- Highlights include 7.10 meters at 3.05 g/t in hole 21LEV002, 4.20 meters at 4.75 g/t in hole 21LEV004, 2.77 meters at 18.86 g/t in hole 21LEV005, and 3.24 meters at 6.91 g/t in hole 21LEV006.
- Results from holes 21LEV004, 21LEV002 and 21LEV006 demonstrate mineralized continuity in an apparent extension of ore-shoots and their controlling structures in the historic
Leviathan Mine . - Additional drilling planned to further explore this feature along strike and to depth.
All eight holes of the program were designed with the objective of defining extensions to known mineralization in the historic
In particular, the reported intervals in holes 21LEV002, 21LEV004 and 21LEV006 – which were collared approximately fifty meters from one another at similar, parallel azimuths perpendicular to the strike of historically mined ore-shoots - demonstrate mineralized continuity between one another as well as with the former ore-shoots themselves. This suggests the potential for further mineralized shoots. Additional drilling will be required to further explore these features along strike and to depth, and to seek related and parallel mineralized structures. The reported interval in hole 21LEV005 demonstrates the potential for unexplored and undeveloped mineralization at depth within and beneath the historic
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1 Holes 21LEV003 and 21LEV007 were abandoned prior to completion. |
Drilling was also designed to gain modern geological information on the controls on mineralization at the historic
The Company is finalizing arrangements in regard to gaining land access necessary to advance exploration of this target.
A total of 1891 meters in 8 holes have been drilled at the old
Table 1: Significant intervals from drilling at the historic
Drill Hole | From | To | Interval | Au |
(m) | (m) | (m) | (g/t) | |
21LEV002 | 232.05 | 239.15 | 7.10 | 3.06 |
and | 242.40 | 243.51 | 1.11 | 56.40 |
21LEV004 | 241.00 | 245.20 | 4.20 | 4.75 |
21LEV005 | 335.13 | 337.90 | 2.77 | 18.86 |
21LEV006 | 224.50 | 227.74 | 3.24 | 6.91 |
and | 231.10 | 232.19 | 1.09 | 34.09 |
Table 2: Collar data for drilling at the historic
Drill Hole | Easting | Northing | Elevation | Azimuth | Inclination | Length |
(m) | (°) | (°) | (m) | |||
21LEV001 | 741,904 | 5,898,701 | 219.88 | 256.08 | -45.91 | 179.8 |
21LEV002 | 741,978 | 5,898,623 | 221.30 | 262.40 | -50.36 | 286.1 |
21LEV003 | 742,128 | 5,898,407 | 225.35 | 255.76 | -48.3 | 102.9 |
21LEV004 | 741,991 | 5,898,570 | 221.98 | 257.56 | -54.25 | 273.9 |
21LEV005 | 742,128 | 5,898,407 | 225.35 | 257.30 | -38.51 | 376.0 |
21LEV006 | 741,953 | 5,898,669 | 220.50 | 254.81 | -55.08 | 260.4 |
21LEV007 | 742,113 | 5,898,469 | 224.30 | 254.39 | -37.6 | 264.9 |
21LEV008 | 741,884 | 5,898,697 | 219.90 | 253.62 | -44.98 | 150.7 |
Recorded historic production for the
Compilation and review of historic mining records and plans together with modern field work by Leviathan's geological team suggests that gold mineralization at the historic
Mineralization at the
Writing in 1913 - subsequent to the closure of the
"From the surface to 240 feet the Old Leviathan averaged for a long time 1 oz. per ton and the ore was 10 feet to 20 feet wide. At no point lower than 300 feet has this line been worked" and "The 960-ft level, the next level at which the Old Leviathan Reef formation was cut, shows a splendid quartz reef with encouraging prospects, and going strongly underfoot south", and
"The New Reef in in the 960-ft level warrants further exploiting and this should be done if ever the mine is again worked".
Within the area contemplated by current drilling, repeated parallel to sub-parallel reef targets extend over an area of at least 130 meters laterally and in excess of 750 meters of strike. Preliminary indications are that this fault system persists for several kilometers to the north of the current target, and that parallel systems appear to exist to both its east and its west. These occurrences will be reported on in due course.
Hard rock gold mineralization in the area of
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2 Recorded historical production for the New Leviathan, Old Leviathan and Great Leviathan Mines; GeoVic (2020) https://earthresources.vic.gov.au/geology-exploration/maps-reports-data |
3 NIELSEN, K. I., 1989. Chinamans Gold Prospect near Maryborough in |
4 HOWITT, A.M., 1913. The Maryborough goldfield. |
5 BROUGH SMYTH, R., 1869. The Goldfields and Mineral Districts of |
It is understood that historic operation of the
About Avoca and Timor
The Victorian goldfields are one of the world's major gold provinces, with recorded historic production in excess of 2,500 tonnes - or over 80 million ounces – of gold since their discovery in 18517. The Avoca and Timor projects comprise 223 square kilometers of exploration tenements within these goldfields, approximately 180 kilometers northwest of the state capital of
The Projects are located within an area of the Victorian goldfields, the golden triangle, that is home to large scale gold deposits with long and very prominent histories of production such as those at Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine. More recently, major discoveries have also been made at the
The Avoca and Timor projects were the subject of historical mining between the 1850's and the early 1900's, during which era operations targeted so-called alluvial and "deep lead" gold occurrences – buried secondary auriferous river-bed deposits - as well as primary vein-hosted mineralization developed via shaft and underground stoping methods. Such operations reportedly produced some 1.3 million ounces of gold in the Avoca and Timor project areas alone, the majority of this arising from alluvial and "deep lead" mining - a function of the richness of the alluvial mineralization around Maryborough, so great that it eclipsed the importance of reef mining. As such little capital was available for deep hard rock development3. The mining, water removal and ore processing methods of the day were rudimentary, such that only isolated extraction of shallow, near-surface, visible, high-grade mineralization was possible, resulting in only very selective and discontinuous mining. Over fifty such gold occurrences are known within the Projects, and despite this prodigious endowment, no systematic exploration of the Projects has occurred. With only limited exploration work having been recorded since WW1, numerous targets to test, and mineralization potentially open to depth at most of these, a rare opportunity exists for Leviathan to pursue a consolidated approach in the exploration of near-surface mineralization using modern drilling, geochemical and geophysical techniques.
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6 FLETT, J., 1975. Maryborough, |
7 Earth Resources Victoria (2020). https://earthresources.vic.gov.au/geology-exploration/minerals/metals/gold/gold-mining-in-victoria |
8 Kirkland Lake Gold (2020). https://www.kl.gold/our-business/resources-and-reserves/default.aspx |
Historical records are not historical resource estimates, but instead are official Government records of gold production from individual mines. Historical production records do not carry a comparable confidence level to a current Mineral Resource estimate reported in accordance with CIM standards for resource estimation and should not be treated as such. Leviathan does not treat historical production records as indicators of a current mineral resource or mineral reserve. The information relating to historical gold mines has not been independently verified by the Qualified Person and such information is not necessarily indicative of mineralisation on the properties that it the subject of this Press Release.
Future Work Programs
There are over thirty historical gold workings within the Avoca project area[9], all of which require additional mapping, surface sampling and drill testing to assess their potential and on which the Company intends to report on an ongoing basis. The highest priority targets include:
- Pyrenees Reefs: 16,199 tons mined for 16,602 ounces of gold to a depth of 130 meters at an average recovered grade of 32 g/t Au, worked from 1860 to 1912; mineralized shoots per historic underground mine plans.
- Excelsior Reef: 13,200 tons mined for 9,260 ounces of gold to a depth of 100 meters at an average recovered grade of 22 g/t Au, worked from 1909 to 1915; mineralized shoots per historic underground mine plans.
- Vale's Reefs: 1,444 tons mined for 1,388 ounces of gold to a depth of 52 meters at an average recovered grade of 29.4 g/t Au, worked from 1865 to 1883.
- Monte Christo Reefs: 2,795 tons mined for 937 ounces of gold to a depth of 30 meters at an average recovered grade of 10.3 g/t Au, worked from 1872 to 1877.
The Timor project lies immediately east of the Avoca project and hosts numerous hardrock and alluvial gold deposits as evidenced by the extent of historic workings, of which approximately twenty hardrock workings can be considered to have been significant producers. The highest priority targets include:
- Shaw's Reef: 16,881 tons mined for 12,623 ounces of gold to a depth 130 meters at an average recovered grade of 22.9 g/t Au, worked from 1883 to 1891. Along strike of this fault zone, arsenopyrite and stibnite mineralization is recorded in association with the gold mineralization indicating possible epizonal Fosterville-style gold mineralization.
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9 State of Victoria Mining Surveyors and Registrar's Quarterly Reports from 1860 to 1891 and Annual Reports issued thereafter. All the production from these reefs occurred within the Avoca licence. |
Qualified Person and Data Verification
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed, verified and approved by
Drilling at the historic Leviathan Mine in 2021 was carried out by independent contractors using PQ and HQ size tooling. Average core recovery for the program was 94%. Drill core was transported from the drill site to Leviathan's core yard in Avoca where it was logged and photographed using industry standard practices. Within quartz rich zones and visually identified mineralization, samples for assay were marked and prepared for analysis. Sample intervals ranged from 0.15 to 1.25 meters in length but were generally 0.5 – 1.0 meters with an average length of 0.75 meters, producing samples with an average weight of 3 kilograms. Sampling over potentially mineralised intervals used half core with the core being cut by Leviathan personnel using an automated core saw. Over intervals which had obvious mineralization as identified by the presence of visible gold and or accessory minerals such as galena, sphalerite or arsenopyrite, sampling was performed on whole core. Samples were delivered, by Leviathan, to the facilities of
CRMs and blanks submitted within mineralized intervals generally passed the Company's QAQC controls. Coarse duplicate sampling, in addition to field observation did however draw attention to the presence of coarse gold in the mineralizing system. In an effort to better control this variable, umpire samples of half core from hole 21LEV002 were sent to ALS Global in
Upon receipt of complete assay results from both On Site and ALS Global, the Leviathan geological team drew the conclusion from the repeated presence of visible - i.e. nugget - gold in a number of the core samples, that sampling and analytical protocols may to that point have risked under-representing the tenor of gold, particularly in the case of more nuggety material.
On this basis coarse crush splits were sent for analysis at
Sample grades were checked against recovery percentage for potential bias; no discernible high- or low-grade bias was observed.
On behalf of the Company,
Neither the
This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in
Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release, including with respect to geological prospects of Leviathan's mineral projects, planned exploration activities, success of exploration activities, the relevance of historical information, the continuation of mineralization, the relevance of comparable projects, the timing of exploration activities, general business and economic conditions; that applicable approvals are obtained; that qualified workers, financing, permits, approvals, and equipment are obtained in a timely manner; that market conditions continue; that contractual counterparties perform their obligations as required; and that Leviathan is able to locate sufficient financing for favourable ongoing operations. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. Leviathan cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by many material factors, many of which are beyond Leviathan's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to whether exploration activities will result in commercially viable quantities of mineralized materials; the possibility of changes to project parameters as plans continue to be refined; the ability to execute planned exploration and future drilling programs;COVID-19; the ability to obtain qualified workers, financing, permits, approvals, and equipment in a timely manner or at all and on reasonable terms; changes in the commodity and securities markets; non-performance by contractual counterparties; and general business and economic conditions, Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Although Leviathan has attempted to identify important risks and factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors and risks that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Consequently, undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements. In addition, all forward-looking statements in this press release are given as of the date hereof. Leviathan disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, save and except as may be required by applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this disclaimer.
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