Elk Range Mining (ASX:ELK) advances Friday drilling alongside historical core review

Elk Range Mining is conducting a systematic review of retained historical drill core from the Friday Gold Project in Idaho, USA, alongside its maiden diamond drilling program, with coarse visible gold identified in historical hole PFR2014_06.

Highlights

The visible gold occurs as blebs and veinlets in and adjacent to deformed quartz feldspar carbonate veining near a sheared contact within broader brittle ductile deformation in the final metre of PFR2014_06, which was drilled by a previous operator in 2014.

Pyrite bearing alteration and local quartz healed brecciation were also recorded.

A previous operator reported on 6 October 2014 that PFR2014_06 returned 112.78 m at 5.22 g/t Au from 24.38 m, including 5.30 m at 26.54 g/t Au from 131.86 m to 137.16 m at the end of the hole, with these historical assay results not generated by Elk Range.

The previous operator’s release stated that samples containing visible gold during the 2013 to 2014 program were analysed using metallic screen methods, but did not specifically identify visible gold in PFR2014_06.

Elk Range’s review of the available assay certificates identified fire assay results only, while the historical geological logs available to the company do not record the visible gold now observed.

Elk Range has quarter core sampled the targeted historical interval using an approximately 500 g sample charge.

Available analytical records indicate that routine analysis of PFR2014_06 used a 50 g fire assay with an atomic emission spectroscopy finish.

The current analysis is intended to provide an independent modern comparison with the historical results and further information on grade variability and the potential influence of coarse gold or nugget effects.

Elk Range Chief Executive Officer Edward Keys said:

“Visible gold is an important geological observation, but it is not a substitute for laboratory assays and should not be taken as an indication of the grade, continuity or mineralisation we may encounter in 26FRD001. These assays remain pending.”

Current hole 26FRD001 is designed to run broadly parallel with PFR2014_06 through the historically reported mineralised interval.

Their collars are approximately 8 m apart at surface, with the projected drill traces less than 10 m apart at the depth of the visible gold observation.

Beyond the historical end of PFR2014_06, the current hole is designed to continue approximately 200 m into an area of limited previous drilling.

It will test the interpreted continuation of the mineralised system and provide a new pierce point within a gap in the existing drill dataset.

The program is using oriented HQ3 triple tube diamond core, detailed geological and structural logging and downhole surveying, with this information to be integrated with the extensive historical drilling dataset held for Friday.

The project is located in the Orogrande Mining District at the junction of the Orogrande and Petsite structural trends, between rocks of the Idaho Batholith and metamorphosed Belt Supergroup.

Gold occurs in a structurally controlled vein and shear system.

Historical drilling and underground observations indicate broader lower grade disseminated mineralisation and higher grade zones associated with more intense shearing, quartz veining, sulphides and hydrothermal alteration.

Assays from the current drilling program and results from the historical core analysis remain pending, with additional holes potentially considered subject to the initial results.

Friday is the initial focus of drilling within the broader Idaho Gold Project, which also includes the Buffalo Gulch and Deadwood prospects and a substantial landholding along the Orogrande Shear Zone.

Elk Range’s stated strategy is to progressively evaluate its Idaho portfolio alongside the advancement of Friday.