Corazon Mining has picked up some stellar historical gold hits from a review of old data at its recently acquired Feather Cap gold project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The review points to multiple high-priority, walk-up drill targets that will probe historic hits like 20m at 3.01g/t from 40m and 7m at 6.21g/t from 6m.
The 154 square kilometre project, next to Westgold’s 2.4Mt, 1.2g/t Durack gold deposit, shows significant potential, with a maiden drill program now being planned to test three key target areas.
The historical gold results, from three priority areas that have been only thinly-explored and inconsistently drilled in the past, signal a big and unexpected opportunity for the company.
Corazon only secured the Feather Cap project through an 80% option agreement earlier this month and now has three walk up targets to hit including Jigsaw-Durack East, Wembley and Feather Cap.
The Jigsaw-Durack East target lies next to and along strike from Westgold’s Durack deposit.
Significant drill intercepts at that target are 35m assaying 1.47g/t gold from 32m, including 5m at 5.13g/t gold and another hole that delivered 8m going 4.5g/t gold from 87m, including 1m at an impressive 26.7g/t gold.
The mineralisation is associated with a south-east trending shear between the Narracoota and Ravelstone Formations and highlights an interesting and prospective partially de-risked exploration model.
The Wembley target is centrally located within the Feather Cap tenure and lies within a granted mining lease which enhances the prospect by offering near-term, low-cost production opportunities.
Wembley offers shallow, high-grade potential and includes the 7m at 6.21g/t gold intercept from 6m which includes 2m at a useful 18.33g/t gold, book-ended by a 4m intercept at 2.3g/t gold from 19m in an adjacent hole about 150m away.
The Feather Cap target area, in the northwest of the project tenure, also shows promise with limited but encouraging historical intercepts, including 2m assaying 3.58g/t gold from 86m and 2m running 2.39g/t gold from 50m in another hole about 250m to the south, warranting further follow-up.
The Feather Cap ground occupies the mineral-rich Bryah-Padbury Basin, which is part of the ancient Capricorn Orogen, a major geological zone in WA formed by the collision of the Archaean Pilbara block and the Yilgarn craton during the Proterozoic era, which spanned about the period between 2.5 billion to 541 million years ago.
Corazon Mining Ltd Managing Director, Simon Coyle, commented: “We are extremely pleased with the results of this historical data review, which has confirmed our belief in the significant potential of the Feather Cap project. This low-cost exercise has immediately generated multiple high-priority, walk-up drill targets that have seen little to no modern exploration.”
Feather Cap shares the prospective geological address with major operations such as Westgold’s Fortnum gold mine and Sandfire’s DeGrussa copper-gold deposit.
Fortnum’s 2025 ore reserve statement puts the Fortnum Hub total ore reserves at 3.2Mt averaging 3.7g/t gold for 378,000 ounces of gold, including the Starlight underground mine and associated open pits.
Sandfire’s DeGrussa copper-gold deposit is a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit which is now closed and being rehabilitated since underground mining ceased in October 2022 after about 10 years of production.
DeGrussa’s last reported ore reserves were about 10.7Mt over the total life of mine at a serious average grade of about 5% copper and 1.7g/t gold, for a contained ~541,000 tonnes of copper and ~599,000 ounces of gold.
Recent high-grade successes at Tambourah Metals’ nearby Beatty Park South project, about 30km west of Feather Cap, include assays up to 92.2g/t gold, further reinforcing the region’s prospectivity and validating Corazon’s exploration strategy.
The historical drilling, often shallow and unsystematic, indicates that previous desultory efforts failed to define the full extent and potential of the area, which could turn out to be a windfall for Corazon.
The company is planning a systematic exploration program for Feather Cap, including heritage surveys, ongoing data reviews, an initial drilling program designed to test the three priority target areas and drilling contractors are being engaged shortly.
Data mining is one of the most lucrative and certainly the cheapest exploration methods out there and one thing seems certain – the old timers always left gold behind.
As systematic exploration ramps up, 2026 could mark a pivotal year for unlocking value in the Gascoyne and Corazon, with historical hits like 20m at 3.01g/t from just 40m, looks like it may well be a big part of it.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
