gold deposits
- Gold mines in the belt include Jundee (Newmont), Darlot (Barrick), Bronzewing and Mt McClure
- Recent Julius Gold Discovery (targeting 1M oz of gold) made by Echo Resources (ASX:EAR) is only 10km north of Artemis Yandal Project tenements
- Nickel gossan discovered, sample results awaited
Artemis Resources Limited (ASX: ARV) has planned a major exploration thrust at its Yandal Gold Project during the current field season.
The Project covers approximately 284km² in the Yandal Greenstone Belt, located 95km southeast of Wiluna in the North Eastern Goldfields.
More than 12 million ounces of gold has been produced to date from the Yandal Greenstone Belt, which contains some of Australia’s largest gold mines including Jundee, Darlot and Bronzewing.
Potential for new discoveries in this rich gold province is shown by recent success just 10km north of Artemis’s ground, where Echo Resources Ltd (ASX:EAR) is focussing on a 1 million plus ounce exploration target at the Julius gold discovery.
Gold mineralisation has been encountered at numerous locations within Artemis’ Yandal Project, including Slav Well and Lowlands where historic non-JORC resources were identified in previous exploration. As reported recently, drilling in May 2011 extended the Lowlands mineralisation to the south east and this remains open.
Significant gold of up to 7.15g/t was also intersected at the Forked Stick prospect.
Independent Consultants Behre Dolbear Australia recently conducted a field visit to Yandal with Artemis’ geological team.
Their report concluded that the Yandal Project warranted further exploration and identified the following:
- Yandal gold project is highly prospective and lies within a fertile greenstone belt which has to date produced 4 multi-million ounce gold deposits, namely Jundee, Darlot, Mt McClure and Bronzewing;
- The northern area of the tenements appears to have shallow < 1 metre soil cover and as such soil sampling and trenching to expose bedrock should be conducted;
- RAB drilling in the past may have straddled rather than drilled into any gold bearing veins and shear zones obscured by soil cover;
- Several historical drill holes were stopped short of targets, review has shown gaps devoid of any drilling along the strike of the vein; and
- Recognition of an essentially untested nickel gossan near Sandalwood Bore is extremely encouraging.
The Yandal Greenstone Belt is characterised by thick accumulations of ultramafic, mafic and felsic volcanics, intrusives and sedimentary rocks. These greenstone successions have been segregated into elongated structural terranes bounded by regional north-northwest trending faults, and are bounded by granitoids. In the southern goldfields these greenstone terranes host some of the world’s largest gold deposits.
However, the northern part of the sequence is less well explored due in part to limited outcrop and deep weathering.
Artemis’ tenements cover some 32km strike of the Yandal Greenstone Belt. Exploration in the 1980’s led to the discovery of the Bronzewing deposit (4 million ounces gold) some 30km to the south of Artemis’s project area. Some 60km to the north of Artemis’ project area, the Jundee deposit was discovered yielding 7 million ounces of gold.
The earliest recorded gold workings within Artemis’s ground date to the mid-1930s, and more modern exploration commenced in the 1970s, mainly for nickel. There has been no systematic gold exploration and little multi-element geochemistry for tellurium (Te), molybdenum (Mo), or bismuth (Bi), which are important pathfinder elements for gold in this environment.
Great Central Mines, which discovered Jundee and Bronzewing gold mines, held a portion of the Artemis ground but did not conduct large scale exploration due to restricted landholdings. Also, previous surface geochemical surveys and shallow drilling which returned little encouragement were probably inconclusive due to thick transported cover. The potential remains for the discovery of a world-class gold system at depth beneath the limit of the shallow historical exploratory drilling.
Artemis Exploration Plans
Artemis is completing a detailed review of all previous exploration within its Yandal Project to confirm gold target areas, where low-level anomalies encountered in previous exploration remain to be followed-up, or where previous exploration did not actually test the target thoroughly.
Drilling planned by Artemis will test below the average historical drilled depths of around 60-80 metres. This review programme has already identified significant gold targets for reassessment.
In addition, at Slav Well an orientation soil geochemical survey is planned over the known mineralisation to determine the best pathfinder elements for gold in this area. Trenching, regional mapping and sampling programmes will be carried out at the same time.
RC drilling will then be carried out at those prospects with readily defined targets, including:
- Forked Stick, where Artemis recently intersected 9m @ 7.15g/t Au from 72 metres and which has historical drill results of up to 7m @ 11.5g/t Au from 17m (BRC029); strike potential is untested;
- Lowlands, to follow up a recent intersection of 9m @ 3.53g/t Au from 42 metres); and
- Slav Well, where there is over 1 kilometre of outcropping, as yet only partly tested auriferous quartz vein in sheared mafics.
This drilling is expected to be carried out in the second half of 2011.
Based on the results of the orientation survey, Artemis will conduct a large-scale soil sampling programme to identify new targets in currently untested or poorly tested areas. In addition, this geochemical survey will cover targets highlighted previously by consultants Southern Geoscience from eromagnetic data. Anomalous zones identified by this programme will be systematically tested with the objective of defining drill targets for testing in the second half of 2011.
Artemis has also discovered a nickel gossan near the Sandalwood prospect. Grab samples have recently been forwarded for analysis with results expected soon.
The anomaly is clearly identifiable on aeromagnetic data and was highlighted by Southern Geoscience as a target of interest. Despite proximity to several of the world’s largest komatiite-associated nickel sulphide deposits (Mount Keith, Perseverance, Honeymoon Well), the Yandal Greenstone Belt has had only limited historical nickel exploration.
Based on aeromagnetic data and reconnaissance mapping, Artemis’s tenements potentially host ultramafic rocks under cover elsewhere within the Yandal Project and these will be targeted using modern techniques.
Artemis plans to immediately further assess the Sandalwood nickel gossan. A TEM survey is being planned for delineation of drill targets of massive nickel sulphide mineralisation.
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