Cyclone Metals Ltd (ASX:CLE) is about to kick off a sampling program at the Macraes South Project in a prolific gold-producing region of New Zealand’s South Island to follow-up a rock chip sample that returned 8 g/t gold.
There will be 515 samples taken on 50-metre spacing on lines 1.6 kilometres long and 200 metres apart with the grid area to the southeast of and along strike of the Nenthorn Mining area.
This sampling area surrounds Line 4 where the company fielded extremely anomalous responses in rock chips, including the 8 g/t hit.
Macraes South is 100%-owned and is 40 kilometres north of Dunedin in the gold-rich Otago Province of New Zealand.
“Huge potential for organic growth”
Cyclone Metals chairman Terry Donnelly said: “It is very pleasing to get back on the ground at Macraes South and to be following up on the maiden sampling program with a focused campaign around an excellent first pass result of 8 g/t gold.
“We look at Santana who have accumulated a 1-million-ounce MRE, contiguous to our Waikerikeri and Drybread projects, and with the prolific +10-million-ounce gold producing area around Macraes which includes our Mareburn and Macraes South projects, we see huge potential for organic growth and value creation in Cyclone.
“As I have said before, the Macraes Gold Mine has a 6 million tonnes per annum plant and 6-year mine life, and any exploration success at Mareburn or Macraes South has the potential to add to that mine life.”
Carlin-style deposit
Significantly for Cyclone, Macraes is a Carlin-style gold deposit and previous work has only targeted the thrust system.
At Carlin in Nevada, USA, gold resources within the thrust system contain approximately 20 million ounces of gold with around another 60 million ounces within the cross-cutting fault system, which was recognised at a later date.
The Thrust system at Macraes has produced some 10 million ounces to date and Cyclone plans to test the cross-cutting fault systems at Macraes South and Mareburn for Nevada-style mineralisation.
Macraes South and Mareburn Gold Projects in Otago Province, New Zealand, 40 kilometres from Dunedin.
Contiguous to gold operations
Macraes South Gold Project has had no substantive exploration with only regional mapping and structural interpretation carried out.
Both projects are contiguous to the Macraes Gold Mine and processing facility of OceanaGold Corp.
Grid sampling program
Cyclone’s upcoming work is planned as a grid sampling program aimed at upgrading an extremely anomalous area to potentially define a drilling target with some complementary regional stream sediment samples.
This area will surround Line 4 where responses were obtained that were described by the company as being extremely anomalous.
Two rock chip samples 200 metres and 1-kilometre to the southeast returned 1.78 g/t and 7.96 g/t respectively.
What’s more, this area is southeast of and along strike from the Nenthorn mining area, which was discovered in 1888.
It only operated for a few years and had an estimated production of 3,593 ounces from 7,157 tonnes at an average grade of 15.6 g/t gold.
Location of the proposed sampling grid within Macraes South PP.
Ionic geochemical sampling completed in this area returned multiple samples with >25x background responses for gold, which is empirically indicative of mineralisation in the near proximity.
The sampling grid will be spread across two properties and, importantly, both landowners are agreeable to soil sampling without an access agreement.
Mareburn sampling
Sampling will also be undertaken at Mareburn Gold Project to the north of Macraes South.
This is a high-priority target with significant gold mineralisation in historical drilling and is within the Macraes-type thrust lodes.