King River knuckles down on new Top End gold targets

King River Resources has completed 11 reverse-circulation (RC) drillholes for 1824m at two of the company’s Langrenus gold targets within its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory and has sent some 1300 samples away for assay.

Management now plans to move the rig to its Commitment deposit, before returning to Langrenus to test the orientation of a new quartz-haematite target and any other new prospective zones indicated by assay results.

Langrenus is centred about 10km west of Emmerson Resources’ Gigantic, Blue Moon and Metallic Hill projects and 4km east/south-east along strike from that company’s Mauretania project, which produced a respectable hit of 20m going 38.5g/t gold in diamond drilling.

Importantly, the distinct south-easterly ironstone trend from Mauretania, through Hopeful Star and Hopeful Star East, continues for 1300m into King River’s Target Area 1. Its Target Area 2 is about another 1km further south-east on the same quartz-magnetite-ironstone strike.

The total length of the magnetic signature at the Target 1 is about 460m, while the signature at Target 2 is more intense and about 800m long.

Target 1 drilling revealed quartz-haematite that was logged in three RC holes where induced-polarisation (IP) work last year identified an east-west-trending chargeability zone intersecting the main north-west gravity anomaly. The downhole thickness of the zone measures 20m and shows varying intensity of quartz veining and haematite in iron-altered Warramunga siltstone units.

Drilling at Target Area 2 intersected broad zones of haematite alteration and veining, including a quartz magnetite vein. The structures are associated with the main gravity trend and management says further drilling could be undertaken, based on initial assay results.

Drilling in the next four months has been designed for 10,800m distributed across 61 RC holes in 13 prospects. The work had been planned to kick off in late February, but was put back due to heavy rains after cyclones Lincoln and Meagan damaged access roads and created wet ground conditions.

But the company was able to get the drill bit turning again on its first phase of work this month, with three main areas to be tested. The work started with the 11 holes at Langrenus that are now completed and will move on to four RC holes at Commitment for 850m.

It will be followed by four more RC holes for 500m at the Providence target east of Langrenus where last year’s drilling of 18 holes for 2790m discovered geochemically-anomalous ironstone alteration and low-grade gold mineralisation associated with gravity and dipole-dipole IP (DDIP) anomalies. Additional drilling will also be undertaken at other project areas during the year, with access preparation already underway at Kurundi, about 108km south of Langrenus.

Previous work at Kurundi unveiled eight main targets arising from a combination of 10 square kilometres of gradient array IP (GAIP) and DDIP, in addition to 25sq km of detailed magnetics and other reconnaissance exploration.

King River says its new Target 1 intersection gives it a strong structural target along strike of the complex ironstone and mineralised zone that hosts Mauretania, Hopeful Star and the historical mining in quartz haematite zones. The excellent continuity of the ironstone bodies is reflected strongly by magnetic data and enables reasonably straightforward drill-targeting, while IP surveys provide good confirmation and target focus.

By the time King River completes its drilling at Commitment, it expects to have its assays from the phase-one drilling at Langrenus and it may then have new targets in sight. The proposed work will also test the orientation and extent of the new quartz haematite zone.

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