The Tropicana North Gold Project is located in the Tropicana and Yamarna regions of Western Australia’s north-eastern goldfields, covering approximately 80km strike of the Tropicana Belt and containing strike extensions of the same or similar rock units and structures to those hosting the large Tropicana gold mine (operated by AngloGold Ashanti Australia Ltd (“AGA”) & Regis Resources Ltd (“Regis”)).
The Project comprises eleven granted exploration licences and four exploration licence applications held 100% by Carawine, plus two granted exploration licences subject to a joint venture between Carawine (90% interest) and Thunderstruck Investments Pty Ltd (“Thunderstruck”) (10% interest) with Carawine as the manager and sole-funding exploration (the “Thunderstruck JV”, or “TSJV”). Combined, these cover an area of more than 2,500 sq.km, making Carawine the second-largest tenement holder in the region behind AGA.
Historic exploration comprising geophysical surveys, project-wide auger soil sampling and regional to prospect-scale drilling identified several early-stage to advanced gold prospects across the project, providing Carawine with a pipeline of high-quality exploration targets.
Tropicana North Project location plan.
Recent exploration activities have focussed on the Neale, Blue Bell South and Python tenements, including the announcement of a Mineral Resource for the Hercules gold deposit and completion of regional air core (“AC”) drilling at the Tallows North, Area 1 and Area 2 prospects. Program planning and target generation activities continue across the project.
Hercules Gold Deposit
Hercules is an advanced gold prospect on the Neale tenement in the Thunderstruck JV. Gold mineralisation at Hercules is hosted by multiple parallel veins and shears within a wide mineralised zone striking northeast and dipping steeply to the southeast.
Coarse gold (circled “Au”) in laminated quartz vein lodes, drill hole TNDD001 (refer ASX announcement 26 July 2021).
In October 2022 the Company announced the first Mineral Resource estimate for the Hercules gold deposit, comprising 463,000t @ 4.8g/t Au (Indicated and Inferred), containing 71,000oz Au, at various cut-off grades (see below; ASX announcement 19 October 2022).
Hercules Mineral Resource model coloured by gold grade, 3D view looking from above to the southwest.
The Mineral Resource was estimated across multiple domains (lodes) along 400m strike and to a vertical depth of approximately 330m below surface. Individual mineralised lodes vary between 0.5m and 11.4m thick, with an average thickness of 1.8m. The deposit remains open at depth and to the southwest, with additional drilling required to test this potential and grow the Mineral Resource in these areas. The high-grade nature of the Hercules deposit is demonstrated by the Mineral Resource, as is the significant upside potential where it remains open to the southwest and at depth.
Hercules deposit plan view, with domains used in the October 2022 Mineral Resource estimate.
For further details of the Hercules Mineral Resource please refer to the Company's ASX announcement dated 19 October 2022.
Atlantis Prospect
The Atlantis gold prospect is located approximately 6km southwest of Hercules on the Neale tenement in the Thunderstruck JV, and is defined by high-grade gold intercepts in RC and AC drill holes within a highly anomalous >10ppb gold geochemical anomaly defined by AC drill holes, extending for over 4km along the Hercules Shear Zone.
Significant gold intervals reported by Carawine and previous explorers from Atlantis include (above 0.3g/t Au cut-off, refer ASX announcements 3 September 2020 & 17 March 2021):
Atlantis prospect long section
Additional drilling is required at Atlantis to understand the orientation and controls on the Atlantis mineralisation and explore for additional zones of gold mineralisation where it remains open at depth, and for repetitions along strike
Big Freeze
A regionally significant +10ppb Au gold anomaly associated with the Hercules Shear Zone extends over 4km in strike length on the Neale tenement, and within this, a 900m long by up to 200m wide, +300ppb (+0.3g/t) gold anomaly has been defined as the “Big Freeze” prospect - located just south of Atlantis.
The most recent drilling at Big Freeze was designed to test for high grade gold mineralisation within and around previously identified gold anomalies in wide-spaced drilling along and to the east of the Hercules Shear Zone (refer ASX announcements 15 April, 1 November & 20 December 2021). This program was highly successful in discovering shallow, high grade gold mineralisation, and defining a new north-east striking mineralised trend of more than 100m within the prospect, which is open along strike and down-dip.
The most significant intervals (>1g/t Au, and/or >1m width) reported include:
Big Freeze drill hole location and gold anomalism.
The reported intervals in TNRC058 and TNRC060 are associated with sulphidic quartz veining in foliated chlorite altered zones within monzonite and mafic granulite, similar in style to high-grade gold mineralisation at the nearby Atlantis and Hercules deposits. These intervals, combined with 2m @ 3.26g/t Au from 35m in historic drill hole NLD070, define a north-east striking mineralised trend of more than 100m, which is open along strike and down-dip (Figure 5) (refer ASX announcements 3 September 2020; 14 & 19 April 2022).
Further drilling will be required to follow up this trend, and other significant intervals at Big Freeze, to explore the extent and grade of the gold mineralisation intersected to date.
Regional Prospects
The Tropicana North Project contains numerous additional advanced to early-stage prospects and targets, both within the TSJV and on Carawine’s 100%-held tenure.
AC Drilling Results
Most recently the Company completed an AC drilling program comprising 104 holes targeting historic drill hole gold anomalism at the Blue Bell South and Python tenements, with assay results identifying strike extensions to gold mineralisation and providing targets for additional follow up drilling (refer ASX announcements 18 May & 28 July 2023). The best results from this program were from the Area 1 prospect on the Python tenement, with significant intervals including 1m @ 1.57g/t Au from 30m in drill hole PYAC038 delineating a potential second-order mineralised structure with a strike of more than 1.5km. These results, along with other results from the program require additional, closer-spaced and deeper drilling to determine the extent of mineralisation identified to date.
Air core ("AC") drilling has generated a number of priority end-of-hole gold anomalies in the region, including along the Hercules Shear Zone and beyond the Hercules Intermediate Gneiss on the Neale tenement, within the Tropicana Gneiss at Don King (TSJV), and further east on the Pleiades tenement.
Neale Tenement - Aeromagnetic Targeting
Detailed aeromagnetic data collected over the Neale and surrounding tenements has been interpreted to place new and historic assay results into a local structural and geological context, and look for similar settings to those associated with known mineralisation. This work defines spatial relationships between magnetic bodies, NNW-SSE trending faults and known mineralisation, which is interpreted to be important for mineralisation in the area.
Several new target areas have been identified based on this association along the Hercules Shear Zone and east of the Zeus prospect, in areas which have been either poorly tested, or not tested at all with drilling (refer ASX announcement 1 November 2021). These target areas provide a focus for further regional exploration, including AC drilling, to test these interpretations and identify new mineralisation (refer ASX announcements 8 September & 1 November 2021).
Neale tenement aeromagnetic structural interpretation (image RTP magnetics)
Other Regional Targets
The Company's regional tenement holding covers more than 80km of strike of the prospective Cundeelee Shear Zone and Tropicana Belt, including the northern extension of the highly prospective Hercules Intermediate Gneiss and Hercules Shear Zone with much of this remaining untested and therefore a high priority for future exploration.
The tenements also overlie several discrete bullseye magnetic anomalies and magnetic complexes which may be prospective for magmatic related IOCG Au-Cu deposits and Ni-Cu-Co deposits (e.g. Chicago & Spackman). Further work is required to assess the potential of these tenements.
Please note: these pages include information that relates to Exploration Results and a Mineral Resource prepared and first disclosed under the JORC Code (2012). The information was extracted from the Company’s previous ASX Announcements which can be viewed in the Investor Information & News section of this website by clicking here.
