Oct 11 2017
Hannan Metals Limited is pleased to announce new soil geochemical sampling results that has identified a large and coherent anomaly up-dip from the mineral resource area at the 100%-owned Kilbricken zinc-lead-silver deposit in County Clare, Ireland. The geological context of the soil anomaly makes it a high priority target for immediate drill testing (see Figure 1 below).
Key Points:
- Assays from the first 450 soil samples have been returned from a 1,000 sample program. Sampling infills large previously unsampled areas around known mineralization;
- A new large and undrilled anomaly has been discovered immediately up-dip from the Kilbricken resource area (Figure 1);
- The anomaly is similar in scale (0.75km x 0.5km) and tenor in zinc, lead, copper and arsenic to the soil anomaly found above known mineralization at the Chimney resource area, and shows a strong correlation with prospective faults identified from gravity, magnetic and seismic data sets;
- This new anomaly, in combination with known structure, presents a target for immediate follow up, representing the Kilbricken mineralized position at shallower depth;
- Two diamond drill rigs are currently in operation at Kilbricken drilling six days a week.
Mr. Michael Hudson, CEO and Chairman, states: "Base metal mineralization in Ireland is consistently developed within the right stratigraphic and structural setting. The high-grade zinc mineralization at Kilbricken demonstrates both these ingredients, and our semi-regional exploration program has been targeting similar settings. The new and untested large-scale soil anomaly, with similar scale and tenor to Kilbricken, with great structural context, presents an exciting drill-ready target that will be tested within the coming months. In combination our first reported holes demonstrating expansion of the current resource, and with existing soil anomalies east and along strike from the Fort resource zone, that are currently being drill tested, the potential for further resource expansion at Kilbricken remains high."
The current 1,000 sample soil program has focused on acquiring new samples within an area of >40 km2 of unexplored Waulsortian Limestone (Figure 1). Soil samples have been acquired by hand auger at 50cm depth on average (up to >1m). The sample material is brown earth, sometimes with a clay/sand/peat or chip components from the A horizon. Thin glacial cover (1-5m thick) is common over the project area. In combination with the re-interpretation and quality control of >18,000 historic soil samples, the new data reveals multiple new anomalies of Zn-Pb (with associated trace elements), some at target depths <300m. The anomalies show strong correlation with many prospective faults previously interpreted from aeromagnetic, gravity and seismic data.
Two diamond drill rigs are currently in operation at Kilbricken drilling six days a week. To date, three diamond drill holes have been completed (DH217-219), with two in progress (DH220-221) for a total of 2,852.4 metres drilled from the current 13 hole, 8,500 metre drill program. Two holes have been reported from the Fort Zone with highlights of DH217: 3.2 metres @ 8.4% Zn, 72.8% Pb and 388 g/t Ag (81.2% Zn+Pb), an infill hole; and DH218: 4.0 metres @ 0.7% Zn, 8.9% Pb and 31 g/t Ag (9.6% Zn+Pb), a 50 metre step out hole. DH219, drilled to extend the Fort Zone, has just been submitted to the geochemical laboratory. DH220 (in progress) is testing the extensions of the Chimney zone to the east and DH221 (in progress) is testing a large soil anomaly 250 metres east of the Fort Zone, looking for a repeat mineralized body. One drill rig will be moved to test the new soil anomaly described here, at month's end.
Technical Background
Analytical samples were transported by Hannan personnel from site to the ALS Loughrea located at Dublin Road, Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland. At the laboratory samples are dried, sieved to 180 um fraction, digested in aqua regia, and analyzed by the multi-element ICP-MS method ME-MS41. The QA/QC program of Hannan consists of the systematic collection of field duplicates and insertion of blanks at the start of each batch. In addition, ALS inserts blanks and standards into the analytical process.
Source: https://www.hannanmetals.com/