Mt Jewell Gold Project
Introduction
Mt Jewell Gold Project location
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The Mt Jewell Gold Project is wholly owned by Pioneer and is being explored principally for gold.
The Project comprises 880 km² of tenements. The Company has other tenements in the area, including those the subject of the Acra Joint Venture with Xstrata Nickel Australasia.
The Mt Jewell Gold Project takes in areas of the Scotia Granodiorite and the Rainbow Dam Granodiorite. Within the project, two zones of gold mineralisation are recognised: the Lignum Dam Trend and the Golden Cities North Trend.
Recent news
1 February 2010
Drilling has commenced.
29 January 2009
During the December 2009 quarter, 35 RC drill holes were completed for 3,602 metres. In addition, 6 diamond drill holes generated 465.9 metres of core. Gold mineralisation was reported for 28, or 68%, of the holes drilled.
Very encouraging gold mineralisation intersected at the Hughes Prospect, including:
- LDRC058: 42m at 1.38g/t from 32m
- including 16m at 2.58g/t from 36m
- LDRC059: 49m at 2.31g/t from 61m
- including 19m at 2.41g/t from 61m
- and 15m at 3.56g/t from 89m
New gold intercepts extend the strike length of the Tregurtha Prospect to 400m:
- LDRC036: 12m at 1.52g/t from 43m
- including 5m at 2.41g/t from 44m
- LDRC038: 22m at 1.18g/t from 120m
- LDRC039: 8m at 2.24g/t from 36m
- LDRC040: 12m at 1.43/t from 36m
Tregurtha Diamond Drilling provides structural information and confirms high-grade potential:
- LDRD013: 13m at 2.22g/t from 145m
- LDRD015: 8m at 8.55g/t from 43m
- and 21m at 2.03g/t from 81m
- LDDD028: 6.19m at 8.78g/t from 80.2m
- LDDD029: 4m at 65.34g/t from 53m
The gold project's landholding was significantly increased by around 50% through the acquisition of the Golden Cities North Tenements, which immediately provided two new drilling targets.
Tregurtha Prospect
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Hughes Prospect
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Pioneer is pleased to confirm that drilling is expected to resume on 2 February 2010 at the Hughes Prospect. Currently evident mineralisation, which has a strike length of 200m, will be tested with a pattern of 40x40m spaced drill holes.
Lignum Dam Gold Trend
Open file research identified a 6 kilometre long, low tenor gold anomaly that was generated during the early 1990s. Follow-up programs commenced but were not exhaustively completed. There is no evidence of old workings within the anomaly.
Preliminary RAB testing of the anomaly by Pioneer during 2007 returned a number of anomalous gold assays. Further drilling identified the Tregurtha and Hughes Prospects. Approximately one third of the original geochemical anomaly has been drill tested by follow-up RAB drilling and large areas of the Rainbow Dam Granodiorite remain to be geochemically sampled.
The prospects take their name from local gold pioneers who were known to work the area during the 1890s.
Recent RC drilling has largely targeted the Tregurtha Prospect, demonstrating the significance of the project to the Company's organic growth. Drilling has now moved to the Hughes Prospect following the recent identification of a zone of strong mineralisation. A 3,800 metre mineral definition drilling program has commenced with results expected from mid February to the end of March 2010. Four holes will also be deepened at the Tregurtha Prospect during this round of drilling.
Golden Cities North Trend
The Mt Jewell Project's landholding was significantly increased by around 50% through the recent acquisition of the Golden Cities North Tenements through acquisition and pegging. A data review by Pioneer immediately identified two new drilling targets. In particular, a RAB gold anomaly evidently extends from the Golden Cities and Federal Mines, which are located 2km to the south - outside the newly acquired ground, extending for at least 6km into Pioneer's project area. Limited RC drilling is reported to have intersected significant mineralisation including:
- 6m at 1.78g/t from 51m
- 10m at 1.03g/t from 93m and
- 3m at 3.26 from 50m (NB This drill hole ended in mineralisation)
A 7,000m RAB drilling program, designed to build upon existing reconnaissance RAB drilling information from the 1990s, is scheduled to be completed during April 2010. This will bring the drill density down to 160x80m patterns over selected targets.
The Golden Cities (Havana, Suva) and Federal gold deposits are reported to have had a combined inventory of 1.2M oz prior to mining.
Other prospects
Other gold prospects within the Mt Jewell Gold Project the Company has identified include:
- The "Top Prospect" where RC drilling records indicate narrow high grade zones including 1m at 36.46g/t, 1m at 11.19g/t and 2m at 4.25g/t; and
- The "Airstrip Prospect" where records indicate a single traverse of RC drilling returned gold anomalies including 2m at 3.3g/t and 1m at 1.25g/t.
The Company sees the Mt Jewell Project as offering the potential to develop a low cost open cut gold mining operation close to established milling operations at a time when gold is at record prices.
