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Vital Metals extends Bella Tondi gold mineralisation with high-grade assays

Last updated: 17:24 13 Sep 2018 AEST, First published: 03:24 13 Sep 2018 AEST

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The Bouli Gold Project in Niger has three prospective tenements covering 4,289 square kilometres

Vital Metals Ltd (ASX:VML) has completed the maiden diamond drilling program at the Bella Tondi prospect within its Bouli Gold Project in Niger.

The 13-hole program totalled 2,625 metres and extends the limits of the known gold mineralisation at depth, which remains open at depth and along strike.

High-grade assays

Highlighted results from the final holes include: 10.3 metres at 1.12 g/t gold from 134.7 metres; 8 metres at 7.26 g/t from 195 metres, including 2 metres at 26.7 g/t from 201 metres; and 5.87 metres at 5.68 g/t from 109 metres.

Previous results included grades of up to 4 metres at 157 g/t, returned along strike and from multiple zones of gold mineralisation.

Financing for juniors becoming restricted

A review of Vital’s exploration strategy in both Niger and Burkina Faso is also underway, based on a better understanding the geology at the company’s prospects.

The company has over $15 million cash in hand following the sale of its Watershed Tungsten Project in Queensland.

It intends to conserve these funds in an environment where equity financing for junior explorers has become restricted.

Deepest intercept 200 metres below surface

Bella Tondi’s gold mineralisation is shear zone-hosted and runs roughly north to south, with a steeply east dripping near the contact between shallow mafic intrusives and marine sediments.

The shear zone displays dextral displacement by around 100 metres in the centre of Bella Tondi, dividing it into northern and southern sections.

Gold mineralisation occurs within highly sheared zones within the broader Bella Tondi zone, with best grades and native gold occurring in black smoky – or greyish – quartz veins.

The deepest intercept of gold mineralisation reported lies 200 metres below surface and associated minerals with the mineralisation are pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite, hematite and possibly argentopyrite.

Varied lithology

The three main lithologies intersected in drilling at Bella Tondi are:

  • Meta-sediments (sandstones, siltstones, locally carbonaceous);

  • Altered non-magnetic mafic units (shallow dolerite or basaltic volcanics, previously logged as intermediate intrusives); and

  • Magnetic dolerite dykes (late-stage non-gold bearing).

Both the altered mafic units and the meta-sediments are sheared and can host gold mineralisation.

The company believes the mafic units are either basalt layers that are part of a marine volcano-sedimentary sequence or dolerite sills that intruded the sediments at a later stage but before shearing and mineralisation took place.

Limits to mineralisation prompt review

Magnetic dolerite dykes were logged in several diamond drill holes completed in the southern part of Bella Tondi.

These dykes are between 1 centimetre and multiple metres wide and, being post-shearing and post-mineralisation, do not contain any gold mineralisation.

These apparent limits to high-grade gold mineralisation have prompted Vital to conduct a review of the project.

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