The Global Mineral Resource (Indicated and Inferred) for the San Antonio Deposit has been updated after an additional 37,000 metres of drilling, and now stands at: 7.3 million tonnes grading 1.72g/t gold (406,000oz).
The San Antonio resource remains open for extensions at depth, with particular focus on the high-grade gold structures within the western monzodiorite and the extension of the northern andesite to the Rosewood Fault, where drilling is restricted due the location of the Newell Highway.
Alkane Resources Managing Director, Nic Earner, said, 'The updated San Antonio Resource delivers us the opportunity to achieve a further 10+ year mine life for Tomingley. The combined Resources for both Roswell and San Antonio are over 1 million ounces, and over 80% of those ounces are in the Indicated category. This gives us a very solid footing from which to finalise the mine plans for economic assessment. This assessment, combined with stakeholder feedback from consultation and environmental reports, will allow us to progress to the next stage of planning approval with the submission of the Environmental Impact Statement.
'We continue to explore in the region around Tomingley, as well as making small extensions to the known deposits underground. The area is highly prospective and we are looking to growing the resources further as our exploration program continues.'
Alkane Resources Ltd 100%
The Tomingley Gold Project (TGP) covers an area of approximately 440km2 stretching 60km north-south along the Newell Highway from Tomingley in the north, through Peak Hill and almost to Parkes in the south. The TGP contains Alkane's currently producing Tomingley Gold Operations (TGO), an open pit mine and underground operation with a 1Mtpa processing facility. Over the past three years Alkane has conducted an extensive regional exploration program, which led to the definition Resources at the Roswell and San Antonio prospects.
Alkane has continued consultation with its key stakeholders, including landholders and regulators. The Company has approval to develop an exploration drive from the Wyoming One deposit to Roswell and has prepared preliminary plans for both open-cut and underground mines beneath Roswell and San Antonio. These plans are the basis of Alkane's current consultation activities as it seeks approval for both underground and open cut mining (refer ASX Announcement 19 August 2020). Detailed mine plans for Roswell and San Antonio, to enable an economic assessment, will be prepared and released later in Q1 2021.
Geology
The Tomingley gold deposits are interpreted as orogenic gold systems positioned within a major structural zone. This style of deposit is well documented globally with the more significant examples in Australia being the Archean greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton in WA and the Paleozoic slate belts in Victoria. The San Antonio deposit is hosted in the Mingelo Volcanic Formation, a strongly deformed and hydrothermally altered Ordovician belt of volcanics that are predominantly andesitic volcaniclastic breccias, lesser sandstone/siltstone units, lavas and black mudstones. The volcanics are overlain by the younger Cotton Formation siltstones.
The San Antonio deposit is located south of the Roswell deposit (10.1Mt grading 2.04g/t Au for 660,000oz, ASX Announcement 4 November 2020) dextrally displaced and separated by the Rosewood Fault. The drilling has defined north to north-northeast striking, sub-vertically dipping, deformed and attenuated andesitic volcanic and volcaniclastic stratigraphy. The mineralisation at San Antonio is primarily hosted by three 'brittle' volcanic units as per the structural setting observed at the Tomingley gold deposits. These volcanics host structural zones generated by a competency contrast between the 'brittle' volcanics and 'ductile' volcaniclastic meta-sediments. Litho-geochemistry has identified a phosphorous enriched (apatite bearing) andesite 70m to 80m thick with a 10m wide brecciated basal contact that hosts the majority of mineralisation in the northern half of San Antonio. The andesite thins to a thickness of less than 20m to the south and is offset by the west-northwest trending 'Kenilworth Fault'. The fault appears to rotate the volcanic stratigraphy sinistrally 15o to the east. South of the Kenilworth Fault, intruding near or along the margins of the andesite are two thin, less than 10m thick, feldspar phyric dacitic intrusions. These intrusions are invariably mineralised and are the focus to the mineralisation in the southern section of the deposit. A third volcanic unit, approximately 50m thick, is a monzodiorite sub-volcanic sill that is positioned west of the andesite in a similar stratigraphic position as observed at the Roswell deposit. The monzodiorite appears only mineralised north of Kenilworth Fault forming mineralised lodes with strike lengths of up to 200m. This unit remains poorly constrained by drilling due to the restricted access of the Newell Highway.
Mineralisation is characterised as Tomingley-style orogenic gold mineralisation, as quartz-carbonatepyrite-arsenopyrite veins hosted in phyllic altered volcanics and volcaniclastics. These sheeted quartz veins are orientated from steeply east dipping to vertical forming sigmoidal shapes, striking approximately north-south to 15 o east of north, and hosted within subvertical dipping stratigraphy. The mineralisation has been defined by drilling over a strike length of approximately 1,000m and remains open at depth. The more significant sized and higher grading zones of mineralisation are hosted in the andesite in the north and in the dacitic intrusives in the southern sections of San Antonio.
Mineral Resource A Mineral Resource estimation has been calculated on the San Antonio deposit with a nominal 20 metre drill hole spacing to depths ranging from 30mRL to -200mRL and averaging approximately 250m below ground surface: The Mineral Resource will be subject to further infill and extensional drilling with a view to both define the continuity of the mineralisation and high-grade zones at depth.
Disclaimer
This report contains certain forward looking statements and forecasts, including possible or assumed reserves and resources, production levels and rates, costs, prices, future performance or potential growth of Alkane Resources Ltd, industry growth or other trend projections. Such statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve unknown risks and uncertainties, as well as other factors which are beyond the control of Alkane Resources Ltd. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements depending on a variety of factors. Nothing in this report should be construed as either an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sellsecurities. This document has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Australian securities laws, which may differ from the requirements of United States and other country securities laws. Unless otherwise indicated, all ore reserve and mineral resource estimates included or incorporated by reference in this document have been, and will be, prepared in accordance with the JORC classification system of the Australasian Institute of Mining, and Metallurgy and Australian Institute of Geoscientists.
ABOUT ALKANE
Alkane Resources is poised to become Australia's next multimine gold producer. The Company's current gold production is from the Tomingley Gold Operations in Central West New South Wales, where it has been operating since 2014 and is currently expediting a development pathway to extend the mine's underground and open pit potential. Alkane has an enviable exploration track record and controls several highly prospective gold and copper tenements. Its most advanced exploration projects are in the tenement area between Tomingley and Peak Hill, which have the potential to provide additional ore for Tomingley's operations.
Alkane's exploration success includes the landmark porphyry gold-copper mineralisation discovery at Boda in 2019. With a major drill program ongoing at Boda throughout FY2021, Alkane is confident of further consolidating Central West New South Wales' reputation as a significant gold production region. Alkane's gold interests extend throughout Australia, with strategic investments in other gold exploration and aspiring mining companies, including 19.9% of Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD) and 10.3% of Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI).
Contact:
Tel: 61 8 9227 5677
Fax: 61 8 9227 8178
Email: info@alkane.com.au
GENESIS MINERALS LIMITED 
