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PLC Resources is gearing up for a follow-up tilt at its Abbotts North gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison region, with a reverse circulation (RC) campaign at its Rochefort prospect scheduled to kick off next week.
The company believes its maiden May drill program at the prospect merely clipped the edge of a larger gold system and it is now preparing to test that theory with the all-important rotary truth diviner.
PLC’s maiden five-hole, 1020m reconnaissance program at Rochefort was the first modern gold exploration ever conducted in the area and returned anomalous gold up to 0.4g/t in three of its holes. Importantly, the company says its gold was hosted within a highly fractionated dolerite unit – a rock type associated with gold deposition across the fabled Yilgarn Craton.
While the grades were modest, the company says the geological clues were compelling. Geochemical analysis identified strengthening alteration, sulphidation and pathfinder trends that point to the northwest and at depth. Management believes these geological clues strongly indicate the initial drilling just nicked the margin of a more significant mineralised system.
Hopefully, the system doesn’t stop there. A recent high-resolution airborne survey at the broader Abbotts North project has unveiled a substantial new regional structural corridor to the south of its emerging gold story, that appears to extend along strike towards New Murchison Gold’s Garden Gully project, host to a high-grade resource of 359,300 ounces running at 2.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
PLC Resources executive director Simon Phillips said: “With drill pads now prepared at Rochefort, we’re ready to get the rig back out in September to test for a larger gold system. We’ve confirmed the right host rock – highly fractionated dolerite – and the alteration, sulphidation and pathfinder trends all strengthen to the northwest and at depth. Together, they point to the real possibility that we have drilled the edge of a larger gold system – and that is exactly what this next program is designed to test.”
Independent of the Rochefort target, the company’s airborne magnetic survey has potentially changed the game for PLC at a regional level. The data revealed a large fold structure, along the eastern margin of the Abbotts Greenstone Belt – a feature the company says was entirely absent from existing government geological maps until this year.
Management says the structure is a crustal-level feature that extends for more than 14km of strike and continues south into New Murchison Gold’s ground, where the toll-treating phenomenon generated more than $50 million in cash flow from trucking its high-grade gold discoveries, just last quarter.
Crucially, PLC says the hinge of this massive fold intersects another deep-seated, east-west crustal formation – a structural geometry widely recognised as a first-order control on major gold deposits across WA.
With a recent $1.8 million placement bolstering its coffers, PLC says it remains well-funded to complete the upcoming drilling program, which is already covered by existing approvals.
With drills set to turn in just over a week at Rochefort, PLC is taking a direct shot at proving up a larger gold system. At the same time, it has its hands full with a brand-new regional-scale structural target that appears to lead right to the doorstep of a significant neighbouring gold resource. For a junior explorer, the play offers plenty of meat on the bone in one of WA’s hottest exploration addresses.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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