Highlights
Ikkari
124043 intersected 120m at 6.2g/t Au from 45m downhole (36m vertical), the third-best intercept achieved to date at Ikkari with 748 gram x meters. Additional intercepts of 22m at 2.9g/t Au from 16m downhole (13m vertical), 5m at 4.5g/t Au and 56m at 3.5g/t Au combine to make this the second highest yielding drillhole of all time at Ikkari with 1028 gram x meters.
124041 intersected 28m at 9.7g/t Au from 101m and 13m at 34.5g/t Au from 161m including 1m at 294g/t Au. Combined intercepts in 124041 yield 737gram x meters also in the top 10 yielding drillholes of all time at Ikkari.
124040 and 124047 also delivered broad, continuously mineralised intersections typical of the Ikkari deposit. 124040 intersected 121.2m at 2.5g/t Au from 52m downhole and 124047 intersected 167.8m at 2.6g/t Au from 17.2m (the base of the overburden).
Ikkari
A project drilling program was initiated at Ikkari during spring 2024 serving multiple purposes: increasing confidence in the 4Moz Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate; providing additional material for metallurgical test work feeding into future, more advanced engineering studies and providing further geotechnical data for the optimisation of mine planning. Results from the second tranche of holes within this program are presented here and include some of the best intercepts achieved to date in Ikkari with broad high-grade zones achieved in all drill holes.
Geological interpretation of Ikkari
Ikkari was discovered using systematic regional exploration that initially focused on geochemical sampling of the bedrock/till interface through glacial till deposits of 5m to 40m thickness. No outcrop is present, and topography is dominated by low-lying swamp areas. The Ikkari deposit occurs within rocks that have been regionally mapped as 2.05-2.15 billion years ('Ga') old Savukoski group greenschist-metamorphosed mafic-ultramafic volcanic rocks, part of the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt ('CLGB'). Gold mineralisation is largely confined to the structurally modified unconformity at a significant domain boundary. Younger sedimentary lithologies are complexly interleaved, with intensely altered ultramafic rocks, and the mineralized zone is bounded to the north by a steeply N-dipping cataclastic zone. Within the mineralised zone lithologies, alteration and structure appear to be sub-vertical in contrast to wider Area 1 where lithologies generally dipping at a moderated angle to the north. The main mineralized zone is strongly altered and characterised by intense veining and foliation that pervasively overprints original textures. An early phase of finely laminated grey ankerite/dolomite veins is overprinted by stockwork-like irregular siderite +/- quartz +/- chlorite +/- sulphide veins. These vein arrays are often deformed with shear-related boudinage and in situ brecciation. Magnetite and/or haematite are common, in association with pyrite. Hydrothermal alteration commonly comprises quartz-dolomite-chlorite-magnetite (+/-haematite). Gold is hosted by disseminated and vein-related pyrite. Multi-phase breccias are well developed within the mineralised zone, with early silicified cataclastic phases overprinted by late, carbonate- iron-oxide- rich, hydrothermal breccias which display a subvertical control. All breccias frequently host disseminated pyrite, and are often associated with higher gold grades, particularly where magnetite or haematite is prevalent. In the sedimentary lithologies, albite alteration is intense and pervasive, with pyrite-magnetite (+/- gold) hosted in veinlets in brittle fracture zones
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