Alice Queen extends depth of prospective alteration zone at Fijian gold play

Alice Queen will now drill a fourth diamond hole at the Dakuniba prospect following positive results from the first three holes.

Alice Queen has expanded its diamond drill program as the third hole extends the prospective alteration zone at depth. Pic: Getty Images

• Alice Queen’s third diamond hole extends Dakuniba alteration zone from surface to at least 300m depth

• Second hole in program intersected high-grade epithermal gold mineralisation within the alteration zone

• Fourth hole being drilled to test lateral strike extent of epithermal gold mineralised zone

Special Report: Alice Queen has expanded the maiden diamond drilling program at its Viani project in Fiji as the third diamond hole intersected the alteration zone ~300m below surface.

While recent drilling and previous surface sampling confirmed that high-grade epithermal gold mineralisation at Dakuniba prospect within the Viani project is continuous from surface to a depth of ~175m, the latest hole indicates that there might be more at depth.

The third hole of Alice Queen’s (ASX:AQX) original three-hole diamond drill program intersected the target zone about 125m below the second hole (25VDD002), extending the alteration zone from surface to at least 300m.

Based on positive results to date, the company decided to drill a fourth hole, which is underway, to test the lateral strike extent ~50-80m west-northwest of the epithermal gold mineralised zone intersected in 25VDD002.

The initial three-hole program had targeted a single section within a surface mineralised trend of greater than 3km strike, which remains open at depth and in both directions.

“The first two holes at Viani returned high-grade gold results of up to 26.4g/t demonstrating a high-grade epithermal gold zone from surface to a depth of 175m,” managing director Andrew Buxton said.

The Viani gold project in Fiji. Pic: Alice Queen

Viani project

The Viani project on Fiji’s second largest island Vanua Levu comprises olivine basalts and volcaniclastics of the Natewa Volcanic Group, which are intruded by andesite sills and dyke.

Previous surface exploration outlined a 3km-long gold-silver-arsenic-lead-zinc-barium anomaly that correlates with low sulphidation epithermal quartz veining.

Diamond holes drilled by Japan International Cooperation Agency between 1995 and 1997 to test the surface epithermal gold vein zone intersected results such as 2.2m at 11.3g/t gold, which AQX interpreted as testing the shallow levels of an LSE vein-style gold system.

Results from the company’s drilling to date have upgraded the potential for the Dakuniba prospect to host low-sulphidation style epithermal (LSE) gold mineralisation.

Deeper drilling at other LSE gold deposits such as Pajingo, Cracow and Kencana have discovered more than 1Moz of contained gold in high-grade shoots.

Besides the addition of the fourth hole, AQX will also start further trenching along strike to identify other high-grade zones at surface and possible future drill targets.

This article was developed in collaboration with Alice Queen, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Alice Queen extends depth of prospective alteration zone at Fijian gold play