Aphrodite gold project

The Aphrodite gold project 65 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia, has a gold bearing resource of 10.6 million tonnes averaging 3.19 grams of gold a tonne. The project is also fortunate in that the deposit is close to all major sources of infrastructure along with a neaby experienced mining workforce.

Gold Discovered at the Aphrodite Project Area in 1996

Aphrodite Gold Limited acquired the well advanced project from Apex Minerals NL in late 2009 after Apex chose to concentrate its focus on operating the Wiluna gold mine. Gold bearing mineralisation within the Aphrodite project site was discovered in 1996 by Goldfields Limited while it was drill-testing a 1,200 metre supergene gold anomaly that had been earlier identified during the previous year's calcrete sampling program in the area. The 1996 drilling program resulted in an intersection of 10 metres grading at 8.6 grams a tonne of gold being identified from what was later to be known as the Alpha zone.

Substantial Gold Mineralisation Discovered at the Aphrodite Project Site

Ongoing drilling programs testing the calcrete mineralisation within the Alpha zone has confirmed significant mineralisation of the Aphrodite deposit that also contains the Phi mineralisation zone. These two lodes have a JORC resource of 10.6 million tonnes grading at 3.19 grams of gold a tonnes for 1,040,000 ounces of gold. Gold mineralisation of the Alpha zone has been found to continue to a depth of 650 metres below the surface which give the project the potential to be mined as an underground operation in the future following a period of open pit mining. Alpha zone mineralisation has an average width of twenty metres within the sedimentary rock unit and five metres within the porphyry unit. It is also indicated that the total Alpha lode strike length could extend for up to 1,400 metres.

The Phi lode is situated 200 metres west of the Alpha lode and consists of three zones of parallel gold mineralisation. Each of these zones has an average width of six metres that extends to a depth of 400 metres below the surface. These zones have not been closed off to date. Primary Phi mineralisation testing has shown it to extend to at least 450 metres along strike, however, it appears the actual strike length could be in the vicinity of 1,800 metres. Both lodes are still open along strike and at depth. This offers excellent exploration potential to increase the resource as well as the potential life of mine, as historic drilling indicates mineralisation extends a further 200 metres below the current known resource.

Potential Remains for Further Gold Mineralisation to be Discovered at the Aphrodite Project

Exploration for gold mineralisation within the Aphrodite project area has, up until now, been focused on the Phi and Alpha deposits, however the area is also known to host other gold deposits that have been identified through earlier drilling programs. These include the Omega, Gamma and Epsillon lodes, all of which have the potential to host commercial quantities of new gold deposits.

Kalgoorlie is the leading gold producing area of Australia. It has had a long history of gold discovery and mining of substantial gold deposits over many years. The famed Golden Mile has historically produced more than 50 million ounces of gold and the KCGM Super Pit alone still produces around 800,000 ounces of gold a year.