14 metres at 4.5 g/t gold including 3 metres at 10.4 g/t gold

The first follow up drill hole at Impact Minerals Limited's (ASX:IPT) emerging high grade gold-silver discovery at Silica Hill, part of the company's 100% owned Commonwealth Project 100 km north of Orange in New South Wales, has returned the thickest and highest grade gold intercept returned thus far from the prospect.

- The thickest and highest grade gold intercept returned thus far at Silica Hill.

- Only gold assays received. Silver assays expected in two to three weeks.

- The intercept is of significantly higher grade than a nearby hole indicating the potential to quickly increase the contained gold and silver ounces with further close-spaced drilling.

- Mineralisation now also open to the north west. Drilling in progress.

- First diamond drill hole to test conductor below Main Shaft intersects very encouraging 45 metre thick zone of disseminated and lesser vein-hosted copper sulphide. Conductor not yet explained. Assays expected in two to three weeks.

Hole CMIPT56, a reverse circulation (RC) drill hole, has returned an intercept of:

14 metres at 4.5 g/t gold from 153 metres down hole including
3 metres at 10.5 g/t gold from 160 metres down hole.

The 14 metre intercept lies within a 40 metre thick intercept with greater than 0.1 g/t gold. Note that only the assays for gold have been received for this intercept. Gold assays for the remainder of the hole together with silver and other metals are expected within three weeks.

Impact Minerals Managing Director Dr Mike Jones said:

"This excellent intercept further demonstrates the potential for Silica Hill to deliver a signficant discovery and we can draw three signifcant conclusions from it.

First, as we have suspected, there are likely to be zones of much higher grade gold in the system to accompany the exceptional silver grades of up to 3,100 g/t already discovered.

Secondly, we are seeing signifcant improvements in grade with closer spaced drilling and this offers the opportunity to rapidly increase the ounces of contained gold and silver within the area already discovered.

Thirdly, the mineralisation is now open to the north west. These are all very encouraging developments."

The new intercept is interpreted to be the north west extension of, and is materially better than, the gold-rich zone discovered by Impact in Hole 43 (see Figure 1 in the link below) which returned:

68 metres at 0.5 g/t gold and 43 g/t silver (1.3 g/t gold equivalent) from 99 metres;
including the upper silver-rich zone of 37 metres at 0.1 g/t gold and 71 g/t silver (2.3 ounces) and the lower gold-rich zone of 18 m at 1.7 g/t gold and 24 g/t silver from 149 metres.

Individual results of note in Hole 43 are:

- High grade silver intercepts (with gold) in the upper part of the assayed zone:

1 m at 122 g/t (4 ounces) silver and 0.2 g/t gold from 108 metres;
1 m at 146 g/t silver (5 ounces) and 0.1 g/t gold from 118 metres;
2 m at 373 g/t (12 ounces) silver and 0.2 g/t gold from 123 metres including
1 m at 525 g/t (17 ounces) silver and 0.1 g/t gold from 124 metres; and
1 m at 337 g/t (11 ounces) silver and 0.1 g/t gold and from 134 metres.

- Significant gold assays in the lower part of zone:

1 m at 2.3 g/t gold and 64 g/t (2 ounces) silver from 153 metres;
and 1 m at 6.4 g/t gold and 18 g/t silver (0.5 ounces) from 155 metres.

Holes 56 and 43 are about 15 metres apart with the gold grades increasing to the north west. A further drill hole is in progress to test the along trend extension of the mineralised zone.

Impact's work has shown that the mineralisation at Commonwealth-Silica Hill is part of a gold-rich VMS system (volcanogenic massive sulphide) and has strong similarities to the Eskay Creek Mine in Canada (>4 million ounces of gold and 150 million ounces of silver - see announcement 9 May 2017).

This comparison has lead to the recognition that there is signficant potential to increase the possible contained ounces of gold and silver within the envelop of mineralisation already discovered with closer spaced drilling.

Conductor Below Main Shaft

Diamond drill hole CMIPT050 has been completed to test a Induced Polarisation conductivity anomaly at depth below Main Shaft and a previous drill intercept of:

30 metres at 0.13% copper including 1 metre at 0.7% copper, 1.1% zinc, 0.4% lead,
31 g/t silver and 0.4 g/t gold (see announcement 25 May 2017).

The drill hole has intersected a 45 metre thick zone of disseminated and lesser vein hosted copper sulphide from 269 metres depth. This is 50% thicker than the previous drill intercept and is very encouraging. This supports Impact's interpetation that there is increasing copper mineralisation at depth.

However, the source of the conductor has not yet been found and a down hole EM survey will be completed to better define the source of the anomaly.

Progress of Drill Programme

The drill programme at Commonwealth has taken longer than anticipated because of technical difficulties, in paritcular ground conditions and water loss for the diamond rig and the need for down hole surveys every 30 metres with the RC rig. A second diamond hole from Silica Hill was abandoned at 270 metres depth before reaching its target. The diamond rig has now moved to follow up the new high grade gold intercepts in Hole 56. The RC rig is testing the north east extension of the mineralisation.

About the Commonwealth Project

The Commonwealth Project forms part of Impact's extensive 100% owned land holding of 1,000 sq km in the Lachlan Foldbelt, home to numerous gold and copper mines including the giant Cadia deposit near Orange (40 million ounces of gold and 12 million tonnes of copper).

At Silica Hill significant gold and silver mineralisation has been intersected in six previous drill holes (now seven) and covers an area of 200 metres by 100 metres down to a depth of 120 metres below surface and with an average true thickness of at least between 50 metres and 70 metres. The mineralisation is open in all directions including up dip (see Figure 1 in the link below).

Four drill holes out of the six have also returned gram-times-metre intercepts of more than 100 gram.metres. These are robust and significant results for potential bulk mining and indicate the potential to significantly increase the resources at the Commonwealth Project, which currently stand at 720,000 tonnes at 2.8 g/t gold, 48 g/t silver, 1.5% zinc and 0.6% lead (see announcement 19 February 2015).

In detail, these thick widths of mineralisation actually comprise numerous narrow veins and vein stockworks of high grade gold and very high grade silver hosted by the Silica Hill rhyolite that contain lower grade disseminated gold and silver.

For example, Hole CMIPT046 returned an intercept of

41 metres at 2 g/t and 176 g/t silver from 61 metres including 30 individual assays of varying widths of between 2 g/t and 24 g/t gold and 12 individual assays with more than 500 g/t silver including
1 metre at 12.2 g/t gold and 680 g/t silver including 0.3 metres at 23 g/t gold and 1,110 g/t silver;
1 metre at 5.3 g/t gold and 924 g/t silver;
1.7 metres at 3.8 g/t gold and 1,176 g/t silver; and
0.7 metres at 1.5 g/t gold and 855 g/t silver.

(see announcements dated 5th December 2016 and 22nd February 2017).

To view tables and figures, please visit:
http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/3T372512


About Impact Minerals Limited

Impact Minerals Limited (ASX:IPT) is an exploration company listed on the ASX in November 2006. The Company manages extensive tenement holdings (>2,000 km2) within Australia featuring significant potential for high-grade mineral deposits of gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, nickel and PGM's. The Directors of the Company have extensive experience in mineral exploration and a strong history of exploration success, business development and corporate management. Impact Minerals intends to build wealth for its shareholders through a vigorous campaign of project generation and evaluation with a view towards profitable mining operations.

 

Contact

Dr Michael G Jones
Managing Director
Impact Minerals Limited
T: +61-8-6454-6666
E: info@impactminerals.com.au



Link: Best Gold Results to date at the Silica Hill Project


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