Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits looks at notable drill intercepts recently reported to the ASX, led by GoldArc Resources’ 106g/t gold in WA, Raptor Metals’ 2.06 per cent copper equivalent in Canada, and Western Yilgarn’s shallow 105.5g/t gallium north of Perth. So let’s dive in.
GOLDARC RESOURCES (ASX:GA8)
Project: Mt Stirling gold deposit, Leonora district, Western Australia.
Hit: 1m at 106g/t gold from 8m.
GoldArc Resources has delivered the biggest gold hit of the week into the Big Hits mix, landing a reverse circulation drill intercept through a single metre which assayed an incandescent 106 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 8m depth at its Mt Stirling deposit near Leonora, 237 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Eastern Goldfields.
The eye-popping result came out of the company’s fourth round of grade control drilling and marks the highest individual grade recorded so far in the current program, making it a worthy Bulls N’ Bears Big Hit, even if the broader story is as much about mine planning through high-density drilling as it is about exploration-style fireworks.
The standout hole was backed up by a compelling line-up of other near-surface high-grade gold hits, including 3m at 5.99g/t gold from 7m, including 1m at 14g/t
Another strong result came from a 1m intercept grading 13.7g/t gold from 7m, while a third hole returned 2m at 7g/t gold from 1m, including 1m at 13.5g/t, 100m southeast along strike from the headline 106g/t hit.
Broader intervals also added substance, with 13m at 2.33g/t gold from surface and 7.87g/t gold from 4m, 40m along strike from the southeastern edge of the current drilling program.
The longest significant intercept in the latest data delivered 18m at 1.42g/t gold from 4m, including 1m at 6.13g/t gold from 13m depth, only 15m from the southeastern limit of current drilling.
The mineral resource estimate for Mt Stirling comprises an indicated 391,000t at 2.1g/t gold for 26,000 ounces and an inferred 2.18 million tonnes at 1.6g/t gold for 111,000 ounces. The adjacent Stirling Well resource amounts to 198,000t at 2.3g/t gold for 15,000 ounces.
Understanding the gold distribution is important because this is not just first-pass drilling chasing a new discovery. GoldArc and its partner BML Ventures are running a tightly spaced RC grade control campaign to define ore boundaries and grades ahead of potential open pit mining.
The data will feed directly into the mine plan, advancing Mt Stirling towards potential open-pit development under a 50/50 profit share arrangement with BML Ventures.
Management says it expects the geometry and consistency of the hits across the northern, central and eastern parts of the deposit to help refine its block model and improve the eventual mine plan.
More than half of the planned 34,000m drilling program has been completed, with BML Ventures funding the entire campaign and repaid from the 50/50 arrangement.
GoldArc will continue the remainder of the grade control work at Mt Stirling and adjacent Stirling Well deposits under the BML Ventures partnership, with further result batches expected progressively.
With more drilling still to come and 3599 samples already sent for analysis, the latest 106g/t spike may not be the last eye-catcher GoldArc pulls from Mt Stirling.
Raptor Metals’ decline access to the historic Chester mine in the Bathurst Mining Camp, Canada. Credit File
RAPTOR METALS (ASX:RAP)
Project: Chester copper project, Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick, Canada.
Hit: 25.05m at 2.06 per cent copper equivalent, including 11.02m at 1.98 per cent copper from 53.22m.
Raptor Metals has kicked off its Chester copper project story in Canada with a tidy opening salvo, serving up a clutch of broad copper-rich hits that also point to a possible bigger polymetallic system lurking beneath the old workings.
The company’s first five holes from this year’s diamond drilling program have returned standout results, including 25.05m at 2.06 per cent copper equivalent, including 11.02m at 1.98 per cent copper from 53.22m and 7m at 1.29 per cent copper from 13m.
A second hole bored through 30m at 1.44 per cent copper equivalent with two higher-grade copper zones, each a bit more than 3m long, assaying 2.91 and 2.8 per cent copper.
A third notable result came in with 25.09m at 1.05 per cent copper equivalent, including 3.25m at 2.49 per cent copper from 124.5m.
The latest assays also flagged zinc, lead and silver credits that had not been properly captured in parts of the historical drilling, giving the market a fresh look at Chester as more than a straight copper play.
The outcome is a solid step forward for a campaign that only began in late January, when Raptor mobilised a rig to the project in New Brunswick’s Bathurst Mining Camp to test and validate its existing resource base.
By mid-March, the company had wrapped up a 2126m, 19-hole diamond coring program designed to buoy confidence in the current JORC resource, collect metallurgical material and gather structural data ahead of future growth work.
Those earlier updates framed the campaign as part confirmation drilling and part expansion hunt, and the first crop of assays appears to have done exactly that.
The results support Raptor’s view that Chester is a stacked volcanogenic massive sulphide system, with repeated mineralised horizons running from near surface and broader stringer-style zones sitting alongside higher-grade massive sulphides.
Notably, every hole reported so far has hit mineralisation, a promising sign for a company committed to proving continuity across an established resource area.
The drilling also appears to support the established geological model while hinting that there may be more value in the system than had ever been indicated by earlier drilling, especially given that secondary metals were not fully tested in the past.
Chester already hosts a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 6.685 million tonnes at 1.092 per cent copper for 158.6 million pounds of contained copper, so the latest hits are not simply coming out of nowhere.
They sit within a district with a long base metals pedigree and strengthen the case that Raptor may be able to both bolster confidence in the existing resource and expand it over time.
With assays still pending from another 11 holes and downhole electromagnetic surveys also on the to-do list, Chester looks well-placed to keep feeding the news cycle if its remaining results land with similar punch.
WESTERN YILGARN (ASX:WYX)
Project: Cardea 1 project, Bindoon region, north of Perth, WA
Hit: 4.5m at 105.5g/t gallium oxide from 1.5m downhole
Western Yilgarn has won an unusual but valid Big Hit guernsey after re-assaying old vacuum drill pulps from 161 historical holes at its Cardea 1 project in the Bindoon region north of Perth. The results proved up widespread shallow gallium mineralisation in ground originally drilled by an unrelated third party for bauxite, the principal ore of aluminium.
That twist puts the story a little outside Bulls N’ Bears’ usual preference for hits generated by a company’s own fresh drilling, but the shallow grades and broad spread of a critical element across the old holes give the recycled samples enough merit to make the cut. It is also a neat reminder that value can still be unearthed from legacy work without the immediate cost of putting a rig back on site.
The best “hits” from the sample re-assay campaign were 4.5m at 105.5g/t gallium oxide from 1.5m, alongside other standout intercepts of 3m at 104.9g/t gallium oxide from 1.5m, 2.5m at 130.1g/t gallium oxide from 0.5m and 2.5m at 134.4g/t gallium oxide from 2m.
The company says mineralisation identified so far starts at surface in many holes and extends to a depth of 7m.
Importantly for a bulk-style laterite play, the company says the re-assayed holes show continuity across multiple target zones, with peak values exceeding 140 parts per million gallium oxide. Additionally, several other holes beyond the high-grade intercepts still returned anomalous gallium numbers, pointing to a laterally extensive near-surface system rather than a few isolated hot spots.
Cardea 1 sits within the Darling Range bauxite province, where gallium has long been recognised within the same lateritic profile that hosts bauxite. That means any future upside may not rest solely on gallium grades, but on whether the metal could eventually be recovered as a by-product from a broader alumina-related development pathway.
In that sense, the announcement adds a useful critical minerals angle to an already established bauxite setting.
The company’s ground covers 11.71 square kilometres west of the historic town of Toodyay, and its recent resampling results come from historical drilling completed by the Bauxite Alumina Joint Venture in the early 2010’s. Western Yilgarn believes the dataset provides a solid platform for future resource definition work and expansion drilling, particularly in directions where the mineralised footprint remains open.
Gallium’s strategic appeal has recently risen sharply because of its role in semiconductors, defence systems and advanced electronics, so even modest shallow hits can draw market attention when they sit inside a broad laterite system in a stable mining jurisdiction.
If Western Yilgarn can keep building scale at Cardea 1 from the old holes and follow-up exploration, the recycled pulps might yet prove to be the gift that keeps on giving.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
