General News
15 February, 2023
Golden Iris excitement
A NEW high-grade zone has shown eight visible gold samples across what could be a continuous zone of mineralisation near Mitiamo. Catalyst Metals says Iris Zone presents the “first clear proof of concept that Four Eagles contains the same...
A NEW high-grade zone has shown eight visible gold samples across what could be a continuous zone of mineralisation near Mitiamo.
Catalyst Metals says Iris Zone presents the “first clear proof of concept that Four Eagles contains the same structural style as the 22-million-ounce Bendigo Goldfield, where high-grade mineralised zones repeat at depth”.
“Iris adds to the number of high-grade zones close to the proposed exploration tunnel, potentially changing project economics,” Catalyst told the Australian Stock Exchange last week.
Chief executive officer John McKinstry told the Loddon Herald this week that local drilling was about to end for the season.
Mr McKinstry said the company had responded to queries from the State Government regulators on its application to construct a $20 million exploration tunnel as part of the Four Eagles project.
“We are limited in how far we can explore from the surface,” he said.
Catalyst technical director Bruce Kay said the new visible samples were “a pivotal breakthrough in our hunt for the extension of the Bendigo Goldfield”.
Drilling returned multiple occurrences of visible gold in eight diamond drill cores from the Boyd’s Dam prospect.
“We have always suspected that there would be stacked gold zones below the shallow Boyd’s Dam mineralisation but previous drilling has not been done with the optimal orientation.
“The Iris Zone appears to be very consistent and visible gold is always exciting. Catalyst has identified a number of high-grade areas of mineralisation within close proximity to one another - Boyd’s Dam, Hayanmi, Pickles, Cunneens, Eagle 5, Bullock and Iris Zone. These areas of stacked, repetitive mineralisation have the potential to change the project’s economics and could eventually all be mined from the one access tunnel.”
Catalyst said the newly-discovered Iris Zone was on a steep western shear zone and seemed to mostly occupy the western limb of the Boyd’s Dam anticline.
“Drilling results continue to show that Four Eagles is a strongly mineralised area and further drilling is likely to define new gold bearing structures,” the company said.
Catalyst said discovery of the Iris Zone provided a significant, highly sought-after element to the prospectivity of the Whitelaw Gold Belt north of Bendigo.