Nov 26 2010
Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX VENTURE:GEL)(NZAX:GEL) today announced the commencement of a multi-hole diamond and reverse circulation drilling campaign at its Muirs gold prospect in the North Island, New Zealand.
MUIRS REEFS GOLD PROPERTY (GEL 100%)
Diamond drilling has re-commenced on the Muirs Reefs gold prospect with a large RC drilling rig also mobilised to arrive shortly. This campaign is designed to test the extent of the known Muirs/Massey Reef gold system, both southward and at depth; and to test the exciting potential of the new east and west resistors interpreted as new vein systems.
The drilling program consists of 5 deep, angled drill holes, drilling a section across the system to a depth of approximately 250-300 metres (approximately 2,000 m in total).
Location and History
The Muirs Reef gold system lies 62 km southeast of the Martha gold mine (Newmont operation) at the southern extremity of the Hauraki Goldfield in the Western Bay of Plenty. The property is host to a former producing gold mine discovered in 1895. Gold was mined from two quartz reefs, Muirs and Masseys, in a shallow open pit and from three underground levels that achieved total production of 43,642 oz gold circa 1930's.
Geological setting
The host andesitic flows and pyroclastic's are the southernmost extension of the Tertiary andesitic and rhyolite Volcanism of the Hauraki Goldfield. The veins represent a classic low sulphidation epithermal (quartz adularia) gold-silver system with outcropping banded and colloform textured quartz veins, quartz breccia, and vein swarms mapped up to 20m wide in the historical open pit. The overall extent of the vein system is more than 2km along strike and over 1 km wide, geophysical mapping indicates the vein/alteration system to be significantly larger than this.
Quartz vein petrology indicates a high-level epithermal system with unconstrained depth potential.
Resistivity Surveying
E-SCAN® 3D resistivity surveys over the Gibraltar and Otawa targets (respectively south and north of the historic Muirs Reef gold deposit), combined with surface mapping, trace the vein/breccia system for over 5,000m, demonstrating that this exciting epithermal gold prospect conjoins into one large continuous alteration system over 5,000m in length.
Recent EM electrical ground surveying confirms additional resistors indicative of new veins in the vicinity of Massey and Muirs quartz reef and two potential new reef systems east and west of Muirs quartz reef. The new East and West resistors are of similar size and tenor of the Muirs veins (the subject of the historical production).
Rock-chip and soil geochemistry
On the East resistor, gold soil geochemistry is identified along several hundred metres (up to 458ppb gold) while the West resistor has quartz vein float in the vicinity assaying up to 4.81g/t gold.
Drilling
Drilling undertaken by Glass Earth in 2008 provided evidence of a high-level epithermal gold system as indicated by the broad mineralized intersection in the first and second diamond drill holes.
The first diamond drill-hole intersected 30m @ 1.2 g/t Au and 6 g/t Ag, confirming a mineralized system to 75m depth (reported 25 September 2008);
The second diamond drill-hole, drilled 80 m along section, intersected 16m @ 1.1 g/t Au and 3.5 g/t Ag, within a broad zone of 37m@ 0.8gm/t Au and 3.5g/t Ag, confirming a mineralized system to 75m depth (reported 25 November 2008).
Additional gold mineralized quartz veins, intersected either side of the broad intercept, indicate potential for a stockwork of veins between the Massey and Muirs vein systems. 3m @ 3.1g/t Au and 1.9 g/t Ag intersected at the top of MSDDH 002, relates to this stockwork of veins apparent in resistivity mapping (350m apart);
Significant legacy core intercepts include 20m @ 4.9 g/t Au; 20m @3.6 g/t Au; 8m @ 3.4 g/t Au; 22 @ 2.8 g/t Au; 9m @ 2.7 g/t Au; and 1m @ 358 g/t Au.
Qualified Persons
Glass Earth's exploration programmes are carried out under the supervision of Glass Earth's President and CEO, Simon Henderson, M.Sc, M.AUSIMM, F.SEG. Mr. Henderson meets the qualified person requirements, as defined by National Instrument 43-101, with more than 30 years of experience in the gold mining and exploration industry.
Source: Glass Earth Gold Limited