Highlights
- First Au (ASX:FAU) has secured a drill rig for its Haunted Stream Gold Project.
- The company plans to start diamond drilling for 1,000m – 1,200m at the project site next month.
- FAU stock reacted positively to the update and traded higher at AU$0.004, soaring 33% over Tuesday’s closing price.
- The project includes ~150 historical workings spread over a strike length of 8.5km, having returned 15-30 g/t Au with some reefs producing more than 150 g/t Au.
- The proposed drill targets include Ernestine (927oz’s @ 39 g/t Au reported production) and Hibernia (816 oz’s @ 17 g/t Au reported production).
Shares of gold and base metals exploration company First Au Limited (ASX:FAU) soared 33% on the ASX today after the company’s latest announcement. The shares were trading at AU$0.004 apiece on 22 March 2023. The company’s market capitalisation stood at AU$3.28 million and the trading volume was over 125,000 while writing this article.
The ASX-listed company today revealed that it has secured a drill rig and is all geared up to begin diamond drilling at the Haunted Stream Project during the coming month.
The Haunted Stream Project comprises more than 150 historical workings which have returned gold from the 1860’s up until the early 1900’s. The project site stretches for about 8.5km in strike length. The company believes that the project has the potential to be of remarkable scale.
FAU’s drilling plans for Haunted Stream
FAU project area overview (image source: FAU update)
The highly prospective project sits within the Victorian Goldfields region.
Initially, historical mining at Haunted Stream was undertaken with prime focus on alluvial gold prior its transition to hard rock reef mining in the 1880’s. The results from historical production reflected 15-30 g/t Au, with some reefs producing ~150 g/t Au.
The proposed targets include the Ernestine and Hibernia historic workings. Ernestine historically produced 927oz’s @ 39 g/t Au and Hibernia historically produced 816oz’s @ 17 g/t Au.
With the proposed drill campaign, FAU plans to analyse economic potential under historic workings and explore and test highly prospective structural target locations. The targets have been marked and selected on the basis of surface and UG mapping, sampling, historic research and analysis and evaluation of previous drilling undertaken by Mantle Mining from c.a. 2007 – 2010. From FAU face sampling at the project site, results received included up to 135 g/t Au.
Ernestine to Hibernia Target Corridor with previous locations and results from Mantle Mining drilling from 2007-2010
Mantle Mining drilled eight holes across 2007 and 2008. This included four RC drillholes and four diamond drillholes targeting around the historic workings of Ernestine and Quarry lodes. Four of the holes had shown the intersection of a mineralised gold system.
As per the FAU geologists, the Mantle Mining drilling intersected the mineralised corridor, but the higher-grade shoots that FAU geologists have interpreted in the new structural model were not intersected.
The structural model proposed for the system is envisaged to show steeply plunging lenses, entrained within a south-west trending mineralised envelope.