18 January 2021
TECTONIC GOLD PLC
(“Tectonic Gold” or the “Company”)
MOUNT CASSIDY AND SPECIMEN HILL PROJECT DRILLING UPDATE
Tectonic Gold plc (TDIM: TTAU), the Intrusive Related Gold System (“IRGS”) explorer, is pleased to announce further exploration progress at the Mount Cassidy project and samples from the December 2020 Specimen Hill campaign now in analysis.
Mount Cassidy Highlights:
Mt Cassidy is a textbook IRGS which has been overlooked by previous explorers
Tectonic utilised advanced geochemistry and geophysics technology to identify the system undercover
Previous surface samples returned assays of +50g/t Au.
Tectonic initiated a ten-hole drilling program on 12 January 2021
3 holes have been completed with sulphides intersected in all holes
Specimen Hill Update:
+1,250 drill samples have been prepared and are in the lab for low cost XRF pre screening
Drilling will recommence at Southern Copper on the western end of the strike after the Mt Cassidy program currently in progress has been completed.
Mr. Brett Boynton, Managing Director – Tectonic Gold Plc
“The field team is now well into the Mt Cassidy campaign with the first three holes of a 1,500m, ten-hole, program completed. This is Tectonic’s maiden drilling at Mt Cassidy and we are pleased to have intersected sulphide mineralisation containing chalcopyrite in all three holes. We know from previous geochemical testing that gold at Mt Cassidy is genetically associated with pyrite so we are in the right part of the system to intersect gold at grade and we have seen some excellent grades here, up to +50g/t gold, in the past. We will have samples off to the labs shortly, but this is an immediate technical success for our targeting once again.
Mt Cassidy is a very interesting project as we are “on top” of the system. By this we mean that erosion has not brought us into and exposed the system, so the surface footprint of the gold was large, but quite light. As a result, past explorers noted “sniffs” of gold at surface but couldn’t string these disparate surface showings together. By utilising our IRGS expertise, Tectonic recognised that we need to rethink the exploration approach to chase a “blind” or undercover system. Utilising a range of new technologies and an extensive field exploration effort over many years we have constructed a big data approach. Taking a large number of data points from a range of sampling techniques and comparing the resulting model to similar IRGS deposits we have been able to put together a high conviction target despite it being mostly “blind”. We now know that several disparate surface expressions of gold are actually the fingers of a single large system reaching up though the earth’s crust. Instead of waiting another few million years for erosion to strip the cover and expose this system more broadly, we have been able to use technology to cost effectively look through this cover and delineate a high conviction target. Developing new technologies is the key to a small group like Tectonic being able to change the economics of exploration and tackle these targets. This is a real game changer for us and gives Tectonic a very strong second asset in the portfolio.
Several shareholders have asked again about Southern Copper. This is the discovery at the western end of the 4km long strike from Specimen Hill. See the map we have shared on the Tectonic website at:
http://www.tectonicgold.com/site/PDF/8effb993-6049-4f39-8a0c-146055ef6767/20210112SpecimenHill4kmStrike
We will take the drilling team back to Specimen Hill after Mt Cassidy and begin working this western end, from Southern Copper, moving east, to confirm more of that strike at depth. We are specifically tackling this in sections so that we have time to analyse results and sharpen our thinking as we move through the system. Logging all the drilling from December and capturing the lab results has given us a mountain of information to add to our digital database. As a result we are now in a much better position to tackle Southern Copper and then we will look to fill in the gap in the middle. Ultimately we will have the entire corridor mapped at surface and tested at depth so we can work up initial resource numbers for the project.”
About the Mount Cassidy Prospect:
The?Mount Cassidy?prospect is located near Tectonic Gold’s flagship Specimen Hill project and is close to the regional centre of Rockhampton,?Queensland Australia.
The prospect is located within the Mount Morgan Tectonic Domain and within the same age rock sequence as the large and proximal Mount Morgan copper gold mine (+8Moz). The area was last mined in the early 1900’s.
Mount Cassidy mine workings are located on a regional scale north-south trending brecciated and silicified reidel shear zone that flanks a large, unexplored ovoid (~4km2) magmatic hydrothermal IRGS system. This tending shear zone has been mapped over a strike length of more than 1km and hosts an epithermal quartz-pyrite system that is closely associated with gold mineralisation. Exploration campaigns by Tectonic over the area in the last two years have resulted in grades up to 50g/t Au from surface rock chip sampling from within two major gold bearing quartz vein systems.
Geological mapping of the hydrothermal system at?Mount Cassidy?has confirmed classic porphyry style potassic and phyllic alteration assemblages over a large area that appears to have been enriched by gold bearing fluids from a proximal intrusive body.
The north-south trending shear zone is assumed to have provided the plumbing required for the passage of gold bearing fluids into the system.
About the Specimen Hill Prospect:
Specimen Hill has produced over 8,000ozs of gold from historic small-scale surface mining with grades reported up to ~40g/t Au.
Tectonic Gold has identified a large Intrusive Related Gold System (IRGS) manifesting as a +4km long mineralised corridor at Specimen Hill and has identified the possibility of a much larger system under cover.
Gold, copper and silver mineralisation within the known +4km corridor manifests itself at and near surface as a polymetallic, high-sulphidation (HS) system that has been enriched by late-stage intermediate-low sulphidation (IS-LS) gold mineralisation. At depth, Tectonic understands that this is a gold-copper porphyry co-incident with a high-temperature magnetite rich core (identified at Specimen Hill and Southern Copper which are associated with high copper and gold grades).
Rock chip samples from surface skarn outcrops mapped so far over the area of ~18 km2 have returned grades of consistently elevated Au, Ag and Cu.
Tectonic completed a second drilling campaign at Specimen Hill in December 2020. All holes have intersected mineralization at depths to over 100m from surface, validating the continuity of both geology and grade observed at surface. Tectonic will recommence drilling at the Western end of the corridor on the Southern Copper discovery once drilling at Mt Cassidy has been completed.
About Tectonic Gold:
Tectonic Gold is a specialist gold exploration company, focused on the identification and delineation of large-scale, multimillion-ounce Intrusion Related Gold Systems (“IRGS”). Tectonic Gold holds a number of gold discoveries in the New England Orogen in Eastern Australia, a prolific gold region that is home to Australia’s two largest gold production companies, Newcrest Mining and Evolution Mining. More recently, EMR Capital has purchased the Ravenswood project from Resolute Mining which sits along strike from Tectonic Gold’s Mount Cassidy and Specimen Hill Projects.
Qualified Persons:
Mr Jonathan Robbeson – BSc (Hons1), MEconGeol, MMinEng, (CP Geo) is a full-time employee Signature Gold Limited and is a registered Chartered Professional (Geology) with the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM – 304542). Mr Robbeson has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the Note for Mining Oil & Gas Companies, June 2009, of the London Stock Exchange and the 2012 Edition of the ‘Australian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’ (JORC Code). Mr Robbeson consents to the inclusion in the release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
Table 1 information for this release can be found on the Company website.
The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.
For further information, please contact:
Tectonic Gold plc Brett Boynton Sam Quinn www.tectonicgold.com. @tectonic_gold | +61 2 9241 7665 |
VSA Capital Limited
Financial Adviser, AQSE Corporate Adviser and Broker +44 20 3005??? 5000???
Andrew Raca – Corporate Finance
Andrew Monk – Corporate Broking
Ends
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
