The final drilling results from the first exploration campaign of diamond drilling at Maldon returned a high-grade interval of 0.6m @ 52.8 g/t gold. Overall, the results were encouraging and very useful in defining the mineralised trends within Maldon.
The information will be used in the planning for the next round of drilling and included in the ongoing resource estimation.
Jonathan Downes told the Times, “We’ve completed the first exploration at the Union Hill decline and have found high grades.
“Next, we will need to undertake a resource estimate to determine how much gold is remaining and understand where we need to target for the next drilling program. This process will take a few months,” Jonathan said. “A lot of the work won’t have discernible impacts because the existing mines are already in place.”
Drilling is being conducted from the modern established decline below the goldfield. Resource modelling for Maldon has commenced, and Kaiser hopes to eventually justify the development of a second mining centre at Maldon to supplement the A1 Mine at Woods Point.
Image courtesy Tarrangower Times
The results returned from underground diamond drilling at the high-grade Maldon gold mine reveal further intervals of gold mineralisation, which are characteristic of previously mined areas at Maldon.
Most of the drill holes have intercepted the Eaglehawk target reef at its projected location. These results are encouraging for the exploration at the Kaiser’s first drilling campaign at Maldon.
Maldon is one of the premier Victorian historic goldfields and has enjoyed surprisingly limited modern exploration. The significant amount of gold historically exploited (1.74Moz @ 28 g/t gold), mostly within 300 metres of the surface, offers further opportunity at depth, which is supported by limited, yet encouraging previous exploration.
The drilling in this campaign targeted positions near the Alliance South Shoot deposit. The Alliance South Shoot is defined by the north-south striking Eaglehawk Reef at the southern termination of the Central Maldon Shear zone. The Alliance South Shoot deposit comprises a fault bound shallow dipping western and steep-dipping eastern reef, which makes up the overall Eaglehawk Reef structure which was mined extensively further north from the Alliance group of shafts.
The Alliance South Shoot lode is located on a nexus of the structural zone where the Eaglehawk Reef passes from the East limb of the German Anticline into the hinge zone of the German Syncline. The up-dip projection of the Eaglehawk Reef was stoped to the South on the 1080 and 1060 Levels. The planned drilling is targeting down-dip mineralisation in addition to following up on regions that returned historic high-grade intersections such as DDH104 (2.8m @ 14.87 g/t Au).
Maldon has an established and serviced decline which allows excellent underground access for drilling high-grade shoots and is currently facilitating the underground drilling and ultimately could allow recommencement of modern mining if exploration is successful.
The Maldon goldfield is located in the Bendigo Zone and is hosted in similar geology, and has undergone the same broad structural deformation and mineralisation events, as regional Bendigo. Large deposits within the Bendigo area currently being exploited include the Fosterville Mine. The regional-scale mineralisation event is also the driver of goldfields at Bendigo, Fosterville, Castlemaine and Daylesford.
One of Maldon’s key advantages is the extensive existing infrastructure and proximity to Kaiser’s operating gold processing plant (three km away) and that it is held under a granted Mining Licence. If exploration proves successful, rapid and low-cost development could be implemented utilising Kaiser’s mining fleet and experienced mining team for minimal capital cost.
The drilling programme is intended to continue for a prolonged period, with an initial programme including over 30 drill-holes from underground. The programme may be extended based on results. Drilling results will be released in batches once assay results are received.
Kaiser considers Maldon to be an under-explored and prospective prolific high-grade historic goldfield. Exploration at Maldon remains a high priority objective for Kaiser.
Significant results from this Maldon in this campaign include:
- UH-UDH-029: 0.7m at 37.6 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-027: 6.5m @ 6.2 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-013: 0.7m @ 20.6 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-022: 0.5m @ 12.8 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-29: 0.7m @ 37.6 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-33: 0.5m @ 7.1 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-35: 0.6m @ 6.0 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-37: 0.7m @ 9.9 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-43: 0.6m @ 52.9 g/t gold
- UH-UDH-46: 0.9m @ 10.2 g/t gold;
- UD-UDH-48: 1m @ 9.5 g/t gold
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 6 May 2022.
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