(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - Australia) Phoenix Gold (ASX: PXG) has commenced an aggressive exploration program in 2013, which is part of a A$20 million accelerated drilling programme on the highly prospective Kunanalling and Zuleika shear zones in the heart of the Western Australian Goldfields.
Highlighting the prospectivity of the area, Phoenix is drilling less than 50 kilometres from the regional mining centre of Kalgoorlie - Boulder, with the company aiming to achieve an interim resource target of over 4 million gold ounces.
The drilling program will cover over 217,000 metres, comprising a combination of reverse circulation and diamond drilling at the company's Castle Hill and Broads Dam gold projects.
The wholly owned Castle Hill gold project is emerging as a flagship asset for Phoenix, and has the potential to become a multi-million ounce gold mine with excellent metallurgy, while also being strategically located close to all major infrastructure.
Castle Hill is just one of many well-endowed gold systems within Phoenix's portfolio.
Exploration will also include air core, soil sampling and geophysics on a number of highly prospective greenfields targets including Ora Banda, Carbine West, Christmas Reef, Split Rock Dam and Zuleika North.
Jon Price, managing director, commented: "2013 is shaping up to be a company defining year for Phoenix with the drilling programme already delivering excellent results.
"I believe we are on the way to realising the full potential of our Castle Hill project, to turn Red Dam into a significant high-grade open cut and underground gold mine and continue our search for the next large gold discovery in this fantastic part of the world."
Castle Hill drilling program summary
In 2013, a total of over 100,000 metres will be drilled at Castle Hill with up to 4 drilling rigs on site drilling to an average depth of around 200 metres. The aim is to further define this gold camp and realise the project's multi-million ounce potential.
The Castle Hill Resource stands at 23.5 million tonnes at 1.6g/t Au for 1,178,000 ounces. The project area lies on the western margin of the Coolgardie Domain of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt, and is transected by the Kunanalling Shear Zone.
At Castle Hill, the Kintore Tonalite (porphyry) is the main host to gold mineralisation complemented with high grade shear hosted lodes in the adjacent basalt.
The tonalite narrows to the south where it forms an elongated tail consisting of a number of dykes including those which host Castle Hill Stage 1.
Multiple vein sets in multiple orientations within multiple rock types provide an extremely well-endowed gold system very close to surface. The mineralised envelope for Stage 1 is over 1 km long, up to 200m wide with recent diamond and reverse circulation drilling demonstrating the mineralisation continues at depth at improving grade.
Follow up drilling has been conducted and is continuing after drilling in December intercepted 94m at 2.6g/t Au from 88m1 (including 38m at 3.1g/t, 13m at 4.2g/t, 16m at 1.82g/t and 2m at 9.8g/t). This hole has also been extended as the hole finished with 1m at 6.3g/t and results are expected to be released within the next month.
The northern end of the tonalite is up to 2 kilometres in width and hosts Castle Hill Stage 2. The mineralised envelope is 800m long and 400m wide and has only been drilled to 70m depth. Results from the maiden drilling campaign in December are expected in the March Quarter.
Broads Dam Drilling program summary
The Broads Dam Gold Project area is located on the Zuleika Shear, a major northwest trending lineament and host to numerous multi-million ounce gold deposits.
Following a number of strategic acquisitions, Phoenix now has interests in contiguous tenements covering 15 kilometres of strike of highly prospective mafic, ultramafic and intrusive rocks associated with the Zuleika Shear.
Broads Dam has similar geological characteristics to neighbouring gold camps including analogous rock types and comparable structural trends to those observed at the adjacent +6 million ounce Kundana camp, located 15 km to the south.
The Broads Dam Resource stands at 5.81 million tonnes at 2.2 g/t Au for 409,000 ounces. Reverse circulation drilling has commenced at Broads Dam and is focused initially on the recent Red Dam gold discovery with 24,000 metres planned to an average depth of around 190 metres.
The aim is to significantly increase the current resource both along strike and at depth to define the project's open cut and high grade underground potential.
Greenfields exploration summary
While the focus for Phoenix remains Resource growth and development of the Castle Hill and Broads Dam projects, a geological architecture 4D evolution study has commenced centred on identification of exploration targets across the tenements.
A Phoenix project geologist is being sponsored to complete this work over a two year period in collaboration with the Centre for Exploration Targeting, a division of the University of Western Australia.
In conjunction with this work, geophysics, soils, aircore drilling, data base interrogation and geological mapping will be undertaken to identify and test new targets. Initial focus will be on the Ora Banda, Carbine and Zuleika North regions where little modern systematic exploration has been completed for over 15 years.
In December 2012, Phoenix was awarded an exploration grant totalling $260,000 under the Western Australian Government Exploration Incentive Scheme Co-funded Exploration Drilling Program. This grant will co-fund several exploration holes planned to be drilled to over 1,000m depth in the June Quarter on both the Zuleika and Kunanalling shear zones.
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