Drill Target Areas Defined at Jundee East Gold Project, Australia
Jundee East is located 7km due east of the Jundee Gold Mine
Oracle Power PLC (AIM:ORCP), the international natural resources project developer, is pleased to announce that further highly positive geochemical sampling results have defined five drill target areas at its 100% owned Jundee East Gold Project, located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia (“Jundee East” or the “Project”), which is located ~7km due east of Northern Star’s Jundee Gold Mine (Figure 1).
Highlights :
· Geochemical soil sampling programme over the majority of Jundee East highlights positive responses for copper and gold using the Ionic LeachTM (Ionic Leach) geochemical technique designed to identify mineralisation below cover.
· These further positive results show that indicator elements (including gold and copper) are mobilising to surface at an atomic level above the target area which further supports the potential of a mineralised system in a previously unrecognised greenstone belt, proximal to Northern Star’s producing Jundee Gold Mine, which has a current Resource of 5.4Moz
· The programme has successfully defined five large target zones (Figure 2) which are now essentially “drill ready” for first pass testing, with a programme currently being developed.
Naheed Memon, CEO of Oracle, commented :
” Further positive results from the expanded soil geochemistry programme has defined five large target zones for drilling. The technical team is designing a drill programme and we will commence drilling as soon as we have an approved programme of work and can then confirm rig availability. ”
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Geochemical sampling results discussion:
Following the success of the three-line orientation Mobile Metal Ion (“MMI”) geochemical surface soil survey, a geochemical programme covering almost the entire tenement has been completed at Jundee East. This programme utilised the Ionic Leach technique which is a refinement of the MMI technique used previously. A total of 884 Ionic samples were collected on lines 400m apart and at 200m spacing intervals (Figure 3).
The geochemical responses (Figures 4-9) show numerous linears or trends with strong agreement with trends and features within the geophysical data of the granitic and greenstone basement, and this strongly suggests the geochemical responses are reflecting basement geochemical character.
The areas targeted show responses greater than the 95th percentile and could be termed “anomalous”, but given the depth of burial it is felt more appropriate to consider the areas as “significant”, and that warrant follow up with drilling.
The interpreted geochemical linears (Figure 2) shown are inferred to relate to zonal trends or to some unknown factor limiting the extent of responses.
Target 1 Occurs in and around intersection of several geophysical linears with strong responses in Au, Ag, Cu, and exploration Indices, both raw and response ratio (RR)
Target 2 Coherent elevated Au raw and RR response within zone that geophysics suggests is more mafic sequence.
Target 3 Elevated responses in RR components of Au and Ag.
Target 4 Elevated responses in Ag RR in association with the inferred porphyry intrusive body on margins of batholith.
Target 5 Elevated responses in Au, Ag and Cu plus indices with structures but downgraded due to being within saline drainage system which can influence results.
A drilling proposal and budget will be prepared for Board consideration in the near future.
About MMI and Ionic Leach™:
Ionic Leach is a proprietary surface geochemical technique designed to detect metal ion anomalism through transported cover.
The Ionic Leach technique was chosen over MMI due to the lower detection limits for most elements and the quicker turnaround of results. The results for both techniques were merged; the raw results show some differences but the response ratio data show closer correlation as they are treated separately.
Ionic Leach and MMI are innovative analytical processes that uses a unique approach to the analysis of metals in soils and related materials. Target elements are extracted using weak solutions which detach and hold metal ions that were loosely bound to soil particles by weak atomic forces in aqueous solution. This extraction does not dissolve the bound forms of the metal ions. Thus, the metal ions in the solutions are the chemically active or ‘mobile’ component of the sample. Because these mobile, loosely bound complexes are in very low concentrations, measurement is by conventional ICP-MS. This allows us to report very low detection limits.
These techniques have the following advantages:
· Few false anomalies
· Focused, sharp anomalies
· Excellent repeatability
· Definition of metal zones and associations
· Detection of deeply buried mineralisation
· Low background values (low noise)
· Low limits of detection
The Ionic technique provides analysis of 61 elements and MMI 53 elements covering base metals, pathfinder elements, major elements and rare earths. This allows the generation of exploration Indices which are a combination of multiple elements to be used to generate target areas showing similarity to known deposits. The data is usually viewed after ratioing the analytical value to the calculated background: known as the Response Ratio – RR; this is especially useful when dealing with variable regolith with the project area.
The plots show Au, Cu and Ag in both formats with Au & Cu showing considerable correlation: Ag shows significantly better correlation with Cu within the RR data.
The AAC Index, which is the principal geochemist’s IP, has been found to be effective worldwide in defining prospective zones; it is an exploration index developed based on empirical evidence of Au, As and Cu being inherent constituents of Archean mineralised shear zone systems. The Chi additive index was developed by the CSIRO to define the regional halo to mineralisation throughout the Yilgarn using the pathfinder elements As, Ag, Bi, Mo, Sb, Sn & W in lateritic media. The Pathfinder Index contains a similar suite of elements being Ag, As, Mo, Sb, Sn, Tl and W within a multiplicative index; Bi, Hg, Se and Te were omitted due to conflicts in detection limits between the two analytical techniques. This is simply a modification of the Chi Index to introduce other pathfinder elements typically present in Archean systems.
Partial leach geochemistry has worked very effectively at Jundee East, with coherent areas identified for drill evaluation.
About the Jundee East Project :
The Jundee East Project is comprised of one exploration licence (E53/2140) and located ~7km due east of the Jundee Gold Mine, Figure 1. The area of the Project is 29 blocks (~90km2). The Project is located within the Yandal Gold Province, a Tier 1 gold belt, host to numerous multi-million-ounce gold systems.
The Jundee East project represents a previously unrecognised greenstone belt (Figure 2) proximal to the producing Jundee Gold Mine, which has a current resource of 5.4Moz gold.
Competent Persons Statement
The information in this announcement that relates to Exploration Results and Exploration Targets is based on information compiled or reviewed by Allan Younger, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Younger is an consultant to the company. Mr Younger has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’.
Mr Younger consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
*ENDS*
For further information on Oracle Power Plc, visit the Company’s website http://www.oraclepower.co.uk or contact:
Oracle Power PLC
Naheed Memon – CEO +44 (0) 203 580 4314
About Oracle Power PLC:
Oracle Power PLC is an international natural resource and power project developer quoted on London’s AIM market. The Company holds two highly prospective gold assets in two globally significant gold regions of Western Australia. The Northern Zone Project is located 25km east of the major gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie, the home of the ‘Super Pit’ mine, the second largest gold mine in Australia, and the Jundee East Gold Project is located ~9km east of Northern Star’s Jundee Gold Mine, one of Australia’s largest gold mines.
The Company’s initial project is the Thar Block VI Project in the Thar desert in the south-east of the Sindh province of Pakistan where the Company is advancing plans for a combined lignite coal mine, a 1,320MW mine mouth power plant and a proposed coal gasification to urea project.
