Perth-based gold explorer Brightstar Resources has struck more high-grade gold at its Menzies project near Laverton in Western Australia’s glittering goldfields.
The company says 18 of 19 holes hit grades of more than 2 grams per tonne gold at its Aspacia deposit and all eight holes in its Lady Shenton-Lady Harriet “Link Zone” prospect area struck gold mineralisation. It says gold mineralisation is now confirmed in more than 500m of strike extent at Aspacia, while the Link Zone area has potential for open-pit mining.
The Aspacia gold hits include 4m at 2.45g/t from 96m, including 1m at 6.85g/t and 1m at 16.16g/t from 112m, within 4m at 4.79g/t. Other holes returned 1m at 6.13g/t from 89m, 3m at 2.92g/t from 29m, including 1m at 6.44g/t, and 2m at 4.16g/t from 35m.
The results back up previously-revealed Aspacia gold assays from the first 10 holes of 1m at a sweet 39.58g/t from 56m and 12m at 1.78g/t from 44m, including 4m at 3.11g/t from 48m. Another 1m was going 12.12g/t from 113m, with a further 1m at 2.93g/t from 153m, 2m at 5.35g/t from 48m and 1m at 2.59g/t from 116m.
Brightstar Resources managing director Alex Rovira said: “We are pleased to receive the final assays from the Menzies Gold Project RC program, which tested and confirmed our understanding of certain mineralised systems at Menzies. It is encouraging to see the consistency of the gold-bearing structures and intercepts where they were modelled to be especially given the drilling was extensional drilling testing conceptual locations of lode positions at depth and along strike. The presence of multiple lodes in close proximity to each other and the high grades provide a compelling reason to continue to drill Aspacia and advance towards a potential delineation of a high-grade Mineral Resource Estimate.”
The company says it is encouraged by the results that show multiple mineralised lodes being intersected and that the style of mineralisation has been replicated elsewhere within the Aspacia footprint. It is also just 800m south of the company’s Selkirk prospect, which has a mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 11,500 ounces at 2.15g/t gold.
The first-pass eight-hole drilling program completed at the Lady Shenton-Lady Harriet Link Zone, comprising three defined lodes at Westralian Menzies, Merriyulah and Golden Dicks, aimed to test historic drilling intercepts, confirm lode continuity within the deposits and assess plunge and strike components of the mineralisation to guide follow-up drilling.
Brightstar says results did not disappoint, with all eight of its holes hitting gold mineralisation. The best were 1m at 13.95g/t from 45m, 4m at 3.21g/t from 40m, 3m at 4.29g/t from 45m, 4m at 1.99g/t from 54m and 1m at 8.26g/t from 71m.
Significantly, the company says the 1m hit of 13.95g/t from 45m came from an extensional hole designed to test for mineralisation along strike of the Stirling deposit, about 750m to the north-west. It shows similar tenor of gold mineralisation to the 2m at 10.61g/t and 1m at 10.22g/t in drilling completed by Kingwest Resources earlier this year before its merger with Brightstar in May. Stirling has a MRE of 48,500 ounces at 1.3g/t gold.
Brightstar says the Link Zone has the potential to readily provide JORC-compliant mineral resources in selected areas due to reasonable drill density. It believes the area has the potential to host shallow oxide gold mineralisation that could be easily extracted through bulk open-pit mining techniques.
Management says the resulting 500m or more of untested strike between its Link Zone and the Stirling deposit will be a priority for a follow-up reverse-circulation drilling program scheduled to be completed in this year’s third quarter. The campaign will be aimed at building confidence in the company’s geological models and to potentially delineate MREs at both Aspacia and the Link Zone.
Brightstar says it may also kick-off diamond drilling programs, guided by
pit shells and underground optimisation shapes, from this year’s fourth quarter. The work will be designed to try and provide advanced geotechnical, metallurgical and geological information to feed feasibility studies. The company says a scoping study will be released by the end of this month.
Further afield, management says it plans to drill along about 7km of potentially gold-mineralised ground at the Menzies northern trend, along the shear zone between Lady Irene and Selkirk.
Brightstar is also looking to start early-stage air-core (AC) drilling at its Cork Tree Well North project at Laverton, in addition to other regional greenfields targets, including its newly-acquired tenements from Ardea Resources.
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By Andrew Duffy
