ASX Release (CZI)

21 October 2019

Advancing the Mount Squires Gold Project

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Successful maiden drill program demonstrates a unique, early-stage gold opportunity at Mount Squires
  • Geological advances provide new targets:
    • Plunge extensions in both directions at Handpump Prospect
    • New target areas along lithological/structural trends
    • Nickel and copper sulphide potential recognised
  • Advanced planning for follow-up exploration programs

Cassini Resources Limited (ASX:CZI) ("Cassini" or the "Company") is pleased to announce final results of the recent RC drilling program and future work plans at Cassini's 100%-owned Mount Squires Project ("Mt Squires" or the "Project") in the West Musgrave Province of Western Australia. The Project is at an early stage and is proving to be highly prospective for gold and base metals. It is located adjacent to the western border of the Company's West Musgrave JV Project with OZ Minerals Ltd. Earlier results from the drill program were released to the ASX on 24 September 2019 and 2 October 2019.

Cassini's Managing Director Mr Richard Bevan commented "We're delighted with the results from our maiden drill program at Mount Squires. The program, in tandem with our new aeromagnetic data, has demonstrated economic gold prospectivity, improved our geological understanding and generated new targets for future work programs. More broadly, it's highlighted the potential strategic value of a new greenfield, belt-scale project in a new gold frontier.

"Mt Squires is the most advanced gold project in the Musgrave Province, with the nearest gold mine, Gruyere, being over 400km away, itself a fairly recent "new frontier" discovery. New frontiers are where some of the most recent and significant gold discoveries have been made in Australia.

"We see Mount Squires as a natural fit with activities at our West Musgrave Project. Strategically, we believe gold is a good complement to our base metal assets. Our extensive geological knowledge, operational capability and established community relationships provide us with a significant competitive advantage in the region.

"Whilst the West Musgrave Project continues to be our primary focus and long-termvalue-driver, our exploration strategy at Mount Squires and Yarawindah Brook is geared to provide opportunities for additional new discoveries in the near term. Our goal is to add value and be exposed to these opportunities through relatively inexpensive exploration programs, that do not compromise our funding capacity during the ongoing study phase of the West Musgrave Project."

"With prices near all-time highs, it's also a great time to exploring for gold."

Excellent Start to Mount Squires Exploration

All assay results from the RC drilling program at the Handpump Prospect, comprising 10 holes for 1,134m, have now been received. Best results are from holes previously released including 20m @ 1.27g/t Au, including 7m @ 2.54g/t Au from 23m in MSC0003, 27m @ 1.00g/t Au from 31m, including 3m @ 2.59g/t Au from 38m in MSC0004 and 19m @ 0.68g/t Au including 6m @ 1.26g/t Au from 38m in MSC0005.

The remaining 4 holes (MSC0007-0010) returned lower grade results, but have successfully identified additional mineralised breccia halos (>0.1g/t Au), suggesting the mineralisation remains open. The lower grade holes are mostly from the western-most sections and broadly spaced. Using the recently flown high resolution aeromagnetic data, a revised geological interpretation suggests the siting of these holes was not optimal to identify the extensions of mineralised zones described above. See Table 1 for all results of the program to date.

Mineralisation is hosted within a hydrothermal breccia at the stratiform contact between a footwall rhyolite and hanging wall (predominantly barren) volcaniclastic unit. Mineralised lodes, defined as >0.1g/t Au, strike E-W to ESE-WNW and are steeply south-dipping. Mineralisation is possibly controlled by the intersection of NW- SE and SW-NE trending structures. Mineralisation is outcropping at the eastern margin of the prospect, with an abundance of rock chip samples >0.5g/t Au. The hydrothermal breccia host plunges beneath the volcaniclastic unit (and thickening sand cover) to the west (and potentially north west). Extrapolation of recent and historical drill results indicates a potential mineralised strike of at least 600m, which remains open.

A selection of samples have been dispatched for further detailed geochemical analysis to identify potential path-finder elements to assist future regional exploration.

Results from this program indicate that a large portion of previous drilling by other companies has been ineffective, due to either the drilling angle being sub-parallel to mineralised lodes or it not penetrating the prospective rhyolite unit beneath the volcaniclastic (the case for most of the previous shallow aircore drilling).

Figure 1. Drill hole plan showing geology, drilling and significant results >1.0g/t. The hydrothermal breccia and mineralised lodes have been projected vertically to surface.

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Gold Trend Emerging

The initial discovery of gold at Handpump occurred because mineralised bedrock is exposed at surface, a relatively rare occurrence in a landscape dominated by desert sands. The transported cover has likely inhibited exploration in other parts of the project and this is why the Company is re-processing the legacy geochemistry results to remove the biases of the regolith (in simple terms, bedrock vs transported sampling mediums). In some instances the previous geochemical sampling has probably been completely ineffective.

Key learning outcomes of the program are summarised below:

  • The initial Handpump discovery was enabled by locally favourable regolith (outcropping mineralisation) and does not necessarily represent the best mineralisation at the project.
  • Previous companies' exploration post-discovery has been hampered by drilling that has failed to test the most prospective rocks at an appropriate orientation.

The recently completed high-resolution aeromagnetic survey has assisted the geological interpretation of Handpump as well as the surrounding region. The Company has now refined the target areas along the prospective trend. Only 3 RC holes have been drilled outside the immediate Handpump Prospect area to test for additional mineralised bodies and therefore the prospective trend is largely unexplored (Figure 2).

Permitting to clear these targets with a reconnaissance-style drill program is underway.

Figure 2. The prospective gold trend showing the stratigraphic target horizon, surface geochemical anomalies and lack of drilling in these areas.

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Nickel and Copper Potential to be Evaluated

Whilst the current exploration focus at the Mount Squires Project is primarily for gold, recent surveying and mapping by Cassini has recognised a potential extension of the magmatic nickel-copper mineralised trend from the West Musgrave Project into the eastern half of the project area (Figure 3). This is supported by:

  • The emergence of the One Tree Hill Prospect within the West Musgrave Project, but only 200m outside the Mount Squires tenement boundary (See ASX release of 18 June 2019).
  • New aeromagnetic data confirming the continuity of broad geological domains and structure into the Mount Squires Project.
  • Field mapping identifying gabbro intrusions along strike of the mineralised trend which had been previously mapped as granites and gneisses.

This area has been lightly explored for magmatic nickel-copper sulphides by previous explorers, primarily by broad-spaced soil geochemistry and large fixed loop electromagnetic surveys (FLEM). The Company has reviewed these surveys and identified a number of areas that would benefit from new electromagnetic surveys given the significant advancement in technology over the past 10-20 years. The re-processed geochemistry data will also support the targeting of these surveys.

Figure 3. Potential extension of magmatic nickel-copper mineralisation trend into the eastern half of Mount Squires (1VD aeromagnetics as background).

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Next Steps

The Company now has multiple fronts on which to progress.

  1. A second RC infill and extension program at Handpump targeting the eastern margin where gold mineralisation projects to surface as well as the down plunge extension to the west and northwest where current drilling is too broad. A drill rig is currently being sourced to complete the program as soon as possible.
  2. A reconnaissance-style drill program to test the trend between Handpump and Centrifical Prospects in light of the new geological and structural interpretation. This program requires additional heritage and environmental clearances. This work is already underway and drilling is anticipated to commence in early 2020.
  3. Investigate the nickel-copperpotential extension of One Tree Hill near the eastern boundary of the Project. A geophysical crew will be mobilised to site early next month to complete a moving loop electromagnetic survey which is expected to take approximately two weeks.
  4. Improve the geochemical dataset by infilling and extending the sampling coverage particularly in areas along the prospective gold and Ni-Cu magmatic corridors. An orientation survey, including a trial of Ultra Fine Fraction sampling, will determine the most effective sampling technique in the Mount Squires environment. Sampling will commence later this month.

Activities will continue at the Mount Squires Project until approximately the end of November when attention will turn to the Yarawindah Brook Ni-Cu Project, where a number of new EM conductors are ready to be drilled. The Company also looks forward to delivering the Nebo-BabelPre-Feasibility Study in early 2020.

The Company remains well funded to meet its exploration objectives at both Mount Squires and Yarawindah.

Project Background

Gold prospectivity was first identified at Mount Squires by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) during geochemical surveying in the late 1990's. WMC's primary target was nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation, which returned poor results, however several gold anomalies were identified but were never followed-up and the tenements were later surrendered.

Later exploration by Beadell Resources Ltd in the mid 2000's identified a number of gold prospects with further soil geochemistry, rock chip sampling and mapping. Drilling of these anomalies mineralisation at the Handpump Prospect with significant intercepts of 43m @ 1.18g/t from 14m including 9m @ 3.25g/t from 34m (re-cut using a 0.5g/t lower cut-off). Mineralisation is described as being hosted in rhyolite breccias and having epithermal style characteristics.

Beadell's exploration after the initial discovery was limited due to a change in corporate strategy and the project was later surrendered.

Anglo American PLC has also explored the region, primarily for nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation, but their soil geochemical programs included a large multi-element analytical suite which provides critical data for targeting gold mineralisation. Anglo American surrendered their tenements following a decision to reduce global exploration expenditure.

Cassini considers that the geological setting may have some affinity with intracontinental "hot-spot" epithermal gold mineralisation, rather than the more common island arc setting found elsewhere along the Pacific Rim. Examples of this style are deposits in the northern Nevada region, including the Sleeper Deposit, with high, or "bonanza", gold grades from shallow crustal emplacement.

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Cassini Resources Limited published this content on 21 October 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 20 October 2019 22:15:01 UTC