Maybe we shouldn't quite write off Malmsbury quite yet. Upon reading earlier reports, if GBM finished their drilling by their target date at the end of March / beginning of April, and it takes from 4-6 weeks to get assay results back, they would only be getting them back around now. If they discover any gold of significance, they can reasonably extrapolate a world class deposit, 4 km in strike length, see below. With current global market nervousness, a good gold find would be just the tonic needed for GBZ's shareprice doldrums.
Posted on February 16th, 2010 Will 1 km deep diamond drill hole unlock secrets of Malmsbury goldfields?
Perth-based GBM Resources has just broken ground on a landmark deep diamond drill hole that the company says is a key step in realising the potential of the historic Malmsbury goldfields in central Victoria, Australia. The 1-km deep hole will be drilled over the next six weeks at Belltopper Hill, to test the potential for a large tonnage, Intrusive Related Gold System (IRGS) gold system at Malmsbury, where highly promising soil sampling was undertaken by GBM last year. The drill is a McCulloch DR 800, and is the property of contract drilling company MacQuarie Drilling of New South Wales. Such is the potential of this hole that it attracted a A$132,000 grant from the state government?s Rediscover Victoria Strategic Drilling Initiative towards its cost.
?This hole will be a significant phase in progressing the development of the project and its potential as a large gold system at Malmsbury,? GBM Resources? Managing Director, Peter Thompson, said. ?If we can demonstrate the existence of deeper gold beneath Belltopper Hill, it will significantly improve our chances of discovering a more extensive intrusive system beneath the workings of the old gold mines to the south. Over the past two years, GBM has been actively exploring at the Malmsbury project, where gold was mined more than 100 years ago. Our work to date has confirmed what all the historical data points to, which is the potential for a significant and wide-ranging gold system in excess of 4 km in strike length.
Early in 2009, GBM announced an Inferred Resource of 104,000 oz of gold at an average grade of 4.0 g/t Au, at the Leven Star prospect - one of three historic mining prospects at Belltopper Hill. Assay results from the latest diamond hole are expected to be available to GBM Resources late in April or early May.
The hole will probe deeper into the IRGS system, targeting large breccia and stockwork deposit styles which may be hosted by sedimentary wallrocks or the intrusive margin itself and will advance the understanding of the potential of this area to host other styles of mineralisation.
The drill program will be partly funded by the grant from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries which the company successfully secured last year. The grants are awarded for conceptual projects which are deemed by Geoscience Victoria to have the potential to add significant new resources to Victoria?s inventory. Interpretation of available data supports the conclusion that the Malmsbury gold system is related to a buried intrusive centre at depth.
The extent of the is interpreted to be in excess of 4km in strike length. The significance of the interpretation of a possible 4 km strike length hydrothermal system is that IRGSs have a pedigree for delivering worldclass deposits. On a district scale the hydrothermal system analogy would include the Fosterville gold mine, owned and operated by Northgate Minerals with a current resource base of 3 Moz.
GBZ Price at posting:
8.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
