Ventnor Resources (ASX:VRX) has announced it will commence geophysical surveys this week at its Silver Dragon and Fire Dragon prospects in the Biranup Project area, 370 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, as it seeks to develop drill-ready targets. Biranup is 22km to the north-west of the Tropicana gold mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti and Independence Group and Ventnor believes the tenements are prospective for gold and other minerals.
Ventnor Resources Ltd (Ventnor) (ASX:VRX) will commence geophysical surveys this week at its Silver Dragon and Fire Dragon prospects in the Biranup Project area, 370 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, as it seeks to develop drill-ready targets.
Biranup was formerly known as the Black Dragon Gold Project. When granted in March 2015 the 42 graticular block EL39/1828 was referred to as the Black Dragon Gold Project, however subsequent work by Ventnor has identified multiple exploration targets on the 140 sq km area.
These exploration targets are prospective for various minerals as well as gold and to avoid confusion and easier identification the tenement has been renamed the Biranup Project area.
Ventnor’s Biranup Project is proximal to the Tropicana gold mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti and Independence Group. Tropicana commenced production in 2013 and contains a resource in excess of 4Moz and is 22 kilometres to the south-west of EL 39/1828.
The two target surveys to be completed at Biranup will utilise Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) geophysical technology to investigate the prospective areas.
Detailed Information
EL39/1828 was previously explored in the 1990s by WMC and more recently by the AngloGold Ashanti and Independence Group joint venture, which generated a large dataset of geological information over a 7½ year period.
AngloGold explored the ground for Tropicana-style gold mineralisation, being a 30o southeast dipping, tabular orebody characterised by biotite-sericite-pyrite alteration of the host gneisses. The primary exploration technique used was vertical aircore drilling on a 200m x 200m drill pattern, and sometimes 400m or wider lines, drilled to blade refusal, with routine gold assays down-hole and bottom-of-hole multi-element assays. Limited RC and diamond drilling was conducted in areas of stronger gold anomalism. The result of this exploration effort is that Ventnor has inherited a large database of geochemical multi-element assays and geophysical surveys that are invaluable in targeting not only gold mineralisation, but other precious and base metals.
Immediately after the tenement was granted, Ventnor commenced field checking and data analysis work, and within six months had completed a maiden RC drilling program on the Black Dragon outcrop which produced high grade assay results including 9 metres at 7.08g/t Au in BDRC1001 and 6 metres at 3.02g/t Au in BDRC1026 (ASX announcement 16th November 2015 – “Black Dragon Exploration Update”). Whilst this drilling program hasn’t yet resulted in an economic resource, it did confirm the presence of gold mineralisation at higher grades than previous drilling, supporting the Company’s view regarding the remaining prospectivity of the tenement.
Since the last drilling campaign, Ventnor has acquired high quality IP survey data and is reevaluating the drill data in conjunction with the IP data to plan a further drill program.
In 2016, Ventnor has continued to advance the Biranup Project area through acquisition of detailed 50m line-spaced aeromagnetic data, as well as satellite-acquired Emissivity and quartz mapping. These datasets have been reviewed in-house and by Company consultants to generate multiple exploration targets for testing.
A large airborne SPECTREM survey was flown previously and a review was carried out to assess survey data quality and identify regolith features and any anomalous EM responses that could indicate bedrock conductors associated with conductive semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation for follow-up work. As a result of this work, Ventnor has determined to proceed with on-ground MLEM surveys at Silver Dragon and Fire Dragon.
SPECTREM system specifications
SPECTREM is a fixed-wing time domain STEP response AEM system with capabilities to detect semi-massive to massive sulphides at considerable depth, in either conductive or resistive environments. SPECTREM records a full on-time measurement of the EM field using a 100% duty cycle square current waveform, which is processed to provide a STEP response signal at the receiver (Legault, 2015). A three component air-cored receiver coil is towed 128m behind the aircraft at a nominal flying height of 90m above the ground.
