Commodity
Gold
Target
Low Sulphidation Epithermal Gold
Location
Kyushu
Exploration Stage
Drill Testing
The Mizobe Project lies within the Hokusatsu Region of southern Kyushu, along the western edge of the Kagoshima Graben in a similar geological setting as the Hishikari Mine, located 23 km to the north. Hishikari is one of the highest-grade Tier 1 gold mines in the world. The Hishikari Mine produced approximately 8.5 million ounces of gold between 1985-2023 at an average grade of 30-40 g/t Au and is Japan’s only gold mine that is still operating today. Historical mining activities within Mizobe focused on antimony-rich hydrothermal breccias at the Semari and Nakazon workings, prior to 1942. In 2000, as part of government supported regional geological surveys, the Metal Mining Agency of Japan ("MMAJ") drill hole 12MAHT-2 was drilled 1 km to the southeast of the historical antimony workings, targeting a geophysical anomaly below a mineralized outcrop grading 0.3 g/t gold. Drilling intersected a mineralized interval of 43.35 m @ 0.89 g/t gold, with an included interval of 20.3 m @ 1.16 g/t gold from 307.0 m down-hole.
The majority of the Mizobe Project area is covered by post mineral–recent volcanic ash deposits. Sampling of sporadic altered outcrop and quartz-vein breccia float across a 2 by 2.5 km area in the eastern side of the project area confirmed the presence of strong gold and pathfinder element anomalies with channel samples including composited intervals up to 24.7 m grading 1.0 g/t gold, and river float samples up to 18.9 g/t gold. The extent of gold and antimony anomalism is highly encouraging considering much of the target area is concealed by a veneer of post-mineral volcanic ash.
Two phases of drilling has been completed at Mizobe. The drilling has confirmed the presence of broad zones of anomalous gold mineralisation and alteration beneath the post mineralisation. Significant intercepts include
- MZDD23-003 144.0 m @ 0.7 g/t Au & 2.1 g/t Ag from 47.0 m including 10.0 m @ 4.3 g/t Au & 6.6 g/t Ag
- MZDD23-004 33.55 m @ 0.6 g/t Au & 3.1 g/t Ag from 28.3 m including 12.0 m @ 1.0 g/t Au & 4.5 g/t Ag from 33.0 m
The better developed mineralisation is associated with pervasive clay-pyrite-marcasite, which are cross cut by carbonate-quartz-pyrite-marcasite-arsenopyrite breccia and veins and hydrothermal breccia and late stage quartz -carbonate veins. Evidence of colloform banded chalcedony clasts within the breccia.
The Au mineralisation is associated As, Sb, Se, Mo and Mn.
The style of mineralisation and geochemical zonation suggest that the mineralisation is the upper parts of an epithermal system highlighting potential for a higher grade feeder zone at depth.
The drilling completed to date is wide spaced, so the extent and the controls on the mineralisation are still to be defined. The results are highly encouraging as it confirms the potential of discovering new zones of mineralisation underneath the post mineralisation cover.
