Inflection Resources Ltd. has commenced drilling on its Carron Gold Project in Northern Queensland. The drill program is designed to test a number of priority orogenic lode gold targets developed directly along trend from the historic Croydon gold mining district.
Alistair Waddell, Inflection’s President and CEO, states: “We are very excited for the opportunity to drill test what could be a new, district scale gold project. Our plans are to initially test a number of our identified 25 orogenic vein drill targets on geological trend from the historic high-grade Croydon Goldfields which extend over approximately 30 kilometres.”
The Carron project is located approximately 400 kilometres west of Cairns in Northern Queensland. Inflection has identified a series orogenic vein targets on trend from the historic Croydon Goldfields. The Croydon Goldfields was one of Queensland’s more significant gold producing districts, with a total production from 1885 reportedly over one million ounces from numerous high-grade quartz-vein lode deposits with an average of 35 g/t Au.
After reviewing the regional public domain airborne magnetics in the vicinity of Croydon district, a series of large, north-west trending magnetic anomalies have been identified. The anomalies, which extend over approximately 30 kilometres, lie along structural strike to the northwest from the Croydon Goldfields and have strong similarities to the magnetic character and geological setting of the Croydon Goldfields. These features are interpreted by Inflection to potentially be the concealed repetition of the gold mineralisation found in the Croydon district, which are completely covered by post-mineral sedimentary cover masking the potentially prospective geology.
The public domain, airborne magnetic data collected by the Queensland Government used to generate the Carron targets was not detailed enough for accurate drill hole positioning. Consequently, the company flew a 3,855-line kilometre airborne magnetic survey at 50-metre line spacing to enable accurate drill hole positioning. The high-resolution magnetic data was processed, and 3D magnetisation vector inversion and susceptibility inversion modelling completed along with the construction of a 3D geological model. The high-resolution data has enabled the positioning of individual exploration holes.
Previous drilling
In December 2020, the company completed two scout drill holes to determine the viability of the orogenic gold geological model when a rig became available on short notice immediately prior to the onset of the northern Australia monsoon season.
Drill hole CADH001 tested an intrusion-associated target inferred to be a potential porphyry breccia located in the southeast of the project area which returned no results of significance.
Drill hole CADH002 intersected a series of quartz veins, milled quartz breccias within a highly fractured zone of psammites characteristic of Croydon mineralised quartz reefs. The CADH002 quartz veins and breccias occurred from approximately 183 to 206 metres. This zone is characterised by abundant graphite along shear planes and sulphides, comprising pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and galena.
Whilst gold assays from CADH002 were only weakly anomalous they have a strong association with elevated base metal geochemistry which is indicative of Croydon style mineralisation. The best gold intersection from CADH002 was 1 metre grading 0.23 g/t Au and 2.01% zinc from 205 to 206 metres downhole.
The results from CADH002 have shown the interpretation of the magnetic data and the geological model as it pertains to the adjacent Carron project area being analogous to the Croydon Goldfields appears to be correct. Hole CAD002 has provided additional confidence for the drill testing currently underway.
Project earn-in details
The Carron project is the subject of an Exploration Farm-in Agreement in which the company may earn up to a 100 per cent interest. The company currently owns a 50 per cent interest in the project and is in the process of earning an additional 20 per cent interest by incurring Phase II exploration expenditures of AU$1 million. The company has approximately AU$500,000 of expenditures remaining to earn a 70 per cent interest in the project.