49 Metals Ltd. has discovered a significant oxide gold intercept within the highly prospective Walker Lane trend at its Gold Mountain project in Nevada, US.
A single reverse circulation (RC) drill hole DRC#9 delivered a spectacular, shallow oxide gold intercept of 9.1 metres at 21.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 224 metres. This high-grade core sits within a much broader mineralised interval of 27.4 metres at 8.3 g/t gold from 221 metres.
The 227 gram-metre intercept is the highest-grade result ever recorded at the Gold Mountain project by any operator.
Adding to the hole’s success, an upper, separate mineralised zone further up the same hole returned 25.9 metres at 1.4 g/t gold from 158.5 metres, including a tighter zone of 1.5 metres at 6.6 g/t gold.
The company believes the hole may represent the first drill intersection of a high-grade feeder structure, providing an important vector towards the high-grade core of the mineralised system.
This specific zone exhibited highly elevated pathfinder elements, including arsenic, antimony, copper, and tungsten, suggesting the drill rig has tapped into a hotter, more proximal part of the broader hydrothermal epithermal system.
49 Metals CEO Phil Carter said: “We are extremely pleased and excited by the results of DRC#9 which appears to represent a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the Gold Mountain system, with the deeper high-grade mineralisation potentially representing a feeder structure within a much larger epithermal system.
“We have commenced planning for additional holes to test for extensions to this feeder structure.”
The high-grade mineralised structure sits at a vertical depth of 200 metres, just 120 metres below the surrounding flat topography, and remains completely open in all directions.
49 Metals said Gold Mountain is increasingly displaying hallmarks of large epithermal gold systems, including laterally and vertically extensive areas of historic workings, and extensive high-grade rock chip results.
To date, 49 Metals has completed 13 RC holes for a total of 4,460 metres. While drilling continues along the southern margin of the Oddie Rhyolite at Sealy Ridge, the company is already building new drill pads at the Adit zone to aggressively target extensions of the new discovery.
Assays for holes DRC#10 through to DRC#13 remain pending.