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Murray Ward
Zenith Minerals has tightened the geological picture at its flagship Consolidated Dulcie gold project in WA’s Southern Cross-Forrestania gold belt.
A 10-hole RC drilling campaign has now confirmed the continuity of mineralisation, extending gold lodes well beyond existing resource boundaries.
The company says the best results have immediately upgraded the geological understanding of the project’s lode geometries ahead of a larger-scale drilling blitz across the recently consolidated tenure.
Zenith’s program chewed through 1350 metres of drilling for five holes into the critical Scott’s Grey and Dulcie South trends. The drill bit was aimed at testing potential resource extensions along with down-dip continuity, using existing cleared pads to probe the shallow-dipping lode structure.
‘These results improve our understanding of the shallow-dipping lode architecture across the broader Dulcie corridor.’
Zenith Minerals managing director Andrew Smith
Headlining the fresh assay results at Scott’s Grey was a five-metre intercept grading 3.49 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 91 metres, featuring a high-grade one-metre sweet spot at 13.24g/t gold, also from 91m.
Nearby, another hole hit 3m at 1.05g/t gold from 160m, while a further hole landed 1m at 1.89g/t gold from 123 metres.
The drilling at Scott’s Grey fought tough ground conditions, with excessive groundwater forcing the premature abandonment of three holes. Despite these setbacks, the company says the completed holes appear to have successfully proved that the high-grade mineralisation remains live, wide open along strike and down-dip.
Over at Dulcie South, the rigs stepped out to probe a 100-metre gap in the resource model with two holes. Both holes successfully bit into the target lodes to confirm lateral continuity, even though the assays returned softer grades and narrower widths than originally expected across this portion of the trend.
Zenith Minerals managing director Andrew Smith said: “Drilling confirmed continuity of mineralisation across several targeted positions within both the Scott’s Grey and Dulcie South trends, while also extending mineralisation locally beyond previous drilling limits.”
While the Dulcie corridor has recently taken centre stage, Zenith maintains a multi-commodity asset portfolio spanning three Australian states. In Queensland, the explorer is sitting on the Red Mountain gold play, which is being explored as an intrusion-related gold system (IRGS), similar in style to several major Queensland gold deposits. Zenith has compared aspects of the project to the historic Mt Wright gold mine near Ravenswood.
Recent drilling at Red Mountain has returned some substantial broad gold intersections, including a whopping 139.7m at 1.05g/t gold from 225m, featuring 14.2m at 4.62g/t gold and a higher-grade 2-metre core grading 21.03g/t gold. It’s fair to say these results have only strengthened Zenith’s view that Red Mountain could host a sizeable gold system.
Elsewhere, the company’s Split Rocks lithium project in Western Australia showcases an inferred JORC resource matching 11.9 million tonnes grading 0.72 per cent lithium oxide.
Also in Western Australia, the company holds a 25 per cent free-carried interest at the emerging Earaheedy zinc project north-east of Wiluna, alongside an indirect 26 per cent stake in the historic Cowarra gold project south of Canberra in New South Wales.
Zenith is now finalising heritage clearances and regulatory approvals to pin down exact drill targets ahead of a major exploration push. Rigs are currently mobilising for a substantial 5000-metre reverse circulation blitz across its newly acquired mining lease.
This upcoming campaign will target the critical 600-metre untested strike gap between the Dulcie North and Dulcie deposits, aiming to tie the entire continuous asset together. Follow-up diamond drilling is also being sketched out to anchor upcoming metallurgical testing.
With an established 675,000-ounce inferred gold resource already underpinning the project, Zenith has shown that this six-kilometre footprint may have plenty of room to stretch.
If the upcoming 5000-metre campaign can successfully connect the dots across that untested 600-metre gap, the company could be looking at a much bigger gold beast than anybody initially anticipated.
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