By Pia Rivera
Pacton Gold Inc. (TSXV: PAC, OTC: PACXF) (the “Company” or “Pacton”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding letter of intent (“LOI”) to acquire 100% of the shares in Drummond East Pty Ltd (“Drummond East“), an arm’s length Australian proprietary limited exploration company wholly owned by Impact Minerals Limited (ASX: IPT) (“Impact”). Drummond East holds seven granted tenement licenses, comprising of a total of 1,126 sq km (the “Property”).
Highlights of the Transaction:
- Acquisition of ~1,126 sq km of strategic conglomerate hosting exploration properties.
- Pilbara total land portfolio now increased to approximately 2,227 sq km, which equates to ~18.6% in holdings when compared to the size of Novo Resources Corp. (TSXV: NVO) land holdings, of approximately 12,000 sq km.
- Transaction will place Pacton as the 3rd largest land holder in the Pilbara.
- Previous exploration indicates at least 90 km of prospective Fortescue Group conglomerates occurring at or near-surface on its granted licenses, in particular to the west and east of Marble Bar as well as close to the Beatons Creek gold deposit near Nullagine. Conglomerates identified are approximately the same age as the Witwatersrand Basin Gold deposits of South Africa.
- Properties are directly adjacent and proximal to key exploration properties controlled by Novo Resources Corp. and Kairos Minerals Ltd. (ASX: KAI).
- Rock chip results of up to 11.2 g/t gold occur at the Glen Herring Prospect 10 km west of Marble Bar in a gold-pyrite conglomerate that extends for 25 km.
- Other gold-bearing conglomerates identified on or adjacent to the licences.
- Access to the extensive regional knowledge and technical expertise provided by the Impact Team, led by Managing Director Dr. Mike Jones, who brings specific expertise in conglomerate-hosted gold, and who conducted his PhD studies on this style of mineralization in the northern source areas for the Witwatersrand Basin.
“We are pleased to make accretive acquisitions that strategically place Pacton as the third largest land holder inWestern Australia’s Pilbara conglomerate-hosted gold region. Pacton continues to further consolidate the region through key property evaluations, and the addition of Drummond East increases our land holdings to 2,227 sq km,”commented Alec Pismiris, Interim President and CEO of Pacton. “The Impact Minerals team, led by Dr. Mike Jones, have successfully assembled a significant portfolio of advanced gold projects that present excellent prospectivity for discovery upside for the shareholders of Pacton. The Impact transaction solidifies our presence in the region, and is directly in line with our mandate to become one of the leaders in the Pilbara Gold Rush. With a strong treasury and financial backers, we are aggressively reviewing other opportunities.”
Impact’s Pilbara Gold Project and its Prospectivity
The seven 100% owned and fully granted licences cover 1,126 sq km of ground prospective for conglomerate-hosted gold in the Pilbara region of Western Australia (Figure 1). They were staked after an extensive review by Impact, following the discovery of gold in conglomerates at the base of the Fortescue Group by Artemis Resources Limited (ASX: ARV) and the subsequent joint venture with Novo Resources Corp.
The discovery by Artemis Resources indicated a significant breakthrough had been made in the search for conglomerate hosted gold deposits of a similar age to the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa in the Pilbara. Impact aggresively applied for available prospective ground in the early stages of the Pilbara staking rush.
A preliminary review and synthesis of previous exploration data and mapping by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) indicates the two most prospective conglomerate horizons within the Fortescue Group occur within or immediately adjacent to the licences (Figure 2):
- Conglomerates of the Hardey Formation. These rocks host the Beatons Creek resource (Tetra Tech 08/31/15 Measured and Indicated 3.39 Mt at 2.7 g/t gold for 299Koz Au, Inferred 3.04 Mt at 2.7 g/t gold for 259Koz Au) held by Novo Resources Corp. near Nullagine (Figure 2).
- Conglomerates at the base of the Mt Roe Basalt. The recent gold discovery at Purdeys Reward-Comet Well by Novo Resources Corp. and Artemis Resources Limited occurs within this unit (Figure 2).
Previous exploration indicates that the prospective conglomerates occur over at least 90 km of trend at or close to surface within the licences, in particular to the west and east of Marble Bar, as well as close to the Beatons Creek deposit near Nullagine.
West of Marble Bar, previous exploration in the district highlighted several gold occurrences associated with the conglomerate horizons on and along trend from Impact’s licence applications EL45/4972 and EL45/4971 (Figure 3).
Four main gold-bearing conglomerate occurrences have been discovered that demonstrate similar characteristics to those that occur within the Witwatersrand Basin including:
- Glen Herring Prospect: previous rock chip samples in 1989 returned assays of up to 11.2 g/t gold from a gold-pyrite bearing conglomerate within the Hardey Formation, which extends for 10 km of strike on licence EL44/4972 (Figure 3).
- Shady Camp Well Prospect: one diamond drillhole was completed by Western Mining Corporation in 1976 to test a surface gold and radiometric anomaly in conglomerate-sandstone and returned 0.9 m at 0.6 g/t gold from 174 mdownhole in quartz pebble conglomerate with rounded pyrite in the matrix. The conglomerate occurs close to a carbonaceous shale unit. Further, radiometric gold-bearing conglomerates in the Hardey Formation have been identified by previous explorers for at least 10 km along strike from Shady Camp Well.
The same conglomerates also extend for a further 15 km along strike to the southwest outside of Impact’s licence, where historic assays returned up to 2.1 g/t gold (see Figure 3).
- Gold-bearing pyritic quartz pebble conglomerates have been identified at the base of the Mt Roe Formation by several previous explorers at the Contact Creek Prospect which lies 6 km west of Impact’s licence E45/4971 with the the best rock sample result of 15.9 g/t gold by Novo Resources in 2013 (see Figure 3). This gold-bearing conglomerate extends to the east and occurs very close to surface over at least 4 km of strike on Impact’s licence EL45/4971.
- The Hardey Formation sandstones and conglomerates have been mapped by the GSWA over at least 25 km of strike on EL45/4971 and rock samples of conglomerate with …read more
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