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Brightstar Resources Ltd (ASX: BTR) (Brightstar) is pleased to announce the first results from RC infill drilling at the Lord Byron deposit, part of the 293koz Au Jasper Hills Gold Project. The program is targeting gold mineralisation within conceptual open pit shells beneath and between the existing open pits in order to increase confidence in the current resource.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The first assay results have been received from the ~8,000m Lord Byron infill drilling program at the Jasper Hills Gold Project
- The program forms part of an Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond (DD) drill-out at Jasper Hills, which was designed to infill the resource, improve the JORC classification and provide information for mine planning at the proposed Lord Byron Open Pit and Fish Underground mines announced in the Jasper Hills Scoping Study1
- Intercepts returned at Lord Byron, targeted to be mined via an open pit in 2025, include:
- LBRC24034:
- 32m @ 1.25 g/t Au from 53m
- LBRC24007:
- 24m @ 1.53 g/t Au from 53m
- LBRC24037:
- 19m @ 1.34 g/t Au from 73m
- LBRC24001:
- 14m @ 1.44 g/t Au from 77m
- LBRC24015:
- 12m @ 1.73 g/t Au from 177m
- LBRC24016:
- 15m @ 1.47 g/t Au from 178m
- LBRC24008:
- 5m @ 4.29 g/t Au from 92m
- LBRC24054:
- 9m @ 1.47 g/t Au from 29m, and
- 7m @ 3.36 g/t Au from 129m
- LBRC24032:
- 9m @ 2.05 g/t Au from 95m, and
- 4m @ 3.12 g/t Au from 71m
- LBRC24027:
- 5m @ 2.13 g/t Au from 52m
- LBRC24034:
- 54 RC holes and 2 DD holes have been drilled at Lord Byron, with assays pending for 25 RC holes, and an additional 9 DD drillholes remaining to drill at Lord Byron
- 30 RC holes and 8 DD holes have been completed at the Fish deposit, with assays to be reported when received and analysed. This drilling was completed to provide geological, metallurgical and geotechnical information to support near term mining operations
- The RC drilling rig has completed the program at Jasper Hills and has remobilised to Menzies to complete the infill drilling program at the Lady Shenton deposit
- A diamond drill rig is presently at Lord Byron completing a ~1,500m program with completion of all drilling at Jasper Hills targeted by early September 2024
Brightstar’s Managing Director, Alex Rovira, commented“These assays represent the first results from the recently acquired Linden Gold exploration package at the Jasper Hills Gold Project. The results are highly encouraging and align with grades and widths we expected from the existing 244koz Au mineral resource.
The increased confidence from this infill drilling will feed back into future resource estimates and ultimately help guide the near-term development of open pit mining operations at Lord Byron, as detailed in our recent scoping study1, which outlined the highly profitable production of 2.2Mt @ 1.6g/t for 115koz Au over three years.
Drilling continues with two drill rigs currently active at the Jasper Hills and Menzies Gold Projects, which will generate ongoing news flow in the coming months as assays are received and our geological understanding develops across our portfolio.”
TECHNICAL DISCUSSION
The RC drilling program at the Lord Byron totals 54 drill holes for ~8,000m of drilling, with assays pending for 25 holes.
The program aimed to infill the inferred portion of the resource within optimised open pit shells to a nominal 20m x 20m spacing in order to facilitate and upgrade of the resource to Indicated classification. This supports the ongoing definitive feasibility study and the assessment of a potential fast-tracked mine development.
An additional 1,500m diamond drilling program is presently underway at Lord Byron, which will provide structural, geotechnical, and metallurgical data for mine design and planning purposes.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Brightstar Resources, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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Brightstar Resources
Overview
The price of gold stays strong. In April 2024, the yellow metal’s price passed US$2,400 per ounce for the first time. The reason is multifaceted. The world teeters on the brink of a severe recession while some markets attribute the increase to safe haven rush. Amidst ballooning interest rates, bank failures and falling bond yields, demand for gold continues to rise. At this precise moment, gold is simultaneously an excellent portfolio diversifier and a compelling hedge against ongoing inflation — particularly if one invests in the right company.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) aims to be that company. An emerging mining and development company, Brightstar occupies a strategic land position of roughly 300 square kilometers in the Laverton Tectonic Belt and 80 square kilometers of the Menzies Shear Zone.
The company also owns an existing processing facility that can potentially provide tremendous shareholder value in a low-capital cost restart scenario.
That plant, once fully refurbished and operational, could prove a key differentiator for the company, enabling fast gold production at a low capital cost. This is especially noteworthy given that many other gold companies trading on the ASX are largely focused on greenfield exploration and development. Even once those companies discover a promising resource, mining and processing facilities would still need to be built, undertakings which can incur significant upfront capital costs and take several years.
Brightstar's Laverton gold assets are all centered on a 100 percent-owned 300-square-kilometer tenure in the Laverton Tectonic Zone and all within 70 kilometers of the Laverton Processing Plant. Additionally, all resources within this zone are open along strike and at depth. Only minor drilling programs have been conducted in recent years, paving the way for significant exploration upside with the potential for further regional and greenfields discoveries.
Brightstar also owns 100 percent of the Menzies Gold Project, a contiguous land package of granted mining leases over a strike length of roughly 20 kilometers along the Menzies Shear Zone and adjacent to the Goldfields Highway.
In 2023 and 2024, the company announced a mineral resource upgrade to the Cork Tree Well deposit (Laverton gold project) and also delivered two maiden mineral resource estimates at the Link Zone and Aspacia deposits (Menzies gold project). This has grown the total group MRE by approximately 150 koz gold through organic exploration.
The company has also acquired a relevant interest in 96.75 percent shares and 96.81 percent optionshares and 96.81 percent option of Linden Gold Alliance, a gold producer, developer and explorer with existing mineral resources of 350 koz @ 2.1 g/t gold near Brightstar in the Laverton district. Brightstar’s MRE has reached 1.1 Moz gold across the Menzies and Laverton projects, with an additional 0.35 Moz gold in resources added after the successful acquisition of Linden Gold Alliance. Brightstar has commenced the compulsory acquisition process for the remaining Linden shares and options in respect of which it has not received acceptances under the agreement.
In August 2024, Brightstar entered into a scheme implementation deed to acquire 100 percent of Alto Metals. At the same time, Brightstar through its wholly owned subsidiary SPV Montague Gold Project entered into a tenement sale agreement with Gateway Mining to acquire 100 percent of the gold mineral rights for Gateway's Montague East Gold Project. All other mineral rights to the project will be retained by Gateway. These transactions, once complete, will make Brightstar a significant junior West Australian explorer, developer and producer, consolidating a highly prospective exploration ground in the Sandstone region.
Company Highlights
- Brightstar Resources is an ASX-listed mining and development company with more than one million ounces of gold resources and an on-site processing infrastructure.
- Brightstar's mineral assets are situated across roughly 300 square kilometers of 100-percent-owned land in the Laverton Tectonic Zone and ~80 square kilometers in the high-grade Menzies Shear Zone.
- The Laverton Gold project has a mineral resource of 9.7 Mt @ 1.6g/t gold for 511 koz gold and the Menzies gold project has 13.8Mt @ 1.3g/t gold for 595 koz gold. This is a total combined existing mineral resource of 23 Mt @ 1.5 g/t gold for 1.1 Moz of gold
- In 2023, the company completed a scoping study into the development of its Menzies and Laverton gold projects and the refurbishment and restart of its processing plant in Laverton.
- The scoping study produced robust operating outcomes and compelling financial outputs, including:
- 322 koz of gold recovered over eight years (40 koz per annum)
- Net present value of AU$103 million (using a gold price of AU$2,900/oz)
- Internal rate of return of 79 percent
- Pre-production capital requirements of AU$22 million
- All-in sustaining costs of A$2,041/oz
- Once refurbished, this infrastructure will allow Brightstar to fill a growing investment void for near-term gold developers in Western Australia, producing large quantities of gold at low capital cost.
- In 2023 and 2024, Brightstar completed a small-scale mining joint venture with BML Ventures which involved a 50/50 profit-sharing agreement to exploit the Selkirk deposit at Menzies. In April 2024, Brightstar announced that this joint venture delivered a net profit to Brightstar of $6.5 million.
- In June 2024, the company successfully acquired all of the issued ordinary shares and options in Linden Gold Alliance, a gold producer, developer and explorer with existing mineral resources of 350 koz @ 2.1 g/t gold near Brightstar in the Laverton district.
- Linden is currently a gold producer, mining 15-20 koz pa from its high-grade underground Second Fortune Mine south of Laverton.
- Brightstar’s total MRE across the Menzies and Laverton gold projects increased to 1.45 Moz gold after acquiring Linden. All of the mineral resources are located on granted mining licenses.
- As part of the merger with Linden Gold, Brightstar released a scoping study into Linden’s development-ready Jasper Hills gold project, which delivered key metrics including:
- 140 koz mined over 3.75 years (35 koz pa)
- Net present value of AU$99 million
- Internal rate of return of 736 percent
- Pre-production capital requirements of $12 million
- All-in sustaining costs of AU$1,972/oz
- Jasper Hills is located just 50 km SE of Brightstar’s processing plant in the Laverton gold project
- Brightstar plans to continue generating shareholder value through a combination of development and strategic acquisitions along with some exploration.
Key Projects
Brightstar Processing Facility
Situated close to Brightstar's existing mineral assets at Laverton, the Brightstar Processing Plant provides the company with a considerable operational head start over its peers.
Highlights:
- Extensive Infrastructure: Current facilities at the plant include two ball mills, a power station and gravity and elution circuits. Other infrastructure includes:
- A tailings storage dam
- An on-site process water pond
- An operational 60-person accommodation camp
- An airstrip at the nearby Cork Tree Well Project
- Vehicles and equipment include a forklift, bobcat, two loaders, multiple light vehicles and a 30-tonne crane.
- A Leg Up Over Competitors: The presence of pre-existing processing infrastructure represents significant time savings compared to greenfields development. Brightstar had an independent valuation completed which valued the processing plant at AU$60 million in replacement value.
- Low Upfront Capital Cost: As part of the scoping study released in September 2023, GR Engineering estimated a capital cost requirement to refurbish and expand the milling capacity would cost just AU$18.5 million.
- Close to Existing Assets: Brightstar's major development projects — Cork Tree Well, Jasper Hills, Beta and Alpha — are all close to the plant.
Gold doré bars (BTR005 – BTR016) poured on 9 March 2024
Cork Tree Well
Cork Tree Well is a formerly operating mine, producing 45 koz of gold over its lifespan. Located roughly 35 kilometers north of Laverton on Bandya Station Road, the project’s JORC 2012-compliant mineral resource of 6.4 Mt at 1.4 g/t for 303 koz of gold.
Highlights:
- Promising Drilling Results: Two 6,000-meter drill programs were completed in late 2022, and in the first quarter of 2023 delivered an uplift in tonnages and ounces at a discovery cost of AU$30 per ounce. In 2023 the JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate increased by 20 percent to 303 koz, representing a 65-percent increase to the indicated ounces to 157 koz @ 1.6 g/t gold.
- Upcoming Feasibility Studies: The drilling program will underpin several feasibility studies that Brightstar intends to conduct later this year. At present, Brightstar has defined a resource envelope over a strike length of approximately 1 kilometer and down to 200 meters.
- Area Geology: The Cork Tree deposit is situated along the western limb of the Erlistoun synclical structure, a sequence which includes mafic volcanic lavas, tuffs and tuffaceous sediments alongside minor interflow graphitic shales and banded iron formation. The mine itself consists of chlorite schist-altered high-magnesium basalt footwalls overlain by graphitic shales containing banded iron and chert beds. Gold mineralization is contained within sediments intruded by concordant porphyry sills spanning the length of the mineralized zone.
- High-grade Assays from the 2024 Drill Program: First round of assay results from 20 diamond drill holes at Cork Tree Well were extremely positive, with intercepts returned including 34.4 metres @ 7.94 g/t gold from 43.5 metres (CTWMET004) and 27.6 metres @ 17.8 g/t gold from 51 metres (CTWMET003).
Second Fortune Gold Mine
Second Fortune is an operating underground gold mine owned and run by Linden Gold, which is the subject of an off-market takeover by Brightstar announced in March 2024. Second Fortune has produced +14,000oz gold in FY24 year to date and is run under an ‘owner operator’ model.
Second Fortune has a high-grade MRE of 165kt @ 10.9 g/t gold for 58 koz. Limited modern and systematic exploration has occurred across the ~20km of strike length of prospective geology at Second Fortune. This presents a superb opportunity to leverage existing team, camp & related infrastructure to rapidly assess targets and conduct efficient drilling programs to further grow the MRE and extend the mine life at Second Fortune.
Menzies Gold Project
Situated 130 kilometers north of the globally significant Kalgoorlie gold deposit, Menzies represents one of Western Australia's leading historic gold fields. The project, fully owned and operated by Kingwest before its merger with Brightstar, consists of a contiguous land package of a strike length above 20 kilometers. All deposits are now 100 percent owned by Brightstar and lie within granted mining leases.
Brightstar intends to leverage existing processing infrastructure in the district to monetise the high-grade open pit ounces produced by this mine.
Highlights:
- Significant Historical Production: Menzies has hosted multiple historically mined high-grade gold deposits which together produced a total of over 800,000 ounces at 19 g/t gold. This includes 643,000 oz @ 22.5 g/t gold from underground.
- Profit Sharing: Brightstar and BLM Ventures had a 50/50 profit-sharing joint venture agreement to exploit the Selkirk deposit at Menzies. In March 2024, Brighstar announced the successful completion of all the ore processing from the Selkirk JV, with a total of 430.7 kg of gold doré poured which netted Brightstar $6.5 million as part of its profit share.
- Area Geology: The Menzies Gold Project is hosted along the Menzies Shear Zone in the western margin of the Menzies greenstone belt. It displays a geologic setting similar to the Sand Queen Gold Mine at Comet Vale.
LAVERTON GOLD PROJECT – OTHER RESOURCES
Beta
Located immediately adjacent to the Brightstar Plant, the Beta Project includes a 60-person camp. It contains a combined JORC 2012-compliant mineral resource of 1,882 kt at 1.7 g/t for 102 koz of gold. The deposit occurs along the Eastern Margin of the Laverton Tectonic Zone, notable for hosting multiple major gold occurrences including Granny Smith, Keringal, Red October and Sunrise Dam.
Alpha
Hosting a combined JORC 2012-compliant mineral resource of 1,452 gold at 2.3 g/t for 106 koz, the Alpha Project. Future exploration programs and feasibility studies will seek to potentially capitalize on Alpha's close proximity to Beta.
Management Team – Post Completion of Linden Merger
Alex Rovira - Managing Director
Alex Rovira is a qualified geologist and an experienced investment banker having focused on the metals and mining sector since 2013. Rovira has experience in ASX equity capital markets activities, including capital raisings, IPOs and merger and acquisitions.
Richard Crookes – Non-executive Chairman
Richard Crookes has over 35 years’ experience in the resources and investments industries. He is a geologist by training having previously worked as the chief geologist and mining manager of Ernest Henry Mining in Australia.
Crookes is managing partner of Lionhead Resources, a critical minerals investment fund and formerly an investment director at EMR Capital. Prior to that he was an executive director in Macquarie Bank’s Metals Energy Capital (MEC) division where he managed all aspects of the bank’s principal investments in mining and metals companies.
Andrew Rich - Executive Director
Andrew Rich is a degree qualified mining engineer from the WA School of Mines and has obtained a WA First Class Mine Managers Certificate. Rich has a strong background in underground gold mining with experience predominantly in the development of underground mines at Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) and Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX).
Ashley Fraser - Non-executive Director
Ashley Fraser is an accomplished mining professional with over 30 years experience across gold and bulk commodities. Fraser was a founder of Orionstone (which merged with Emeco in a $660-million consolidation) and is a founder/owner of Blue Cap Mining and Blue Cap Equities.
Jonathan Downes - Non-executive Director
Jonathan Downes has over 30 years’ experience in the minerals industry and has worked in various geological and corporate capacities. Experienced with gold and base metals, he has been intimately involved with the exploration process through to production. Downes is currently the managing director of Kaiser Reef, a high grade gold producer, and non-executive director of Cazaly Resources.
Dean Vallve – Chief Operating Officer
Dean Vallve holds technical qualifications in geology & mining engineering from the WA School of Mines, an MBA, and a WA First Class Mine Managers Certificate. Vallve was previously in senior mining and study roles at ASX listed mid-cap resources companies Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) and Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI).
Leinster South Update
- High resolution UAV (drone) magnetic survey underway at Leinster South, covering the majority of western tenement E 36/1068 which includes the Siberian Tiger gold prospect.
- New detailed geophysical data will significantly enhance the geological and structural understanding of the project area and will further assist Metal Hawk with identifying targets for drilling.
- Reconnaissance rockchip samples at Siberian Tiger returned high grade gold up to 20.2g/t from outcropping quartz veining. Additional samples of outcropping quartz veins along strike from Siberian Tiger have been delivered to the laboratory for gold and multi-element analysis.
- New tenement applications expand the Leinster South project area to over 430km2.
- Heritage negotiations and drilling approvals are underway.
The Company recently applied for two new exploration licenses to the east of Siberian Tiger, increasing the Leinster South project area to more than 430km2. This is a significant landholding in one of the most well-endowed gold regions of WA. The Siberian Tiger gold discovery is located along the southern limb of the Lawlers anticline and only 15km from the Lawlers mining centre (Figure 1). Past production from the Agnew - Lawlers deposits is > 5 million oz @ 5gt Au1.
Figure 1. Leinster South project location
A high-resolution UAV (drone) magnetic survey has commenced, with 50m spaced east-west lines at a flying height of 25m conducted over the majority of Leinster South tenement E36/1068, which includes the Siberian Tiger gold prospect. The Pegasus Airborne UAV system is able to quickly and efficiently provide high quality, detailed magnetic data which can be used to identify important structures and geological features of gold deposits. The magnetic survey will assist Metal Hawk geologists with targeting at Siberian Tiger and other regional prospect areas. Processing and interpretation of geophysical data will be carried out immediately following completion of the survey, which is expected to take 3-4 days.
Metal Hawk’s Managing Director Will Belbin commented: “We are collecting important geochemical, structural and geophysical data to better understand the controls and potential characteristics of gold mineralisation in the area. The drone magnetic survey will enable better interpretation of the subsurface geology and ultimately help us to determine the best possible target locations for the maiden drilling program at Siberian Tiger.”
“Whilst the historical geophysical dataset over the Leinster South tenure is poor, we expect that the new magnetic survey will show excellent detail and key structural features of the pronounced southeast trending greenstone belt.”
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Metal Hawk Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Galloper Gold
Investor Insight
With a huge land package in a resource-rich jurisdiction with significant potential for gold discovery, Galloper Gold makes for an interesting prospect for investors in this continuing gold bull market.
Overview
With just 30 million shares outstanding and a strong treasury, management believes Galloper Gold (CSE:BOOM) is very favorably positioned to unlock the full mineral potential of Newfoundland's under-explored Glover Island at a time of record high gold prices and a bullish copper environment.
Glover Island is in a diverse and rich geological region highlighted by a world-class salt deposit to the southwest, one of the richest VMS districts (Buchans mine) per square kilometer in Canadian history to the east-southeast, and a multi-million ounce gold deposit (Valentine Lake), expected to commence production in 2025 (Calibre Mining), to the southeast.
Galloper believes in a high level of community engagement, not only where it's active with exploration in Newfoundland but also around the rest of the country where the company assists sports organizations and sports-based charities that make a positive difference in the lives of Canadian youth.
Company Highlights
- Galloper Gold was listed on the CSE on March 1, 2024, and is focused on advancing its flagship Glover Island asset in western Newfoundland.
- Glover Island is in a highly favorable geological setting, at the convergence of major fault zones, where there's a known historic gold resource that was defined by dozens of drill holes more than a decade ago.
- Galloper's 133 sq km land package completely surrounds this historic zone and continues along a northeast trend for 36 km, providing investors with leverage to a potential new large-scale gold discovery as the gold bull market intensifies.
- Driven by a management and technical team with successful exploration and production backgrounds, and supported by capital markets expertise, Galloper's "outside the box" thinking helps make the company a unique player in an increasingly selective junior resource sector.
Key Project
Glover Island: Project Quick Facts
Daniel Fernandes checks out with power infrastructure on Glover Island with Galloper CEO Mark Scott.
Location: 24 km SE of Corner Brook.
Size: 133 square kilometer property package extends approximately 36 kms along a northeast trend (up to 6 kms wide) and completely surrounds province-held claims highlighted by historic gold zone.
Geological Setting: In very favorable terrain along the regional Baie-Verte Brompton Line-Cabot Fault Zone, a major boundary between the Humber and Dunnage Zones.
Targeted Deposit Types: Structurally controlled orogenic gold as well as copper-gold-enriched VMS.
Scale Potential: Initial Galloper soil sampling, structural setting and multiple historic showings outline a minimum 7.5-km-long trend featuring favorable host rocks extending north from the province-held historic gold zone. Broad areas of Galloper’s property also exhibit encouraging VMS alteration which adds to Glover Island’s economic potential.
Exploration History: No systematic property-wide exploration program has been carried out on Galloper’s claims due in part to extensive overburden, though this “cover” is known to be relatively thin. The last major operator on the island focused mostly on the historic gold zone (claims now held by the government of Newfoundland and Labrador) from 2010 until early 2012, when work stopped at the onset of the gold bear market. Little exploration activity has occurred on Glover Island since then, until Galloper’s arrival in 2022. Historically, copper values as high as 4.7 percent have been returned from unexplained massive sulphide boulders in the northern part of the island.
The Keystone and Lucky Smoke Showings on Galloper’s claims, located 6 km northeast of the historic gold zone, gave encouraging values from very limited historic drilling while channel sampling by the Newfoundland Geological Survey in 2021 returned 5.9 g/t gold over 9 meters at Lucky Smoke. From limited exploration, a total of 17 mineral occurrences on Galloper’s claims have been documented by the Newfoundland & Labrador Geological Survey’s Mineral Occurrence Data System.
Management Team
Mark Scott - Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mark Scott became Galloper Gold's founding CEO in 2022. As head of Manitoba Operations for Vale Canada's Nickel Division through 2018, he managed a combined OPEX and CAPEX budget of greater than $500 million (USD) including a workforce of approximately 1,875. He has more than 25 years' experience in all phases of surface and underground mining, metallurgical processing, and associated service and support functions.
Rav Mlait - Corporate Secretary and Director
Rav Mlait has extensive experience in managing and raising capital for public and private companies in both the resource and technology sectors. He holds an MBA from Royal Roads University in British Columbia with a specialization in Executive Management and his BA (Economics) from Simon Fraser University. He brings a successful public company background to Galloper as it launches on the CSE.
Bryan Loree - Chief Financial Officer and Director
Bryan Loree has held senior accounting roles for public and private companies in various industries including renewable energy, exploration, and construction. Prior to entering the accounting field, he gained experience as an investor relations manager. He holds a certified accountant designation, a financial management diploma from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and a BA from Simon Fraser University.
Peter Lauder - Director
Peter Lauder is a senior level mine and exploration geologist with more than 20 years' experience with the likes of Goldcorp, IAMGOLD and BHP Canada in the design, implementation and management of underground and surface exploration projects. He has managed all aspects of mining and exploration projects from early to advanced stage, to full production with emphasis on safety and process-driven exploration leading to successful resource estimation and project development.
Danielle Fernandes - Corporate Communications
Danielle Fernandes is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, activist, speaker and writer, working with clients ranging from large corporations to non-profits. Her diverse background includes sports marketing stints in the NHL, WHL and CFL. She is passionate about plant-based diets and animal advocacy, supporting various charities across Canada.
Further Validation of Gold Potential at Black Swan and Lake Johnston
- Gold bearing bedrock confirmed at Black Swan
- Multiple anomalous gold rock chip samples (grading up to 1.25g/t Au) returned from highly weathered quartz bearing shears exposed at surface
- Soil sampling program completed as well as additional rock chip samples collected across the tenement portfolio
- Assay results expected early next quarter with any defined anomalies to be followed up with high priority drilling programs
- Geological setting shown to be very similar to nearby gold mines including Kanowna Belle and Gordon Sirdar
- Lake Johnston copper-gold anomaly extended
- Initial soil results have successfully extended the Billy Ray Cu-Au soil anomaly into the largely untested Mantis tenement and the anomaly remains open to the North-East
- High priority soil sampling program to continue with completion expected this quarter
- Billy Ray Cu-Au soil anomaly and likely link to the mineralised Cu-Au drill intersection nearby supports the prospectivity of a larger Cu-Au system
- Planning for Flora and Heritage Surveys for drill testing at Billy Ray has commenced
CEO, Brendan Shalders, commented, “Ongoing exploration works focused on gold prospectivity at Black Swan and Lake Johnston continue to generate positive results.
Rock chip samples collected on a recent site visit to Black Swan have returned anomalous gold from quartz bearing shear zones that are located in the same area as the recovered gold nuggets.
Today’s rock chip assay results are an important step forward given the potential source of the recovered gold nuggets has now been identified and these auriferous shear zones are located well within our tenement package.
To progress the gold targeting along these prospective shear corridors, the Company completed a wide spaced reconnaissance soil sampling program last week across the entire landholding at Black Swan which will be assayed for the full suite of elements. We look forward to receiving the assay results early next quarter and will commence planning drilling programs for any defined gold anomalies.
Recently received soil sample assay results testing the extension of the Billy Ray Prospect at Lake Johnston have confirmed the continuation of the large Cu-Au anomaly. The anomaly remains open to the North-East, with geological structures suggesting the potential for further Cu-Au anomalism over the newly acquired Mantis tenement.
The Company intends to extend soil sampling across the Mantis tenement and will use the assay results and any Cu-Au anomalies identified to plan drilling programs to test the Billy Ray Prospect.
The Company is pleased with the recent series of exploration results as they continue to enhance the prospectivity for gold at both Black Swan and Lake Johnston. The low-cost exploration programs that are underway are important to defining drill targets to efficiently test the gold potential in these areas.”
Black Swan - Located in Geological Setting Prospective for Gold
The Black Swan project is situated within the Boorara Geological Domain which hosts a number of gold mines including the nearby Kanowna Belle, Mungarra and Gordon Sirdar projects, refer Figure 1, as recently announced in ASX announcement “Gold Prospectivity Enhanced at Black Swan and Lake Johnston” re-released 16 August 2024.
Figure 1: Black Swan Regional Geology Map & Tenement Locations
Bedrock Gold Confirmed
Results from 17 rock chip samples recently collected from Black Swan have confirmed gold mineralisation in bedrock units located close to some of the recently announced gold nugget discoveries. The best rock chip returned 1.25g/t Au from a gossanous quartz vein hosted within felsic volcanic, see Figure 2. Additional rock chips with anomalous gold (>0.5g/t Au) were returned from ferrous quartz veining and within felsic volcanics (refer Table 1).
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Poseidon Nickel Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Further Step-Out Gold Success and High-Grade Antimony Discovery
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Assay results received for a further 1,102m of diamond drilling at Ricciardo.
- Extremely high-grade antimony (Sb) intersected in multiple holes below the Ardmore pit, including in RDRC067 above the main zone of high-grade gold mineralisation:
- 12.7m @ 4.98% Sb and 0.36 g/t Au (10.92 g/t AuEq*) from 229.2m
incl. 1.85m @ 28.50% Sb and 0.45 g/t Au (60.94 g/t AuEq) from 238.25m
- 12.7m @ 4.98% Sb and 0.36 g/t Au (10.92 g/t AuEq*) from 229.2m
- A wide zone of antimony mineralisation was encountered in hole RDRC001:
- 34m @ 1.0% Sb and 0.59 g/t Au (2.72 g/t AuEq) from 158.80m
- This newly identified and exceptionally high-grade Sb zone, along with the broader antimony potential at Ricciardo, demands prompt follow-up and evaluation.
- Further high-grade gold extension delivered below the Ardmore pit:
- 18m @ 3.41 g/t Au and 0.27% Sb (3.97 g/t AuEq) from 276m (RDRC048B) incl. 4.5m @ 9.90 g/t Au and 0.01% Sb (9.93 g/t AuEq) from 286.5m
- 1m @ 28.31 g/t Au and 2.18% Sb (32.92 g/t AuEq) from 286m (NMRC005)
- 42.6m @ 1.08 g/t Au and 0.05% Sb (1.17 g/t AuEq) from 253.38m (RDRC067)
- ‘Golden Corridor’ diamond drilling now complete, with 31 holes drilled for 3,300m.
- All residual diamond assays expected to be received by late September, with update of the Ricciardo Mineral Resource targeted for Q4 2024.
- Further growth-focussed RC drilling of the ‘Golden Corridor’ scheduled for H2 2024, as well as planned aircore drilling along select parts of the regional shear.
Warriedar Managing Director and CEO, Amanda Buckingham, commented:
“The results for these holes successfully demonstrate further extensional high-grade gold, and for the first time very high-grade antimony zones below the Ardmore pit area.
Given the relative absence of assaying for antimony in historical drilling at Golden Range, we are cautiously optimistic on the potential that might exist here. Moreover, the apparent zonation in RDRC067 is also highly encouraging for any future antimony development potential.
I want to emphasise however that pursuit of this opportunity will be in parallel with our growth-focussed gold drilling at Golden Range, which remains our current core focus.”
* Refer to page 8 of this release for full gold equivalent (AuEq) calculation methodology.
Figure 1: The Golden Range and Fields Find Projects, with proximate mines, mills and projects.
Key Ricciardo context
The Ricciardo gold system spans a strike length of approximately 2.3km, with very limited drilling having been undertaken below 100m depth. Ricciardo possesses a current MRE of 8.7 Mt @ 1.7 g/t Au for 476 koz gold.1 Historical mining operations at Ricciardo were primarily focused on oxide material, with the transition and primary sulphides mineralisation not systematically explored.
Due to the limited number of multi-element assays from historical drill holes at Ricciardo, other mineral potential (outside of gold) has also not been properly evaluated historically.
Figure 2: The ‘Golden Corridor’ within the Golden Range Project. The image on the right is gravity over shaded residual magnetic RTP.
The gold mineralisation at Ricciardo is predominantly hosted with intensified altered and deformed ultramafic units. It is important to note that the newly identified antimony-dominant mineralisation identified in RDRC067 (discussed below) sits above high-grade gold mineralisation in the same area, and may overprint the earlier gold mineralisation in some areas.
High-grade antimony zone discovery below the Ardmore pit
RDRC067 was designed to drill south to north along strike to better understand the structural controls within the Ricciardo deposit and assess the continuity of the ultramafic unit (Figure 3). All previous drill holes (by Warriedar and previous explorers) have been drilled eastward perpendicular to the known mineralised structure. RDRC067 was considered an important hole by the Warriedar technical team in order to confirm there are no additional structural controls and to provide further confidence in the geological model.
Figure 3: Plan view of Ricciardo deposit with current cross section locations annotated. The holes drilled in Q2/Q3 as part of the current program are highlighted in red. Additional holes are also outlined but not presented in below cross sections.
Unexpectedly, RDRC067 intersected significant high-grade antimony mineralisation from 229.2m to 241.9m downhole, returning 12.7m @ 4.98% Sb and 0.36 g/t Au (10.92 g/t AuEq) (Figure 4). Above this high-grade antimony zone, another significant zone was also identified from 183m to 198.1m downhole, returning 15.1m @ 1.42% Sb and 0.42 g/t Au (3.42 g/t AuEq) (Figure 4).
The antimony zones intersected by RDRC067 are interpreted to correlate with a lower grade antimony zone intersected in RDRC038 and RDRC049 (Figure 4). Encouragingly, drillhole RDRC001 returned a wide zone of antimony mineralisation: 34m @ 1.0% Sb and 0.59 g/t Au (2.72 g/t AuEq). Further work is required to determine the geometry and extent of the antimony mineralisation.
RDRC067 concluded at 296.96m downhole depth, within the gold mineralisation domain, as the target depth of the hole had been reached. As RDRC067 is not drilled perpendicular to the Mougooderra Shear, which is the main control of the mineralisation, it is important to note that the intersected thickness does not reflect the true thickness of the mineralisation.
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This article includes content from Warriedar Resources, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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