Sunshine drills virgin Francis Creek East in North Queensland gold hunt
By Industry Queensland
Sunshine Metals (ASX: SHN) has taken a step into the unknown with the start of reverse circulation drilling at its Sybil epithermal gold project in North Queensland, starting with never-before-drilled ground.
The 72-hole, 4,528-metre program will test three targets — Francis Creek, Francis Creek East and Blue Range — and is expected to finish in September.
Drilling started at Francis Creek East, an outcropping vein system 1.7 kilometres east of Francis Creek that has never been drilled.
Main image: RC rig drilling Francis Creek East, Sybil project
Surface rock-chip samples there have returned gold grades of up to 28.1 grams a tonne, and the first holes aim to confirm the veins’ continuity.
Managing director Damien Keys said it was ‘great to see the drill rig running again at Sybil’.
He said Francis Creek East had, ‘never been drilled before and is a significant step off into the unknown’.
Related: Sunshine kicks off airborne survey at Sybil
The rig will then move to Francis Creek, following up 2025 drilling that returned a best intersection of 4.4 metres at 57.51 grams a tonne on the A-Vein.
That program hit significant gold in 12 of 14 holes and reshaped the company’s model of the steeply dipping A-Vein.
The new drilling will test the vein’s north-western and south-eastern extensions and several parallel veins for the first time.
The A-Vein remained untested to the south-east, where surface samples returned up to 11.2 g/t about 150 metres along strike.
Sunshine will also drill Blue Range, six kilometres north, where rock chips have assayed up to 20.4 grams a tonne.
Sybil sits about 135 kilometres west of Townsville, on a 40-kilometre-long structure hosting a low-sulphidation epithermal gold system.
The company says Sybil shares strong geological similarities with the nearby Pajingo deposit, which has produced about four million ounces of gold since 1986.
It says the project is highly prospective for Pajingo-style mineralisation but remains largely underexplored.
Historic sampling on the A and Main veins returned rock-chip grades as high as 907 grams a tonne, and a 1991 bulk sample graded 7.6 grams.
Sunshine expects results from Francis Creek East and Francis Creek over the September quarter, with Blue Range to follow in October.
