Gold Projects
Clermont Project: Gold
The Clermont Project is about 100 kilometres south of the Twin Hills Gold Mine. At least half of the tenement area of 590 square kilometres is interpreted to be underlain by the prospective Cycle 1 Volcanics, mainly beneath a cover of younger rocks and regolith. This cover has hindered previous regional soil geochemistry surveys, which have identifi ed a few areas, kilometres in dimension, that contain erratically distributed elevated gold-in soil values that have not been drilled, and are targets for follow up work.
There are three prospects, all of which are centred on poor rubbly outcrops of vein quartz within extensive black soil plains, at which some drilling has been done by previous explorers. These are Retro, Retro Extended and Ayers Rock. At the Retro Prospect 11 RC holes totalling 616 m have been drilled along a strike length of 1,100 m on lines spaced at between 160 m and 500 m, with intersects of interest that range from 2 m at 1.1 g/t gold to 2 m at 13.7 g/t gold in the top 50 metres. Geological continuity between these widespaced sections is uncertain.
At the Retro Extended Prospect five RC holes totalling 257 m have been drilled along a strike length of 150 m, with intersects of interest that range from 12 m at 1.2 g/t gold to 16 m at 8.5 g/t gold from surface. The latter includes an interval of 8 m at 16 g/t gold, 143 g/t silver, 5.6% copper and 7.6% lead from 8 m depth. This is interpreted to be an oblique intersect representing a true lode width of 3 to 4 metres.
At the Ayers Rock Prospect previous exploration has been targeted at IP resistivity anomalies (regarded as indicators of buried resistive vein quartz), that are partly coincident with poorly outcropping vein quartz. One such linear resistivity anomaly has been drilled on sections ranging from 50 m to 200 m apart, along 2,000 m of strike, for a total of 66 RC holes and 6,487 m. Many of these holes intersected widespread silica-sericite-pyrite alteration and low grade gold (from 0.1 g/t to 0.5 g/t). Within these broad zones there were some narrow high grade intersects associated with quartz veins. Several holes had intersects of interest, including:
- ARC008: 22 m at 1.1 g/t from 60 m depth;
- ARC009: 32 m at 3.8 g/t from 22 m, including 2 m at 32.8 g/t from 22 m and 2 m at 18.9 g/t from 50 m;
- CAR003: 22 m at 1.7 g/t from 20 m, including 1m at 8.5 g/t from 38 m; and
- CAR005: 6 m at 5.1 g/t from 40 m depth.
Resistivity
Chargeability
However the IP geophysical survey at the Ayers Rock Prospect also defi ned several linear chargeability anomalies (as opposed to the resistivity anomalies referred to above). These are between 1 and 2 kilometres long. Only a small strike length of these has been drill tested by previous explorers and there are many strike-kilometres that have not been tested. This is signifi cant because at the Yandan Mine these chargeability anomalies are commonly associated with the buried sulphidic disseminated style gold deposits that have been intersected at depth by Straits. At Ayers Rock there is potential for gold deposits that are analogues of Yandan and Twin Hills.
Future exploration at Drummond East, Drummond West and Clermont
Large parts of Impact's tenements in the Drummond Basin are covered by younger sedimentary rocks and regolith which has
rendered ineffective most of the previous conventional surface geochemistry exploration. They are not well explored. It is
intended to explore for new gold and gold-copper deposits under this cover using new concepts and technologies. Therefore the
exploration will focus on establishing those parts of the project areas that are underlain by the prospective Silver Hill
Volcanics by using geophysical methods and by synthesising and analysing all of the previous exploration data. This will be
followed up by soil geochemistry programs and more detailed ground geophysical programs at those areas ranked to be most
prospective, to defi ne drill targets. At Clermont in particular, the existing IP geophysical data will permit immediate
planning of soil geochemistry programs to defi ne drill targets, and further IP surveys will be completed at other priority
areas. It is expected that deep drilling by RC and diamond methods will be a significant part of the work at Clermont, in the
search for bulk tonnage gold deposits.
The Drummond East and Drummond West Projects are at the same stage of exploration and will be evaluated together for their future exploration programs. Initial work will comprise regional airborne geophysical surveys and reconnaissance soil geochemistry programs which will be used to defi ne areas of further interest. These areas will be subject to detailed target definition work and drilling.