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Siren Gold Limited (ASX: SNG) (Siren or the Company) is pleased to provide an exploration updated on the Sams Creek Project.
Highlights
- Sams Creek is an intrusion-related gold deposit (IRGD) with mineralisation contained within a porphyry dyke.
- The Sams Creek porphyry dyke (SCD) is over 7kms long, up to 60m thick, and extends down dip for at least 1km.
- The Sams Creek MRE comprises 9.1Mt @ 2.82 g/t Au for 824koz (1.5g/t cut-off), with only around 15% of the SCD drilled to date.
- An interpreted magnetic anomaly below the Main Zone could represent a large felsic intrusion that may be the source of the SCD and gold mineralisation.
- Historic diamond drillholes at the Main Zone includes:
- DDHSC84019, which intersected 183m @ 2.46g/t Au from 31m (including eight mineralised sections >2g/t Au with a weighted average of 101m @ 3.39g/t Au).
- DDH84SC016, which intersected 87m @ 4.2g/t Au across 7 high grade intervals.
- A trial Ionic Leach soil survey detected the SCD mineralisation over 500m below the surface. This survey will now be extended along the length of the SCD and over the magnetic anomaly to identify additional mineralisation that can be targeted by drilling.
Managing Director Brian Rodan commented:
Siren believes there is significant potential at Sams Creek for a large underground mining operation. The Sams Creek Dyke (SCD) is up to 60m thick, can be traced for over 7kms along strike, has a vertical extent of at least 1km and is open at depth. Drilling to date has focused on a 1km section of the dyke from the Carapace to the Main Zone (Figure 2). The trial Ionic Leach soil sampling program has successfully identified Sams Creek mineralisation 500m below the surface and identified new target areas. This program will now be extended across the whole deposit. We look forward to seeing these results in the coming months.
Background
The Sams Creek Gold Project is located 140kms NE of Reefton and 100kms NE of Lyell (Figure 1). The Project comprises two exploration tenements: EP 54454, which is 100% held by Sams Creek Gold Limited (SCGL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Siren, and EP40338, which is 81.9% held by SCGL under a joint- venture agreement with New Zealand’s largest gold miner, OceanaGold Limited (OGL), who own the remaining 18.1% interest.
Western New Zealand was originally part of Gondwana and lay adjacent to eastern Australia until around 80 Ma ago. The NW of the South Island of New Zealand comprises an area of predominantly early Paleozoic rocks in broad northerly trending belts which terminate at the Alpine Fault (Figure 1). The Paleozoic sequence is divided into the Buller Terrane, Takaka Central and Takaka Eastern Belts. These belts are interpreted to correspond with the Western, Central and Eastern belts of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The Buller and Western Lachlan belts contain the orogenic gold deposits like Bendigo, Ballarat and Fosterville in Australia and the Reefton and Lyell Goldfields in New Zealand.
The Sams Creek porphyry dyke (SCD) is located in the Eastern Takaka Terrane, which is equivalent to the Eastern Lachlan belt that hosts porphyry copper-gold deposits like Cadia and Ridgeway.
The SCD mineralisation is contained within a hydrothermally altered peralkaline granite porphyry dyke that intrudes the Early Paleozoic metasediments. The dyke is up to 60m thick and can be traced E-W for over 7kms along strike (Figure 2). The SCD generally dips steeply to the north (~600), with gold mineralisation extending down dip for at least 1km and is open at depth (Figure 3).
The SCD has been divided into a number of exploration prospects including Riordans, Western Outcrops, Doyles, SE Traverse, Carapace, Main Zone, Anvil and Barrons Flat. The dyke generally dips steeply to the north but dips more shallowly to the NW and SE between the Carapace and Western Outcrops where it intrudes argillite (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Top of the South Island, geology showing Palaeozoic rocks in green. Adapted fromCooper and Tulloch 1992.
Figure 2. Geology of the Sams Creek deposit.
Mineralisation
The geological and geochemical characteristics of the SCD indicate it is a member of the intrusion- related gold deposits (IRGDs). Globally, there are many examples of where IRGDs contain multi-million- ounce resources, including Pogo (5Moz), Donlin Creek (10Moz) Fort Knox (7Moz) in Alaska, Kidston (4Moz), Cadia (15Moz) in Australia and Vasilkovskoe (10Moz) in Kazakhstan (Lang & Baker 2001)2.
The Sams Creek porphyry dyke can best be described as a distal deposit (Figure 3) located in the host sediments outside the contact aureole of the source intrusion. These deposits typically have an Au-As- Sb-Hg Zn-Pb-Ag mineral association and may lie over 1km from the source (Figure 3). At structurally higher levels (500mRL to 800mRL) the SCD contains considerably more silver (up 90g/t) with Ag:Au ratios in the order of 30:1 whilst at lower levels (-200mRL to 500mRL) gold dominates silver, with ratios around 0.3:1. Base metals (Zn and Pb) also increase at these lower levels. This most probably reflects increasing proximity to the source intrusion with the top of the dyke showing signs of epithermal style mineralisation.
The porphyry dyke is variably mineralised and has been modified by at least four alteration / mineralisation stages (Angus 20133). The main gold mineralising event is Stage III where mineralisation consists of irregular to planar gold-bearing arsenopyrite-pyrite±quartz veins (Figure 4c), which form sheeted and local stockwork vein complexes that generally dip to the SE and form moderate-high grade gold zones (Figure 5). Veins vary in thickness from <1mm to 15mm. These veins are cut by later base metal veins up to 15mm thick containing galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite (Figure 4d). These veins do not appear to contain any gold but appear to be associated with the high-grade gold zones. Significant drillhole intersections are shown in Tables 1 and 2.
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SNG:AU
Siren Gold
Overview
Siren Gold (ASX:SNG) is an exploration and development company focusing on gold assets at its 1,100-square-kilometer tenement package located on the historic, high-grade Reefton, Lyell and Sams Creek goldfields in New Zealand.
Reefton Goldfield was first discovered in 1866 with total current recorded production of 11 million ounces (Moz) of gold, consisting of 2 Moz @ 16 grams per ton (g/t) gold from underground, 0.7 Moz from open pit and ~8 Moz gold from alluvial mining.
Mining and the local communities thrived in the region during the early 1900s, but most of the 94 underground mines closed by 1942 during WWII, and the Blackwater mine, which produced 740 koz @ 19 g/t down to more than 700 meters below the surface, finally shut down in 1951 bringing the entire field to a close. The gold price in 1951 was US$35 per ounce.
Fast forward to 2023, mining analysts believe current gold prices are only the beginning of a large upward trend, with gold prices reaching the $2,000 mark in the last quarter of 2023. What we know is clear: Gold has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 20 years, as production from gold mines runs low without enough new projects to replace them.
Siren’s gold projects present an opportunity for new supply sources to emerge. The Reefton Goldfield is a high-grade mining district located on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
Siren’s global mineral resource currently sits at 1.33 million ounces at 3.3 grams per ton (g/t) AuEq (gold equivalent), from Sams Creek, Alexander River, Big River, Supreme and Auld Creek.
The district is widely known for producing gold, antimony and coal. A crucial aspect of the Reefton Goldfield is the significant occurrence of antimony, a rare thermal-resistant metal and a poor conductor of electricity. These attributes make it ideal for flame retardants, paints and various industrial applications to improve thermal tolerance. Additionally, antimony is a critical element in lithium-ion batteries and next-generation liquid metal batteries utilized for energy storage systems. The presence of antimony in the goldfield creates additional value for Siren’s projects as exploration continues.
Siren currently has seven projects, many of which were active sites that were closed during WWII despite encouraging exploration or production. Now, the company has built an expansive portfolio of projects and will undergo systematic exploration of its assets using leading-edge technologies and techniques.
With seven projects under its belt, Siren is primarily focused on Sams Creek, Alexander River, Big River and Auld Creek. These four projects are slated for future exploration and potential development to improve the assets’ value.
A skilled management team leads the company towards fully exploring its promising portfolio, with diverse expertise in geology, corporate administration and finance.
Company Highlights
- Siren Gold is an exploration and development company focusing on gold assets in the high-grade, historic Reefton Goldfield and Sams Creek in New Zealand.
- Siren owns seven highly prospective projects throughout the region, each with the potential for gold and antimony, a rare metal used in various thermal-resistant applications.
- The company’s global mineral resource is currently at 1.33 million ounces at 3.3 g/t AuEq (gold equivalent), with significant potential to increase as exploration continues.
- The Reefton Goldfield historically produced over 11 million ounces of gold before the entire field closed after WWII.
- Siren’s assets within the Reefton Goldfield are highly prospective but have yet to be fully explored through modern exploration techniques, creating significant blue-sky potential.
- A management team with a range of expertise in the natural resources industry leads the company towards fully realizing the potential of its highly prospective portfolio.
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Exploring Highly Prospective Gold Assets in A Historic New Zealand Mining District
