Ironbark Zinc (ASX: IBG) has recorded peak results of up to 253 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 14.9% copper from rock chip sampling of the Fiery Creek and Macanally Prospects at the Peakview Project, New South Wales.
This follows the earlier discovery of unexpectedly high-grade copper and gold rock chip results from its 100% owned Fiery Creek Prospect where six rock chip samples taken from around the historic pits and shafts returned up to 15.25% copper and 22.7 g/t gold during a recent reconnaissance trip in the last quarter.
About 85% of the current samples were in excess of 1g/t gold with the average grade being 17.5g/t gold, confirming the high tenor of the historical workings where the 54 samples were taken from.
Other notable gold results include 94.8g.t, 91.5g/t and 53.4g/t while other top copper results were 7.6% and 6.6%.
These are substantially better than expected and notably, were taken from workings that stretch for over 7 kilometres and consist of multiple parallel mineralised zones.
Ironbark believes there is high potential to locate economic grade mineralisation in the area as there has been limited drill testing of the lodes below the historically mined material.
Nine diamond holes drilled by Horizon Resources in 1998 that targeted deep induced polarisation targets rather than mineralisation directly under the workings returned intersections of 1.09 metres at 3.63g/t gold from 30.56 metres and 2 metres at 1.67g/t gold from 35.7 metres.
The extent of the historical workings indicates a good probability that sufficient tonnes to be of interest could be located in the area.
Fiery Creek & Macanally Prospects
Gold mining was conducted at the Fiery Creek area from 1887 to 1908. Numerous private miners exploited north-south trending steeply dipping mineralised shear zones.
Information available from 1892 indicates six separate groups of miners were active in the area.
The mineralisation at Fiery Creek was historically reported as a series of parallel reefs and was mined down to a depth of about 12 metres below surface.
This is thought to coincide with the depth of oxidation, thus leaving behind the sulphide dominant ore below.
The sulphide dominant ore would have been much harder to treat during the time of mining in the 1890’s as the processing would have been substantially more complex.
Notably, the highest grading gold samples were all from the sulphide dominant samples while the highest grade copper value came from an oxidised sample though high grade copper was also seen in sulphide samples.
There are no records of copper produced from the Fiery Creek site despite there being significant copper mineralisation.
Drilling permits have recently been granted for the Peakview Prospect and Ironbark is currently working towards gaining approval to conduct a drill program at the Fiery Creek & Macanally Prospects.
Citronen Project in Greenland
Ironbark this week released the highly anticipated Citronen Feasibility Study with the following key metrics for the project:
- NPV: US$609 Million (US$354M post tax)
- IRR: 32.0% (22.2% post tax)
- Equity Return: 37.9% (Geared NPV after tax)
- Capital Cost: US$429.3 Million inc contingency (US$484.8M with First Fills)
- Operating Cost: US$0.79/lb Zn in real terms (Payable, net of by-product credits, Years 1-5, including smelter fees)
- Mine Life: 14 years
- Life of Mine Revenue: US$5.65 Billion
- Life of Mine Operating Costs: US$3.42 Billion
Citronen’s Feasibility Study with all the supporting studies is being presented to China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd (NFC) for the purposes of preparing the EPC and financing work.
NFC is expected to be in a position to begin delivering the results from their work scheduled for later in 2013.
The engineering and construction MOU with NFC encompasses a 70% debt funding proposal through Chinese banks and provides NFC with a right to buy a 20% direct interest in the Citronen Project.
Ironbark had $3 million in cash as of 31 March 2013.
Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.