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- New Age Exploration (NAE) has applied for two new permits covering 720 square kilometres on the South Island of New Zealand
- The applications complement New Age’s Otago Pioneer Quartz Project which sits in the southern portion of the Otago Schist Belt
- The Manoburn permit is located 20 kilometre southwest of the Rise and Shine discovery and 85 kilometres from OceanaGold’s 10-million-ounce Macraes Gold Mine
- The Marlborough permit is part of the Marlborough Schist Belt which is prospective for gold and tungsten
- Once they’re granted, New Age will compile data from the permits to identify potential mineralisation
- Company shares have dropped 10.5 per cent to trade for 1.7 cents
New Age Exploration (NAE) has applied for two new permits covering 720 square kilometres on the South Island of New Zealand.
The applications complement New Age’s Otago Pioneer Quartz Project, which sits in the southern portion of the Otago Schist Belt.
Manoburn
The Manoburn application is situated within the highly prospective Otago Schist Belt and located just 20 kilometres southwest of the Rise and Shine discovery which was recently bought by Santana Minerals (SMI).
The application is also located 85 kilometres northwest of Oceana Gold’s (OGC) Macraes Gold Mine, which has combined production and mineral resources of more than 10 million gold ounces.
The Manoburn area is fairly underexplored but is known to have adjacent gold deposits. The area was also subjected to geophysical surveys in the late 2000s.
Once the permit is granted, NAE will access the survey data to identify potential structures which are associated with gold mineralisation.
Marlborough
The Marlborough application is part of the Marlborough Schist Belt which is prospective for gold and tungsten.
Marlborough is covered by airborne geophysical data which was acquired by the New Zealand Government in 2017.
So far, the data hasn’t been utilised for identifying structures or lithological contacts within the Marlborough Schist that have potenttial to contain shear-hosted gold and tungsten mineralisation.
Importantly, the application area contains multiple historic, shallow gold and scheelite mines. In total, the area produced 18,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 5.3g/t. Tungsten was mined at grades of 0.58 per cent.
The company will aim to review the data to identify mineralisation. Following this, it plans to conduct follow-up geological mapping and geochemical sampling.
“We think that NAE can unlock value across both applications, considering the extensive historic workings which have not been analysed, and the lack of any modern exploration,” Executive Director Joshua Wellisch said.
Company shares have dropped 10.5 per cent to trade for 1.7 cents at 1:08 pm AEDT.
