ASX Announcement / Media Release
17 August 2016
ASX Code: ORN Issued Capital:
Ordinary Shares: 475M Options: 85M
Directors: Denis Waddell
Chairman
Errol Smart
Managing Director, CEO
Bill Oliver
Technical Director
Alexander Haller
Non-Executive Director
Management: Martin Bouwmeester
Company Secretary &
Business Development Manager
Suite 2
64 Thomas Street West Perth WA 6005 ABN 76 098 939 274
T: +61 8 9485 2685
E: [email protected]
Wide Zone of Strong Gold-Copper Mineralisation in First Drill-hole at Marydale Project, South Africa
64m intersection averaging 1.55g/t gold with zones of up to 5.09g/t gold confirms and enhances historical results, confirming project potential
Highlights:
-
Excellent results from the Company's maiden Diamond drill-hole at its Marydale Gold-Copper Project in the Areachap region of South Africa's Northern Cape Province. Assays include 64m grading 1.55g/t gold and 0.26% copper, including:
-
Results confirm historical drilling results and enable the mineralisation to be structurally modelled.
-
Strong correlation between gold values and sulphide content indicates applicability of electrical survey methods - which will assist ongoing exploration.
-
High-powered IP and EM surveys over >2.5km of prospective strike to commence in coming weeks, to define additional drilling targets.
Orion Gold NL (ASX: ORN) is pleased to advise that it has confirmed the significant potential of the emerging Marydale Gold-Copper Project, part of its mineral portfolio in South Africa's Northern Cape Province after receiving outstanding results from the first Diamond drill-hole to be completed at the project.
Assay data has been received from OWCD032, the first of the two completed drill-holes at Marydale, with a thick intersection of 64m at 1.55g/t gold and 0.26% copper returned from 22m down-hole. This intersection includes a higher grade interval of 21m at 2.93g/t gold and 0.34% copper including 5m at 5.09g/t gold and 0.37% copper (see Figures 1 and 2).
The broad zones of mineralisation intersected in this hole are consistent with historical drilling.
The Marydale Project is a virgin gold discovery of possible high sulphidation epithermal origin within the Areachap Belt, over which Orion holds an option (refer ASX Release 13 May 2016). Orion is accumulating a substantial mineral portfolio within this belt with exposure to zinc, copper, gold, nickel-copper + PGE across a number of mineral rights areas (refer ASX Releases 18 November 2015, 29 April 2016, 13 May 2016 and 14 July 2016).
W: www.oriongold.com.au
Orion's recent drilling has focused on obtaining oriented drill core through the higher grade zones intersected in historical drilling. Structural geological data from these holes is being used to generate a robust geological model for the prospect. The new intersections compare favourably with the following historic results, adjacent to OWCD032 (refer ASX Release, 18 November 2015):
50.4m at 2.68g/t gold from 8.1m (WC08);
11.3m at 3.36g/t gold from 1.4m (WC10).
A
B
Figure 1: Plan showing results from OWCD032 and historical drilling at the NW Quadrant area of Marydale Project.
A B
Figure 2:
Cross Section showing results from OWCD032 and adjacent historical drilling.
Significantly, multiple zones of elevated mineralisation were intersected in OWCD032, which may imply a repetition of the mineralised strata due to folding or faulting. Initial interpretations based on data from the oriented core have made it clear that the host lithology is in a structurally complex folded and sheared package.
Structural readings also confirm that the package hosting the Marydale mineralisation is folded (Figure 4), which is likely to have thickened the prospective horizon in the hinges of folds. Individual lenses of mineralisation may also be fault or shear bounded and terminate abruptly (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Highly mineralised core intersected in hole OWCDO33 between 70m - 74m. Pyrite (5%- 15%) is partially oxidised to haematite and limonite at this depth. Lithology is structurally complex, folded and sheared. The white line marks orientation reference line.
Figure 4: Foliation measurements from OWCD032 plotted using a stereographic projection.
The structural data shown in Figure 4 will be incorporated with structural data from trench mapping (and sampling results) along with petrologic and other field observations to allow a robust model for the mineralisation to be developed and future drilling to target extensions of the mineralised package, as well as additional shoots within it.
Most importantly, a strong correlation between gold-copper mineralisation and sulphide content (reaching >25%) is observed (Figure 5), indicating that electrical geophysical techniques may be used to identify accumulations of mineralisation and placing higher significance on historic induced polarisation (IP) survey data, which indicates an extensive conductive body (Figure 6).
Figure 5: Highly sulphidic, blebby and net-textured sulphides associated with elevated gold-copper mineralisation, indicating suitability for EM detection.
As discussed in the ASX release of 15 July 2016, analysis and reinterpretation of historical surface geochemical and geophysical data over the larger prospect area has enhanced the prospectivity of the extensive anomalous area, which stretches over 2km along trend (as shown in Figure 6) also remains open to the south-east.
The Company has now engaged a contractor to carry out a high-powered IP and electromagnetic (EM) survey at the Marydale Project. This survey is anticipated to commence in the coming weeks and will be able to verify the historical surveys and completely cover the prospective horizon for mineralisation at the Marydale Project.
The IP survey will be undertaken in 3D array, with higher powered and more modern instruments that the previous survey, with the objective of looking deeper and providing more defined targets.
The amenability of the mineralisation to detection by EM surveying will also be tested using a high powered SQUID EM, which may detect deeper level repetitions of mineralisation. Volcanogenic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) gold deposits are frequently zoned in lateral and vertical expression and it is postulated that the folded stratigraphy may result in higher grade or larger lenses of mineralisation being preserved at depth.