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- Stavely Minerals (SVY) has received first assay results from its maiden diamond drill program at the high-grade Mathinna Gold Project in Tasmania
- Three diamond holes were drilled to test potential extensions of the area
- While gold was intersected, poor sampling methods tainted the results and re-sampling and investigations will need to be conducted
- However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, this will need to be delayed
- Positively, four of drill holes provided a significant dataset of structural information that will help target further exploration at Mathinna
- Stavely Minerals ended the day 15.1 per cent in the green, with shares trading for 42 cents each
Stavely Minerals (SVY) has received first assay results from its maiden diamond drill program at the high-grade Mathinna Gold Project in Tasmania.
A total of three diamond holes were drilled to test the potential extensions of the historical mine area. Another four diamond drill holes were drilled as part of Mineral Resources Tasmania’s (MRT) Exploration Drilling Initiative Program to better understand the overall stratigraphic and structural setting of the Mathinna area.
Drilling successfully found lode-style gold mineralisation in the projected locations and included a number of intervals containing small amounts of visible gold.
Significant intervals include: 3 metres at 1.48 g/t gold from 90 metres, 4 metres at 1.67 g/t gold from 312 metres, 1 metre at 2.77 g/t gold from 133.4 metres, 2.25 metres at 0.34 g/t gold from 237.65 metres, and 8 metres at 0.61 g/t gold from 44 metres.
The company used the 30g fire assay method but found that this method resulted in poor individual sample repeatability.
The individual check assays using the PhotonAssay method varied from the original 30g fire assay results by up to 420 per cent and the overall mineralised zones were up to 51 per cent higher using the larger PhotonAssay method.
Stavely found the mineralisation varied and will need to conduct further investigations.
“The intersection of visible gold in two holes highlights the potential of the Mathinna Project, however, the sampling undertaken to date and the relatively small fire assay sample size available in the Tasmanian assay laboratory may not be representative of the project’s potential,” Executive Chairman Chris Cairns said.
Individual sample results from one hole using the PhotonAssay method identified that the gold distribution in multiple samples indicated the presence of nuggety coarse gold. This may partly explain why the very small (30g) fire assay methods available have not resulted in higher grade results.
Additional samples have been selected for further analysis which are to be collected and sent to Perth for analysis.
However, given the current COVID-19 travel restrictions to Tasmania, the follow-up sampling and detailed investigation of the results will be delayed.
Out of the seven drill holes, four provided a significant dataset of structural information that will help to target further exploration at Mathinna and along the structural trend which extends for more than 30 kilometres from Tower Hill in the south to Alberton in the north.
Stavely Minerals ended the day 15.1 per cent in the green, with shares trading for 42 cents each.
