DiscovEx drills Pilbara iron, firms up gold anomalies

DiscovEx Resources says three reverse-circulation (RC) drillholes for 702m completed recently within its Sylvania project near Newman in Western Australia intersected banded iron mineralisation grading up to 48.2 per cent iron.

The maiden drilling program was undertaken by Rio Tinto Exploration under the terms of DiscovEx’s Sylvania iron ore option agreement with the company. The longest intercept was 88m going 34.5 per cent iron from 84m depth in the first hole. That intercept followed 8m going 44.1 per cent iron from 2m depth, while the second hole encountered 80m at 33.5 per cent from 26m.

The third hole intercepted 38m running a grade of 36.5 per cent iron from 22m, including 6m at the program’s best grade of 48.2 per cent from 34m and 60m at 34.5 per cent from 82m including 2m going 43 per cent from 116m.

All three drill holes were put into a north-east oriented line about 730m long to test an interpreted in-situ banded-iron target identified from ground reconnaissance and geophysical interpretation. Management describes the program as intercepting wide, low-grade iron mineralisation in all three holes in a mineralised strike length estimated at about 650m, with logged magnetite observed through the highest-grade intervals.

It says results identified broad, low-level mineralisation coincident with magnetic anomalism in keeping with historic intersections that include 52m at 40.5 per cent iron from surface in one hole, 72m going 36.6 per cent from surface in a second hole and 64m running 36.8 per cent from surface including 14m going 48 per cent iron from surface.

DiscovEx says Rio also submitted selected sample material from the RC drilling for preliminary metallurgical testwork, mainly to evaluate the potential for concentrate beneficiation by magnetic separation.

The program was undertaken as part of the Sylvania option agreement that is set to expire on August 16, unless it is renewed for up to a further four years by the payment of $40,000 per year to DiscovEx. If Rio exercises its option, it must pay DiscovEx a $1,050,000 fee, in addition to royalties of 0.4 and 1 per cent according to the relevant tenement.

Management says it has also undertaken a program of geochemical soil sampling to infill previous anomalous gold results at its Jackal, Hyena, Basenji and Jack Russell targets, while also completing a first-pass investigation of the entire length of the exposed Prairie Downs Fault, with 733 samples being taken.

It says previous rock chip samples reporting up to 309 parts per billion gold at Prairie Downs and 270ppb gold at the Husky target areas have been overlooked by previous explorers and that justified undertaking a 200m-by-50m gold sampling program along the fault to see what was going on. A best result of 18ppb gold was obtained along the fault between the Prairie Downs and Husky prospects.

The remainder of the program met with considerable success, picking up modest, but locally-significant gold anomalism in the Jack Russel prospect area in the range of 26.4 to 48.4ppb gold, within an area measuring about 3km-by-3km. Most values were concentrated in a smaller area of about 2km by 1.5km where gold appears to be associated with north-west-trending faults at their intersections with north-south lithological contacts and the area is being considered for further investigation.

DiscovEx says it picked up a 2km-long concentration of antimony anomalies exceeding 5 parts per million contained within a 100ppm zinc anomaly and coincident with the Prairie Downs Fault. It is centred on the Wolf prospect, about 1km north-west of Prairie Downs, extending with less intensity south-eastward to modest anomalism at the Downs.

Management says it has rationalised its tenement holding at Sylvania and entered a deal with Peregrine Gold to sell three of its exploration licences for $175,000 worth of that company’s shares, currently equivalent to 581,940 shares at an issue price of $30.07c. The deal also calls for a deferred milestone payment of $600,000 if Peregrine announces a JORC-complaint mineral resource of at least 200,000 ounces of gold at a minimum of 1g/t gold cut-off grade.

A second milestone payment of $600,000 also becomes payable in the event of any mining lease being granted to Peregrine under the section of the West Australian Mining Act that pertains generally to mining lease applications and approvals.

DiscovEx has a few irons in the fire at Sylvania. It has rationalised its landholdings in the area and with more sampling and some luck, it will be able to expand its gold anomalism and potentially find its iron ore is amenable to beneficiation by magnetic separation.

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