Discovery rallies interest in eastern Goldfields

Recent drilling by Goldfields Kalgoorlie Limited has discovered a major new high-grade gold deposit at the Raleigh prospect (previously known as Romeo), only 2.5 kilometres southof the company’s Kundana gold operation.

Numerous high-grade intercepts of gold mineralisation at Raleigh have outlined an ore body of nearly 600 metres in length and 400m in depth, with the deposit remaining open to the south and at depth.

Goldfields managing director Peter Cassidy said estimates from a section of the deposit that lies within the granted mining lease belonging to Goldfields has an indicated and inferred resource of 300,000 tonnes grading at 18.2 grams/tonne for 176,000 contained ounces of gold.

“Raleigh is looking like a high-grade ore source for Kundana, similar to Strzelecki,” Dr Cassidy said.

“We are targeting 500,000 ounces in the next stage (of drilling).”

The find lies about 22km north-west of Kalgoorlie and includes ground recently acquired by Goldfields for the sum of $40 million during its takeover of Gilt-Edged Mining NL.

Gilt-Edged had held the tenement in joint venture with Rand Mining NL and Tribune Resources NL.

The Raleigh deposit is on trend with the Strzelecki structure and deposit from which Goldfields has mined 365,000oz of gold up to the end of June 2000.

A Goldfields spokesman in Sydney told Business News that further drilling is expected to confirm a “substantial gold resource” during the next few months.

He said the company was confident of achieving a resource of 500,000oz of gold – worth an estimated $2.4 billion at today’s gold prices.

Goldfields Kalgoorlie, a subsidiary of Sydney-based Goldfields Limited, made its first gold discoveries on its 100-per cent owned Raleigh ground, and then extended drilling south along strike into the east Kundana joint venture ground which had been secured from Gilt-Edged.

The company has advised that results of drilling on this sector will be announced in the next quarterly report.