Northern Zone Project
The Northern Zone Project covers an area of approximately 1 square kilometer. It is located in a highly prospective area for gold in Western Australia, approximately 25 km east of Kalgoorlie, 40 km north of Kambalda, and 55 km east-north-east of Coolgardie, in close proximity to the Super Pit, one of Australia’s largest open pit gold mines.
World Class Orebody
The project area is highly prospective for structurally controlled orogenic lode gold deposits, of which there are many examples in the surrounding greenstone belt. It lies in a well-endowed gold region, the Eastern Goldfields granite – greenstone belt, close to major crustal structures, underlain by Archaean greenstone lithologies with late-stage felsic intrusions. There is significant gold mineralization in the immediate district including the Kanowna Belle, Kalgoorlie, Mt Charlotte and Golden Ridge mines. Historic drill programmes conducted on the project area between 1998-2012, evidenced significant drill intercepts. In October 2021, Oracle successfully concluded the initial phase of RC drilling at Northern Zone, covering a depth of 260 meters in 7 holes. In January 2022, Oracle reported positive assay results based on 1,161 samples confirming an Exploration Target at 200-250Mt and 0.4-0.6g/t Au for 2.5 to 4.8Moz gold.
Northern Zone Project location map showing proximity to the Kalgoorie 'Super Pit'
Exploration and Results
It was concluded that NZ appears to be an IRGS (Intrusion Related Gold System) with wide gold mineralised felsic porphyry intrusions and can potentially host significant ounces of gold, such as Boddington Goldmine (WA), Fort Knox (Alaska), Dublin Gulch (Yukon) and Timbarra (NSW).
The company set up a plan for Phase 2 drilling to target extensions to the RC holes and additional diamond drilling.
The gold system we have encountered at Northern Zone, has significant scale, with an exploration target of 2.5 to 4.8Moz gold, and with the widths of mineralisation intersected in this and historical drill programmes, gives us confidence to move the project forward with the next phase of drilling. This is a huge achievement and gives us the first tangible sense of what a significant gold mining project Northern Zone could become.
The gold system encountered at NZ was investigated to assess gold recovery rates through metallurgical testing. The results obtained in June 2022, indicated that good gold recoveries can be achieved within six hours of 83.3%, and up to 90.4% gold recovery over 72 hours. Further testing confirmed individual recovery from sample 2 of 94.7% after 24 hours, with an average recovery of 92.9% after 24 hours. These immensely positive metallurgical results formed the basis for moving forward with a more defined diamond drilling program to delineate a maiden inferred JORC resource.
Further Development
In conjunction with these advancements, Oracle formed a collaborative partnership with Riversgold Ltd, an ASX listed gold exploration company. This strategic alliance, formalized through a legally binding farm in agreement in May 2023, outlined the framework for Riversgold’s potential acquisition of an 80% ownership stake in the Northern Zone Gold Project.
In August 2023, Riversgold successfully concluded its 4 hole, 1,379m oriented core diamond drilling program at Northern Zone which attained a depth of 450 meters. The visible alteration on all holes exceeded initial expectations with all four holes drilled deeper than planned. This accomplishment reaffirmed initial forecast a gold potential spanning 2.5 to 4.8 Moz gold, to be further verified from the assay results which are expected soon
