Advanced lithium developer Core Lithium (ASX: CXO) today announced that early reconnaissance exploration work has discovered visible gold at surface at the new Pickled Parrot Prospect (PPP) within the Bynoe gold project in the Northern Territory.
HIGHLIGHTS:
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Visible gold has been discovered at new Pickled Parrot Prospect.
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Pickled Parrot initially found by re-assaying lithium soil samples for gold.
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Gold in soil up to 1.9g/t Au in new assays.
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Vein system and coincident gold geochemical anomaly over 100m wide and open over 300m along strike.
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New visible gold only 700m away from 106g/t Au rock chip at Covidicus West.
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Discoveries of gold-rich vein systems like Pickled Parrot and Covidicus West are early examples of numerous targets defined by Core’s baseline geochemical library.
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Re-assays and new sampling results are generating a number of new targets where there were no previous gold assays.
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Mapping, soil sampling and rock chip sampling is ongoing.
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Core’s low-cost gold re-assay and field exploration program substantiating the huge gold potential of this very exciting project.
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Further assay results expected soon, including the remaining pulp re-assays and new rock chip and soil sample assays.
PPP was initially identified at the eastern end of a regional soil line originally sampled for lithium in 2019. Based only on moderately elevated Arsenic and Bismuth, re-assay of conventional soil samples collected by Core resulted in an impressive 828ppb Au anomaly.
PPP has also been geological mapped by Core over recent weeks and found to be the focus of a series of quartz veins in an area of least 300m in length and 100m wide. These veins vary between 1 cm and 10m wide and individually up to 100m long.
Many veins are arranged in an en echelon geometry and many of the smaller veins occur in dense anastomosing clusters, which when sampled along with the enclosing graphiticpyritic schist host have anomalous gold values (maximum 339ppb Au).
The quartz veins locally contain inclusions of shale and box-works of iron oxide and locally arsenopyrite, which are intimately associated with the gold mineralisation. Gold occurs as blebs up to 1mm in diameter and dispersed as microscopic grains in the arsenopyrite matrix. The observed mineralogy has been confirmed by Niton hand-held XRF. Complimentary multi-element geochemical results to assist with further target definition are expected imminently.
Visible gold was discovered on the eastern side of the prospect, following up higher soil anomalies from the results released herein. Additional samples relating to that area have been submitted to the laboratory for assay and will be reported in due course. A new set of quartz veins have also been mapped and sampled immediately to the southeast where there is currently no baseline geochemical data.