Solomon Gold reports maiden resource for Crunchie gold-silver prospect

Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) has completed a maiden resource estimate at the wholly-owned Crunchie gold-silver prospect, containing 201,648oz gold equivalent in the inferred category.  The estimate was based on the results of early-stage drilling, and the company is keen to build the resource, with 20,000m of drilling set to begin immediately.

The Crunchie prospect is one of five prospects which form the Rannes Project, in Central Queensland, Australia. Furthermore, Solomon highlighted that a series of multiple prospects in close proximity to the Crunchie Prospect, all provide excellent potential for a significant expansion of the existing resource inventory.

Overall, the Crunchie resource estimate reported 5.6 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.12 grams per tonne (g/t) equivalent gold, equating to 201,648oz of contained equivalent gold - 79,219oz Gold and 7.9 million ounces of silver. Based on drilling to date, the prospect appears to extend over a shallow zone of 300x250m with an average thickness of 25m.  According to Solomon Gold the deposit should be amenable to open pit mining.

“We will continue to grow the resource, towards our stated objective of one million ounces and are expecting to announce again before the end of the year a substantial increase in gold and silver resources for the Rannes Project”, Solomon Gold chief executive Nicholas Mather said.

“We are about to commence a 20,000m drilling campaign on a series of targets close to Crunchie”. The new 20,000m Reverse Circulation (RC) and diamond drilling program will aim to expand the current resource and test a number of other advanced prospects. 

Solomon Gold gained access to the properties through its acquisition of Central Minerals earlier this year, in February, consolidating a 200km length of prospective exploration ground. Initial drilling at Crunchie was designed to define the western boundary of the gold and silver mineralisation, and then evaluate the extensions to the north and east, where the mineralisation continues. 

The five Rannes prospects are Crunchie, Homestead, Kauffmans, Cracklin Rosie and Porcupine Pie, Solomon Gold said that potentially economic intersections have been discovered in all five. Collectively, the company has licenses, covering 200km, across the prospective area in Central Queensland, with more than 13 targets identified for follow-up exploration.

“Rannes exhibits structures and geochemistry similar to the Carlin trend in Nevada USA, which is one of the most prolific gold producing belts in the world, boasting in excess of 200 million ounces of combined resources and production to date”,  Mather added.

Magnetic interpretation and soil sampling at the Rannes project has also identified other new extensions to Crunchie, most notably the Odyssey target to the west and the Soggy & Mushy targets to the east.  Additionally, the company noted that it intends to define resources at Porcupine, Kauffmans and Crackling Rosie, within the next six months.

“At each of these locations, high readings of arsenic, mercury, thallium and antimony in soil samples coincide with, or may be marginally offset from areas of low magnetism, indicating the presence of host rocks which have been demagnetised by hot fluids causing alteration of the rock and deposition of gold and silver”, the company said.

According to Solomon, these locations will be subject to immediate follow-up drilling as soil anomalies are defined.

Back in December 2009, the company initially announced its decision to buy-up prospective land in Queensland, as part of its diversification stragety. It initially agreed the acquisition Acapulco Mining Pty Ltd with its gold projects over the Mt Perry Goldfield in Queensland and Central Minerals Pty Ltd with its gold projects over a newly defined 200 kilometre Carlin style trend.

Over the last year or so, Solomon Gold has undergone a transition which has included board changes, a diversification of exploration areas and the agreement of a significant joint venture with Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE: NEM) in relation to the company’s gold exploration project on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.