Augustus fires up the rig for maiden WA gold tilt

Augustus Minerals has kicked off reverse circulation drilling at its Music Well gold project in Leonora, Western Australia, marking a maiden test of the project and its Clifton East target.

The program is targeting a compelling gold-in-soil and rock chip anomaly at the untouched prospect, which lies within favourable structural features.

The company says its 11-hole program, for 1100 metres of drilling, will probe beneath promising outcropping quartz veins to test the underlying geology of a defined 950m-long high-grade gold target.

Drilling is expected to wrap up within a week, with samples sent to a Kalgoorlie laboratory for gold assays and results anticipated in early April.

The campaign follows a string of surface exploration wins that have steadily elevated Clifton East to the top of Augustus’ priorities. 

Notably, rock chip samples from the outcropping quartz veining have returned grades of up to 50.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold across the prospect, offering a taste of what could lie below. 

Augustus Minerals general manager of exploration James Warren said: “We are excited to be putting the first holes into the Clifton East prospect; a compelling soil, rock chip and structural target that no one has drilled before. We have several other prospects in line for drilling as well as large areas requiring further exploration in this underexplored part of the Northern Goldfields.”

The broader Eastern Goldfields setting adds weight to the story, with more than 28 million ounces of gold historically produced from the Leonora belt.

Music Well sits among established operations, including Vault Minerals’ Darlot mine to the north, the 5-million-ounce King of the Hills and Northern Star’s Wonder Deeps to the west and Genesis Minerals’ Leonora operations to the southwest.

Despite the region's popularity, Augustus has been able to amass more than 1240 square kilometres of tenure in the district, where regional fault systems are interpreted to channel mineralising fluids from neighbouring gold camps into its ground.

Recent reviews of state geological data have highlighted sanukitoid-style intrusions within the project area, a rock type linked to several notable major Goldfields deposits. 

The company says the interpretation aligns with pathfinder elements identified in Augustus’ sampling, including gold associated with molybdenum, tellurium, bismuth and tungsten, strengthening the case for high-grade veins along key structural trends.

Clifton East alone hosts nearly one kilometre of mapped veining - samples from the area average gram-level gold, with altered granite between veins also returning elevated values. 

The narrow veins commonly contain pyrite or gossanous material, dip steeply and are intermittently exposed beneath shallow cover.

Beyond Clifton East, the target pipeline at Music Well includes soil anomaly extensions at the company’s Dodds and St Patricks prospects, as well as nugget trends at its Golden Dingo target that warrant closer inspection. 

A second feather in the company’s cap lies overseas at the highly prospective Mt Kare gold project in Papua New Guinea. 

Although Mt Kare has been in the permitting pipeline for some time, it is a much more advanced project, having reputedly seen some $125 million in spending at the site. Augustus says the area hosts a reported but non-JORC resource of 42.5 million tonnes at 1.54g/t gold and 13.5g/t silver, equating to a hefty 2.11 million ounces of gold and 18.4 million ounces of silver, making it a seriously compelling prize.

Looking ahead, assay results from the current drilling are expected to refine targets and potentially trigger follow-up programs, while a second phase of soil sampling aims to delineate additional anomalies beneath cover.

Augustus has laid the groundwork for its promising program through boots-on-the-ground work and high-grade rock chips. Its next chapter now rests with the truth-defining drill bit.

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