Oracle Power PLC (AIM: ORCP), report that its potential farm-in partner, Riversgold Ltd (ASX:RGL) (“RGL”), has received the assay results from a diamond drilling programme at the Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project, which is located 26km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Refer to Figure 1 for location. The Riversgold news release can be viewed on its website at www.riversgold.com.au.
Highlights:
o Diamond drilling of entire gold-mineralised central cross-section to 450m vertical depth has validated previous Exploration Model
o Previously announced Exploration Target of 200Mt – 250Mt at a grade of 0.4 g/t Au – 0.6 g/t Au for an exploration target of 2.5Moz – 4.8Moz of gold
o High gold recovery of 92.9% (average) after 24-hour bottle roll cyanide extraction1
o Drill programme has:
o Confirmed the gold mineralisation style
o Confirmed gold mineralisation widths and gold grades; and
o Structural orientation of the gold mineralisation
o Significant results from 2023 diamond drilling confirmation programme include:
§ 110m at 0.60 g/t Au from 208m (RSDD02)
• including 2m @ 2.64g/t Au from 208m,
§ 5m @ 3.03g/t Au from 221m
§ 1m @ 4.77g/t Au from 248m
§ 1m @ 5.26g/t Au from 262m
§ 13m @ 1.29g/t Au from 274m
§ 16.4m @ 0.45g/t Au from 83.6m (RSDD003)
§ 13m @ 0.48g/t Au from 135m (RSDD003)
§ 11m @ 0.49g/t Au from 197m (RSDD003)
§ 26m @ 0.44g/t Au from 231m (RSDD003
§ 47m at 0.48g/t Au from 216m (RSDD01)
• including 1m at 4.74g/t Au from 244m
§ 1m at 4.04g/t Au from 262m
§ 8m at 0.55g/t Au from 127m (RSDD02)
§ 84m @ 0.42g/t Au from 315m (RSDD003)
• including 3.32m @ 2.73g/t Au from 332m,
§ 4m @ 0.52g/t Au from 34m (RSDD04)
§ 8m @ 0.43g/t Au from 77m (RSDD04)
§ 4m @ 0.47g/t Au from 92m (RSDD04)
o Significant results from 2021 and prior RC drilling include:
§ 154m at 0.58g/t Au from 98m (21OPRC004)
• including 4m at 5.39g/t Au from 182m
§ 142m at 0.42g/t Au from 62m (BNRC081)
§ 330m at 0.49 g/t Au from 30m (BNRC066)
• including 54.79m at 1.15g/t Au from 213m
§ 117.7m at 0.35g/t Au from 120.3m (BNRC034)
§ 66m at 0.89g/t Au from 30m (BNRC069)
§ 38m at 0.47g/t Au from 73m (BNRC084)
§ 29m at 1.84g/t Au from 33m (BNRC01)
Naheed Memon, CEO of Oracle, commented:
“With the Australian dollar gold price now pushing through A$3,100 an ounce, the commerciality of these types of large-scale lower grade gold deposits becomes significantly more viable. The potential scale of this project linked to its good indicative conventional gold recoveries and its great location, being so close to Kalgoorlie, makes Northern Zone a highly attractive project to drill out. The four diamond drill holes on this cross-section confirmed the gold prospectivity of the Northern Zone Project and we look forward to drilling further along strike to start building a maiden JORC compliant resource early in the new year.”
The Northern Zone Project has an Exploration Target of 200 to 250 million tonnes at a grade of 0.4 g/t to 0.6 g/t for an Exploration Target of 2.5 to 4.8 million oz of gold, as announced by RGL on 9 May 2023.
The announcement published by Riversgold today is set out below without material adjustment and can be found at https://www.riversgold.com.au.
Riversgold Limited (ASX: RGL, Riversgold or the Company) announces that it has received the assay results from its maiden diamond drilling program at the Northern Zone Intrusive Hosted Gold Project located 25 km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Refer to Figure 1 for location.
On the 9 May 2023, RGL announced the 80% earn-in to the Northern Zone Gold Project with London listed Oracle Power Plc.1 RGL undertook a 4-hole diamond drill program for 1,379m (with orientated core) to specifically test the exploration model of +100m wide gold mineralisation. The drilling was completed on 21 August 2023 and all of the core was sent to ALS in Perth for core photographs, cutting and assaying. Assays results have now been received and interpreted and the work confirms the original mineralisation model, style, widths and grades.
Oracle have been informed of these results and will be furnished with the expenditure reports shortly that confirms the minimum requirements have been met for the 80% earn-in.
Located 175km due north of Northern Zone, Saturn Metals Limited has released a Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Apollo Hill Gold project that has a resource of 105Mt @ 0.54g/t gold for 1.839Moz.2 RGL views the Apollo project as an example of what we are looking to achieve at Northern Zone, albeit with Northern Zone being a potentially larger project.
Figure 1: Northern Zone Project Map showing proximity to the Kalgoorlie “Super Pit”.
About North Zone Gold Project:
The Northern Zone Project is located 26km, east-south-east of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit and is readily accessed from the Bulong road, which is paved to within 9km of the prospect site. The last 9kms consists of 4km of a high-quality haul road with the last 5kms on a station road. The topography is flat lying, open scrub with several historical remnant gold and nickel excavation pits less than 5 kms from the prospect site.
Drilling Contractor DDH1 completed the drilling at Northern Zone using a combination of HQ3 and NQ2 diamond drilling. The core was logged by contract geologists in Kalgoorlie, with oversight from RGL geologists. The detailed logging has shown that a gold mineralisation event has introduced significant micro-fracturing and quartz veining, with significant thicknesses of alteration also observed. A central cross section completed as proof of model has validated (Figure 2) a portion of the project, with multiple untested areas.
A diagram of a diamond drawing Description automatically generated
Figure 2: Northern Zone drill collar plan highlighting validated (red hatched) area, gold mineralised zones, central cross section with untested areas. Mineralisation remains open in all directions.
The diamond drilling mineralisation intersections (Figure 3) show a thick east dipping zone of mineralisation across 21OPRC004, RSDD002 & RSDD003. The hatched zones are the interpreted mineralisation zones, with the main zone approximately 100m wide and a vertical extent 375m and remaining open at depth.
The plan view shows the hole deviations, due to this deviation; holes 21OPRC004 and RSDD002 indicate a minimum strike length of 70m to the zone of mineralisation.
The lack of mineralisation within the main zone in RSDD001 is inferred due to faulting. The intersection at depth in RSDD001 correlates with the lower zone.
A diagram of a graph Description automatically generated with medium confidence
Figure 3: Northern Zone central Plan & Cross Section (+/-50m) including RGL, Oracle and historic drill holes. (See Figure 2 for section line)
Conceptually, the company sees similarities between North Zone and Saturn Metals Apollo Hill project based on the information in the PEA statement (ASX 7 August 2023) of a large low grade heap leach operation; to further develop the concept the plans to:
· Undertake further metallurgical test work to confirm the amenability of the mineralization to leaching and develop initial estimates of reagent consumption
· Undertake further drilling towards defining a resource at Northern Zone, with step out drilling on 100m X-sections especially towards the untested southeast areas
This announcement has been authorised for release by the Board of Riversgold Ltd.
Competent Persons Statement
The Information in this report that relates to exploration results, exploration targets, mineral resources or ore reserves is based on information compiled by Mr Allan Younger, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Younger is a consultant to the company. Mr Younger has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposits under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the `Australian Code for Reporting Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’ (the JORC Code). Mr Younger consents to the inclusion of this information in the form and context in which it appears in this report.
1 RGL ASX announcement 9 May 2023 “Farm into Significant Porphyry Hosted Gold Project”
2 STN ASX announcement 17 August 2023 “Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment
