Zenith Minerals has released assay results from a deep diamond drill program at Red Mountain in Central Queensland, with highlights including 118m grading at 0.54 g/t gold and 11.9 g/t silver.

The three-hole diamond drilling program (for 1450m) had confirmed the depth continuity of gold and silver mineralisation at the project, the company said.

It was following up previous shallow high-grade gold intersections at Red Mountain, located 160km south-west of Bundaberg. These included 13m at 8.0 g/t gold, 15m at 3.5 g/t gold, 12m at 4.9 g/t gold and 5m at 10.4 g/t gold.

The latest program, carried out May to July this year, resulted in intercepts including:

• 118m at 0.54 g/t gold and 11.9 g/t silver from 225m downhole in ZRMDD052, including 12m at 1.36 g/t gold and 4.93 g/t silver from 288m, and 9m at 1.24 g/t gold and 6.30 g/t silver from 323m.
• 11m at 0.45 g/t gold and 4.54 g/t silver from 183m downhole, and 11m at 1.16 g/t gold and 1.08 g/t silver from 224m in ZRMDD051.

“We are excited by these gold and silver intersections that now demonstrate not only the excellent continuity of mineralisation at Red Mountain within 400m from surface, but also a significant increase in mineralised widths at depth, as predicted by our modelling,” executive chair David Ledger said.

Zenith yesterday announced the sale of its Develin Creek project west of Rockhampton to Mount Chalmers copper mine hopeful QMines in a $4.5 million deal.

The deal includes:

• An up-front payment to Zenith of $1.2 million cash and $1 million worth of QMines shares for a 51 per cent stake.
• Within 12 months, QMines must complete 500m of diamond drilling and a detailed metallurgical study on the existing Develin Creek Inferred Mineral Resource.
• At 12 months, QMines must pay a further $1.3 million cash and issue another $1 million worth of shares to Zenith for an additional 49 per cent interest.