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Recommencement of Soil Sampling Programme at Schonberg Project
Noricum Gold Limited, the Austrian focused gold exploration and development company, has announced that it has recommenced the systematic soil sampling and geochemistry programme at the 100% owned Schonberg Gold and Precious Metals Project. The campaign, which was started late last year and stopped in late December due to weather constraints, has been designed to test the extent and continuity of the mineralisation present at surface in the eight parallel veins previously identified as part of a structural corridor over 3km of strike.
Highlights:
· Up to 1,000 close space follow up samples to be taken from Weissenbachgraben and Adlitzgraben areas, some infill will be completed on anomalies at Brunngraben
· High order gold (‘Au’) and copper (‘Cu’) anomalies identified from 500 samples at Brunngraben area in Q4 2013 confirm the previously producing Schonberg project as a high priority exploration target
· Results included gold to 2.84ppm Au and copper to 8,640ppm Cu (0.86%)
· The results of this programme will be used to design a first phase drill campaign at Schonberg
Noricum Gold Managing Director Greg Kuenzel said, “We’re pleased to report that our soil sampling programme at Schonberg has now recommenced. The programme, which was started late last year, identified a number of high order gold and copper anomalies, emphasising the prospectivity of this project. Having already tested Brunngraben, we will now collect up to a further 1,000 samples, mostly from the Weissenbachgraben and Adlitzgraben areas. Subject to planning consents, we would look to drill this target area during the summer months. There is the possibility to re-configure our current budget to allow for some initial holes at Schonberg, although a more comprehensive drilling campaign may be considered if the justification and value accretive potential was strong enough. Elsewhere in our portfolio of Austrian projects, we are currently compiling a resource at the previously producing Rotgulden gold project based on the high grade drilling results gained in 2014.”
Schonberg Precious Metals Project:
The Schonberg leases cover a total of 37 sq km located around 30km southwest of Leoben, Austria and 100km due east of the Company’s Rotgülden Gold and Precious Metals Project. These licences are centred on the towns of Knittelfeld and Flatschach. The latter is part of an historic copper mining district.
The Company has confirmed the presence of an attractive exploration target with up to eight veins across the main mining districts within the licence area: Brunngraben, Weissenbachgraben and Adlitzgraben (from west to east). The former mining district of Tremmelberg is situated further east and it is thought to be the continuation of the ore bearing structures. Three of the known veins were the main focus of historical mining and are considered the main ore veins. The veins are sub-parallel, generally trending northeast and steeply dipping to the northwest.
Soil Sampling Results:
Prior to the closure of the 2013 field season, Noricum field staff completed an initial soil sampling survey consisting of 500 samples over the majority of the Brunngraben target, one of four targets included in a project wide soil sampling programme. This area was highlighted as worthy of further exploration by previous soil sampling (see announcement dated 12 September 2013).
Although incomplete, the results to date indicate that a pattern of mineralisation is occurring in the soil fraction being sampled. Anomalism has been detected in gold and copper in soils, with also some anomalism in other associated elements. This anomalism broadly conforms to the geological model of the area, the mapping of the vein sets that was completed in 2012, and the knowledge of mining that has occurred historically.
Soil sampling is a technique used in exploration to define geochemical signatures, generally in residual terrains, that vector towards a deeper buried target that is not visible at surface. Certain elements or elemental associations can be used to better pinpoint exploration in the early stages. In the case of Schonberg gold, silver, copper and possibly bismuth could be used as indicator elements.
The results seen to date have contained some very high grade results for gold in traditional soil samples where anomalism is often measured in the PPB range (parts per billion), at Schonberg results have been received up to 2.84ppm Au (2840ppb). Significant results for copper were also noted with results to 8640ppm or 0.86% Cu. These results are significant in the context of defining ongoing targets for upcoming exploration and represent an exciting target for the Company. It can also be noted from the results that some of the veins are more prospective than others and these will obviously be targeted first.
