Green Critical Minerals Ltd (ASX:GCM), which holds a 30.4% stake in Red Fox Resources (ASX:FXR) Pty Ltd, reports that the latter has completed a diamond drill program at the Eveleigh Lead-Zinc-Silver Project.
The drilling was supported by a Round 6 Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) grant from the Queensland Government to the tune of $200,000.
Program started
Red Fox conducted a diamond drilling program consisting of five holes for 806.4 metres at Eveleigh, which is 45 kilometres east of Georgetown in the Northeast Queensland Mineral Province.
The purpose of the drilling was to assess the potential for BHT-style mineralisation at this project.
The Eveleigh Project contains a lens of zinc mineralisation that was drilled primarily in the 1970s, with historical intersections including 24.4 metres at 2.5% zinc.
At the time, this mineralisation was interpreted to be a skarn, associated with nearby Palaeozoic granites.
Red Fox had hopes that the mineralisation was in the BHT/Cannington style, based on host lithologies, metal association and metal zoning.
Geochemical potential
Surface geochemistry and historical silver workings indicated that there was potential for multiple stacked lodes of lead, zinc and silver, typical of BHT deposits but not necessarily of skarn.
During the program, the following intersections were recorded:
- 7 metres at 1.69% zinc, from 65-72 metres in a zone of 21 metres at 0.93% zinc from 51-72 metres;
- 3 metres at 3.09% zinc from 23-26 metres in a zone of 16.6 metres at 1.03% zinc from 12.4-29 metres;
- 2 metres at 3.52% zinc from 37-39 metres in a zone of 18 metres at 1.06% zinc from 21-39 metres; and
- 1-metre at 2.75% zinc from 66-67 metres in a zone of 2.5 metres at 1.73% zinc, 0.61% lead and 0.24% copper.
There was no conclusive evidence found to support a BHT model for the Eveleigh deposit, and the company believes that, at this stage, drilling has shown the mineralisation to be more indicative of a skarn-style deposit.
Further studies, including a structural analysis combined with petrology, are needed to fully understand the mineralisation style at Eveleigh.