Cervantes Corporation sets sights on advancing exploration at Primrose Gold Project in WA

Cervantes Corporation Ltd (ASX:CVS) enjoyed a productive December quarter, completing drilling programs across three target areas at its Primrose Gold Project in Western Australia. The Primrose Project covers more than 8 kilometres of the highly gold mineralised Primrose Shear in the Murchison District of the Eastern Goldfields, and contains some 37 historical workings that produced around 79,915 ounces of gold from 1911 till 1982 at an average grade of 28 g/t. The drilling focused on the Blue Heaven, the Pansy Pit and the MMI Gold Anomaly targets. Looking forwards, the company is particularly focused on advancing Blue Heaven (170,000 to 520,000 tonnage range at 2.2 to 4.5 g/t gold range), with the aim of declaring a JORC Mineral Resource, as well as the early development of the ‘Pansy Pit’ for potential cash flow. Blue Heaven exploration target The aim of the drilling at Blue Heaven was to verify historic intercepts and six RC holes were drilled for a total of 263 metres. The targeted depths were not achieved because of hard ground and insufficient equipment due to rig unavailability; however very promising geology was found in one drill hole which intersected a broad zone of intensely altered sericitic felsic schist (32-55 metres) with strong magnetite-epidote alteration as well as a lamprophyre dyke logged at 32-34 metres. Both observations indicate very favourable environments for gold mineralisation. Geological indicators were resampled to better define the intercepts, with assay results pending. Primrose Project location on regional geology; showing regional historical gold production. Pansy Pit development The Pansy Pit was mined in the mid-1980s to a depth of approximately 5 metres. During the quarter a program of 25 RC holes for 436 metres was undertaken to fill in the company’s previous RC drilling from 2018, and to better define the near surface gold mineralisation potential in the historic pit. Intercepts include: 2 metres at 8.93 g/t from 9 metres, including 1 metre at 17.26 g/t from 9 metres; 3 metres at 3.62 g/t from 15 metres, including 1 metre at 8.73 g/t from 16 metres; 5 metre at 7.74 g/t from 7 metres, including 3 metres at 12.34 g/t from 7 metres; 14 metres at 1.41 g/t from 4 metres, including 2 metres at 3.71 g/t from 16 metres; 2 metres at 6.31 g/t from 6 metres; and 4 metres at 3.40 g/t from 4 metres. Anomalous four metre gold intercepts have been resampled to better define those intercepts with assays results pending. The company is confident that the drilling indicates that near surface gold mineralisation has been outlined and the shallow dips of the quartz lodes has been confirmed; Whilse the gold tends to occur within quartz lodes, gold also occurs in the host rock - which confirms the observation from the 2018 drilling results - and while gold grades tend to be erratic (a common feature of quartz vein hosted gold) the strike persistence of the quartz lodes has been established. MMI Gold Anomaly The company also completed reconnaissance drilling of an untested historic MMI surface geochemistry gold anomaly in an area of no historic hard rock workings which is hosted by the Paynes Find Schist (the host to the Paynes Find gold field). The anomaly defines a north-south zone of around 700 metres strike extent and attains a magnitude of 0.129 g/t gold which is considered anomalous in this setting. Two shallow RC holes were drilled to test the anomaly with both intersecting unaltered granodiorites with a minor quartz vein. Gold grades were generally below detection other than both holes being anomalous at surface, to a maximum of 0.048 g/t, and the quartz vein to a maximum of 0.02 g/t. Pansy Pit geological cross section Looking forwards On 15 January 2021, Cervantes announced a non-renounceable rights issue and shortfall offer to raise up to around $2.144 million. Funds raised will be used to further accelerate exploration, evaluation and overall development of Primrose and the reduction of current loan liabilities and working capital. At Blue Heaven, the company plans to undertake the work required to progress the mineralisation to a formal Mineral Resource and the potential quantity and grade of which is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient reliable exploration data to estimate a mineral resource. Cervantes will also assess the extent of the magnetite alteration zone with respect to the gold mineralisation and the potential of ground magnetic survey to map the zone. At the Pansy Pit, the company will: Resample the anomalous four metre gold intercepts to one metre to better define those intercepts; Continue a Small Mining Proposal submission; and Plan a possible third programme of shallow in-pit drilling to aid in grade control for any future mining. Notably, the company retains around $200,000 of highly liquid shares in Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) (FRA:0W2) (OTCMKTS:WTGRF) from the Albury Heath Gold Mine in WA, which can be sold as required to assist with operating cashflows.