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COOLGARDIE DRILLING PROGRAM IDENTIFIES NEAR SURFACE TARGET BETWEEN HISTORIC MINES 

–       Drilling between historic Lindsays and Bayleys mines delivers high-grade intercepts

Focus Minerals Ltd. (ASX: FML), a leading Australian gold producer and explorer, is pleased to announce encouraging exploration results from the latest round of drilling at its Coolgardie operations.

A shallow RC drilling program focused on an identified trend (Figure 1) which runs parallel to and southwest of the main Prices panel (part of the historical Bayleys underground workings) and immediately east of the historical Lindsays mine.

The drilling has delivered a series of high-grade results (Table 1 and Figure 2) over a 600m strike confirming there is more mineralisation to be found within the Lindsays – Bayleys area, with the mineralisation remaining open along strike and at depth.  Results include:

• 6.0m @ 3.8g/t including 1.0m @ 12.6g/t (from 13m)
• 8.0m @ 10.2g/t including 2.0m @ 30.5g/t (from 24m); and
  • 21m @ 1.3g/t including 3.0m @ 2.2g/t and 1.0m @ 12.4g/t (from 28m)

The Bayleys mine is the site where gold was first discovered in Coolgardie in 1892 by Arthur Bayley and William Ford.  Historical mining underground at Bayleys produced 558,000t @ 16.1g/t for approximately 289,000oz of gold. In the 1990’s further mining underground at Bayleys, in conjunction with Kings Cross (immediately south of Bayleys) produced 444,000t @ 6.3g/t.

“Numerous studies over the years have pointed to the potential of the Lindsays – Bayleys area, with such strong intersections only 200m from the original discovery of gold in Coolgardie in 1892, it yet again demonstrates the fantastic endowment in the area and how much potential remains to be unlocked within the Coolgardie area,” said Focus Minerals Chief Executive Campbell Baird.

The drilling program (all holes drilled to a total depth of only 54m) followed a recent re-assessment of historical drilling in the Lindsays – Bayleys area which identified a number of anomalous results in some RAB and RC drilling that had been targeting an area parallel to the Prices panel.  This indicated a possible parallel structure immediately southwest of the old underground workings.

The mineralisation that has been intersected is associated with the sheared basalt – ultramafic contact, and intermediate and felsic dykes.  Quartz veins and sulphides are common within the logged alteration zones, especially within the intermediate and felsic dykes.  This is the style of mineralisation as mined at the Bayleys mine.

The Lindsays – Bayleys area (a 2km x 2km zone on the eastern edge of the township of Coolgardie, and 2km from the Three Mile Hill processing plant) contains over 450,000 ounces of Mineral Resources and has been an area of technical focus for the company over the past two years.

A number of target holes have already been planned for future follow-up.