Catalyst Metals Ltd (ASX:CYL) is trading higher after providing more evidence of the potential for the Four Eagles Gold Project in central Victoria to be an extension of the historical 22-million-ounce Bendigo Goldfield with bonanza grade hits of up to 1,840 g/t gold returned from diamond drilling.
Gold was intersected in a further seven holes and has extended the Iris Zone to 500 metres from 350 metres with the potential for further length as the zone remains open in both directions.
These seven holes take the total number of holes reporting gold in Catalyst’s drill campaign to 14 and the Iris Zone, which is close to the proposed exploration access tunnel at Four Eagles, appears to be continuous.
Investors welcomed the bonanza-grade results, sending shares as much as 14.18% higher intraday to A$0.765.
Bonanza grades
The 0.55-metre intersection at 1,840 g/t gold was within 6.5 metres at 197.2 g/t from 293.8 metres.
Other strong results include:
- 3.7 metres at 42.4 g/t gold from 247.1 metres;
- 4.2 metres at 53.4 g/t from 268 metres;
- 1.7 metres at 147 g/t from 246.7 metres; and
- 1.5 metres at 28.8 g/t from 310.1 metres.
Visible gold at 269 metres down hole within the 4.2 metres at 53.4 g/t intersection.
Iris Zone presents Catalyst with first clear ‘proof of concept’ that Four Eagles contains the same structural style as the historical Bendigo Goldfield to the south, where high-grade mineralised zones repeated at depth.
“Underground mining possible”
Catalyst technical director Bruce Kay said: “The Iris Zone is proving to be a very strong structure with quartz veining up to 8 metres thick and often showing visible gold. It now extends over a strike length of about 500 metres with potential to the north and south.
“It is exciting to see so many intersections with values greater than 50 g/t gold, indicating that high-grade underground mining should be possible.”
About Four Eagles
The Four Eagles Gold Project is along the Whitelaw Gold Corridor, 70 kilometres north of the Bendigo Goldfield and is considered a major structural control of gold mineralisation north of Bendigo.
Catalyst manages the entire Whitelaw Gold Belt and has interests in 12 exploration licences and two retention licences, which extend for 75 kilometres along the Whitelaw and Tandarra Faults north of Bendigo and in other areas north of the Fosterville and Inglewood goldfields.
Whitelaw Gold Belt tenement holdings showing major Catalyst-managed projects.
High-grade areas
The Iris Zone sits about 150 metres below the shallow mineralisation at Boyd’s Dam, within a near-vertical shear zone striking almost north-south and containing abundant quartz, often laminated with arsenopyrite and native gold.
To date, Catalyst has identified a number of high-grade areas of mineralisation within close proximity to one another – Boyd’s Dam, Hayanmi, Pickles, Cunneens, Eagle 5, Bullock and Iris Zone.
These areas of stacked, repetitive mineralisation have the potential to similarly show repetition with depth and enhance future project economics and could eventually all be mined from the one access tunnel.
Exploration of the Whitelaw Gold Belt by Catalyst has demonstrated similarities to the Bendigo Goldfield such as visible gold in quartz, high-grade gold assays, strong arsenic haloes and close relationships with host rock fold hinges.
Catalyst has now completed diamond drilling at Four Eagles with a focus on 50-metre infill drilling and extending the Iris Zone mineralisation along strike and a potential new discovery hole, FEDD141, into Pickles North.
Visible gold has now been observed in 14 holes at the Iris Zone.
Pickles North hole
FEDD141 was drilled into the newly discovered Pickles North prospect and lies west of the proposed exploration access tunnel.
This hole contained about six metres of quartz with sections containing accessory minerals arsenopyrite and sphalerite, with a maximum interval of 0.8 metres at 15.7 g/t gold within the broader interval of 2.80 metres at 5.4 g/t from 249.20 metres.
This hole is near a previous aircore hole that contained 3.0 metres at 59.0 g/t gold.
About Catalyst
Catalyst Metals has a multi-asset strategy and controls three high-grade, highly prospective and strategic gold belts in Australia:
Western Australia – the high-grade Marymia Gold Project, which has a total JORC mineral resource of 1 million ounces, including 410,000 ounces at 8 g/t.
Catalyst considers the project hosts considerable exploration upside potential given +40 kilometres of underexplored strike potential;
Victoria – a large, contiguous and dominant Four Eagles Gold Project, covering 75 kilometres of strike length immediately north of the proven Bendigo Goldfields and near Agnico Eagle’s high-grade Fosterville gold mine; and
Tasmania – a strategic tenement package covering 25 kilometres of the under-explored Henty fault and operates the high-grade Henty Gold Mine which has produced 1.4 million ounces of gold at a head grade of 8.9 g/t.