Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK, OTC:ALKEF) continues to extend the gold and mineralised footprint at its Northern Molong Porphyry Project in Central New South Wales, with further high-grade intercepts from the asset’s Boda, Boda Two and Boda Three targets.
The exploration company has been running a drill program over a 5-kilometre mineralised zone from Molong’s Kaiser to the Boda targets, through Boda Two and Three and south to Boda Four.
Alkane, which also operates the nearby Tomingley Gold Operations, believes Molong has the potential to be a large, tier-one gold and copper system.
The drill program at the Boda targets is now complete with final assay results expected in September, while diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling is ongoing at Kaiser.
Boda's latest drill results keep Alkane on track to update its mineral resource estimate (MRE) in the fourth quarter, while Kaiser’s MRE is targeted for an upgrade early next year.
Possibly a separate system
Highlight intercepts from three diamond drill holes at Boda 2-3 include:
- BOD094 - 591.8 metres grading 0.62 g/t gold equivalent (0.35 g/t gold, 0.19% copper) from 1,215 metres, including 58 metres grading 2.30 g/t gold equivalent (1.28 g/t gold, 0.74% copper) from 1,223 metres, including 12 metres grading 4.78 g/t gold equivalent (3.37 g/t gold, 0.98% copper) from 1,265 metres; and 21 metres grading 1.02 g/t gold equivalent (0.58 g/t gold, 0.31% copper) from 1,285 metres; and
- BOD105 – 147 metres grading 0.43 g/t gold equivalent (0.20 g/t gold, 0.16% copper) from 294 metres; and 28 metres grading 0.51 g/t gold equivalent (0.31 g/t gold, 0.14% copper) from 611 metres; and 162 metres grading 0.30 g/t gold equivalent (0.14 g/t gold, 0.10% copper) from 718 metres; and 122.4 metres grading 0.38 g/t gold equivalent (0.15 g/t gold, 0.17% copper) from 921.6 metres.
The mineralisation at BOD094 is open down dip along strike and sits outside of the current Boda MRE of 624 million tonnes grading 0.26 g/t gold and 0.14% copper for 5.21 million ounces of gold and 900,000 tonnes of copper.
Alkane intends to further test this western zone which appears to be separate to the main Boda system.
Causative porphyry intersection from BOD094 grading 5.5 metres at 1.62% copper, 0.82 g/t gold from 1,249.9 metres.
Infill drill results
Assay results from six RC drill holes for a total of 1,728 metres infilling the shallow component of Boda’s MRE included significant results such as:
- BOD149 – 128 metres grading 0.59 g/t gold equivalent (0.37 g/t gold, 0.16% copper) from 155 metres, including 5 metres grading 2.43 g/t gold equivalent (2.36 g/t gold, 0.05% copper) from 191 metres; and 30 metres grading 1.03 g/t gold equivalent (0.60 g/t gold, 0.31% copper) from 252 metres; and 4 metres grading 2.10 g/t gold equivalent (2.06 g/t gold, 0.04% copper) from 300 metres; and 6 metres grading 1.02 g/t gold equivalent (0.39 g/t gold, 0.46% copper) from 317 metres; and 10 metres grading 0.50 g/t gold equivalent (0.21 g/t gold, 0.21% copper) from 368 metres; and 20 metres grading 0.47 g/t gold equivalent (0.31 g/t gold, 0.11% copper) from 392 metres; and
- BOD150 – 31 metres grading 0.48 g/t gold equivalent (0.31 g/t gold, 0.12% copper) from 1 metre; and 266 metres grading 0.70 g/t gold equivalent (0.48 g/t gold, 0.16% copper) from 79 metres, including 42 metres grading 2.23 g/t gold equivalent (1.78 g/t gold, 0.33% copper) from 186 metres, including 3 metres grading 12.0 g/t gold equivalent (11.1 g/t gold, 0.67% copper) from 210 metres.
Standout assay results from deeper diamond core drilling included:
- BOD059W1 - 958 metres grading 0.55 g/t gold equivalent (0.31 g/t gold, 0.17% copper) from 345 metres, including 127 metres grading 1.44 g/t gold equivalent (0.68 g/t gold, 0.56% copper) from 648 metres; and
- BOD122 – 16 metres grading 1.46 g/t gold equivalent (1.45 g/t gold, 0.01% copper) from 45 metres; and 542 metres grading 0.53 g/t gold equivalent (0.24 g/t gold, 0.21% copper) from 514 metres, including 106 metres grading 0.94 g/t gold equivalent (0.31 g/t gold, 0.46% copper) from 747 metres; and 20 metres grading 1.09 g/t gold equivalent (0.54 g/t gold, 0.40% copper) from 1,026 metres.
“Interesting” intercepts
“Our drilling at Boda has focussed on increasing drill density to lift resource grade, expanding the mineralised volume and identifying further high-grade zones,” Alkane managing director Nic Earner said.
“These latest results meet all those objectives for us.
“The high-grade intercepts deep and to the west of Boda 2-3 are very interesting and add further to our knowledge of the expanding system.”