Patrician Gold tests Forest Reef

Drilling by Patrician Gold Mines (ASE) continues to intersect gold in the Forest Reef horizon, leading to a re-interpretation of the geology of the Ikungu Peninsula property in Tanzania.

Hole 94-8, drilled 100 ft. west of Hole 94-1, intersected the reef and returned an assay of 0.35 oz. per ton across 19.69 ft. at a depth of 678 ft. Unfortunately, the hole ended in mineralization, before the footwall basalt was intersected.

The discovery hole, 94-1, intersected the Forest Reef horizon and assayed 0.81 oz. over 15.7 ft. at a depth of 426 ft.

The Forest Reef lies within a thick exhalite horizon which has a known strike length of about 1.2 miles. The horizon is thought to be a folded, thinner continuation of the exhalite horizon that hosts the past-producing Phoenix mine in the northern part of the property. The total lateral extent of the folded exhalite is estimated at 2.5 miles.

According to Patrician’s president, Robin Dow, “the horizon is very continuous both in size and grade; it is 12 ft. thick and we have traced it in an old shaft to a depth of 350 ft.”

Dow also believes the horizon could host as much as 2.5 million oz. gold. To date, Patrician has drilled eight holes on the property, four of which have demonstrated that a series of faults offsets the reef. As a result, three of the holes were not drilled deep enough to intersect the mineralization.

Elsewhere on the property, geochemical soil sampling has identified gold in samples 1,000 ft. beyond the known western extent of the exhalite. To define the reef and its hosting structure, Patrician will complete geological mapping, soil sampling and a ground magnetic survey. Drilling will resume in February.