An emboldened Dampier Gold is set to hit the ground running in 2021 with planning underway for 30,000 metres of drilling across its Eastern Goldfields projects in WA. The aspiring miner has enjoyed a feast of success through 2020 and having recently topped up its coffers to the tune of $6 million, is champing at the bit to get back on the ground and kick up some dust.
The company has enjoyed a bumper year in the field with exploration across its project areas north of Kalgoorlie rapidly building a pipeline of gold prospects. These discoveries range from the delineation of an extensive geochemical target at Menzies, through to the estimation of resources at Credo. The strategy for 2021 appears to be a rerun of the successful second half of 2020 – a methodical and structured approach across the renown Zuleika Shear where the company holds some of the most prospective ground in the region.
Dampier Gold Managing Director, Annie Guo said: “Dampier directors are fulfilling their commitment to shareholders to aggressively explore through drilling its highly prospective tenement portfolio in the Kalgoorlie and Menzies Region, Western Australia.”
“The recent capital raising supported by new and existing shareholders demonstrates the confidence shareholders have in Dampier’s exploration strategy.”
“Our primary objective is to define and extend commercially viable JORC Compliant Resources and proceed rapidly to further development and to convert Dampier from an explorer to a producer.”
The company’s extensive holdings in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia lies within a multi-million-ounce gold corridor which extends over 120km of strike, reaching from Kalgoorlie in the south to the Menzies mining centre in the north. This corridor, which takes in a number of world-class gold mines, hosts several richly mineralised structures including the Zuleika Shear and Bardoc Tectonic Zone which have quickly attracted Dampier’s attention as it builds a position in the region and continues to grow its inventory of resources across the gold-rich terrane.
Dampier now holds four key project areas in this gold-rich terrane including ground positions at Menzies, Goongarrie, Credo and its flagship project along the Zuleika Shear. The Zuleika Shear project is located a mere 25km to the west-northwest of Kalgoorlie and covers more than 20km strike of the auriferous Zuleika and Carnage Shears.
The company’s tenure at Zuleika extends north-west from the 7 million-ounce Kundana mining centre which is managed by top-tier gold miner, Northern Star, with Evolution Mining’s 3-million-ounce White Foil and Frog Legs mines just 3km south of Dampier’s tenement boundary.
Dampier’s exploration at Zuleika has unearthed a number of new prospects for ongoing drill testing and potential development including the Paradigm East, Browns Dam and Castle Hill discoveries. Drilling at Browns Dam has returned assays which included 5m at 3.1 g/t gold in shallow aircore, whilst exploration at Paradigm East has outlined gold mineralisation over an imposing 2.5km of strike – both worthy targets for systematic follow up drilling in 2021.
Other targets within the Zuleika tenure include the Kurrawang prospect, where drilling has returned 1m at an impressive 50.4 g/t gold, and what could prove to be the sleeping giant, the Carnage Shear.
Dampier holds over 15km strike of the Carnage structure which it believes to be a “mirror image” of the nearby, parallel Zuleika Shear. The company’s ongoing review of the historical exploration across the Carnage Shear shows it to be poorly tested due to a veneer of transported cover, with sparse shallow drilling having largely failed to test the bedrock potential of the mineralised target. Carnage represents a “blank canvas” for Dampier and will no doubt feel the hard edge of the drill bit early in the new year.
Elsewhere in the scrub north of Kalgoorlie, drilling is also set to target the extensions of the high-grade Credo resources whilst maiden drilling programs are being planned over the extensive surface gold anomalies at both Goongarrie and Menzies.
With Dampier currently planning 20,000m of aircore and 10,000m of reverse circulation drilling across its project areas north of Kalgoorlie, the company will be one of the first out of the gates in 2021 and no doubt will be looking to start the year in the same way it finished 2020 – with a stream of gold-rich results and new discoveries to keep the ball rolling.
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