A maiden drill program has arrived for Corazon Mining at its Feather Cap gold project in Western Australia’s highly prospective Bryah Basin, with a 2000-metre reverse circulation (RC) campaign designed to chase down some impressive historic high-grade extensions at the long-forgotten tenure.
The 20-hole initiative will test the company's Wembley prospect, where previous drilling returned shallow intercepts including a hefty 7m hit running 6.21 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from just 6m downhole.
Corazon says its program at Wembley is designed to test two key components of the gold system. Firstly, it will step out up to 250m along strike and beneath the historic Wembley mining lease workings to see if the known shallow, high-grade zones are part of a larger, continuous mineralised system.
Secondly, the drilling will test the broader Wembley structural corridor, an interpreted regional structure that has seen limited systematic drilling to date. A previous intercept of 8m at 1.14g/t gold from 17m on this broader structure suggests mineralisation isn’t just confined to the old mining lease area.
The old Wembley mine itself has a storied past, with unverified production records between 1926 and 1935 suggesting about 1050 ounces of gold were pulled from just 1510 tonnes of dirt. That implies a stunning recovered grade of around 21g/t gold, a figure that would make any modern-day miner sit up and take notice.
The move comes at a time when the Bryah gold region is buzzing with new gold activity, as producers look to breathe new life into old goldfields against a backdrop of strong bullion prices and active regional consolidation. Of course proximity to established infrastructure can be a game-changer for a shallow, gold resource and Corazon’s ground sits just 40km from Westgold Resources’ Fortnum processing operations to its north.
The drill rig is mobilising to site this week, with the program expected to take about two weeks and first assays anticipated for October.
Corazon insists its 154-square-kilometre Feather Cap project is no one-trick pony, with several other high-priority targets already identified, including its Jigsaw-Durack East prospect, which sits adjacent to Great Boulder Resources’ 112,000-ounce Durack gold deposit. The prospect itself has already delivered historical hits up 20-metres thick and running 3.01g/t gold from 40m.
While the upcoming drilling at Feather Cap provides some near-term discovery potential, the company’s recent acquisition of the Chalice gold project in WA’s prolific Higginsville district has landed as an advanced WA development asset for Corazon.
The acquisition has handed the company a granted mining lease with an existing JORC-compliant mineral resource of 191,000 ounces of gold at a solid grade of 2.74g/t, with the mineralisation importantly, remaining open along strike and at depth, pointing to clear potential for resource growth.
Corazon says its real allure lies in the numbers behind the numbers. The company says the current resource was calculated using a conservative gold price of just US$1700 per ounce. With bullion now trading at around US$4400 an ounce (A$6250), there appears to be a significant opportunity for a near-term upgrade of the resources' boundaries. A simple rejigging of the pit shell and cut-off grades against today’s much higher gold price could potentially add fresh ounces that were previously considered uneconomic, essentially hiding in plain sight.
With the drill bit about to turn at high-grade Wembley and a clear path to growing its Chalice resource, Corazon has two irons in the WA gold fire. The upcoming Feather Cap assays will provide the first real test of its strategy to breathe new life into some of WA’s sleeping goldfields.
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By Andrew Todd
