Godolphin, Orange Minerals strike gold in NSW

Fresh assays from phase two diamond drilling at Godolphin Resources and joint venture partner Orange Minerals’ Calarie gold project in New South Wales have validated a suite of compelling hits from a historical probe.

The feature strike from the five-hole, 1170m program was a 2.4m intersection at 15.69 grams per tonne gold from 45m, inside of a larger 10.6 section grading 5.63 g/t from 39m.

Other notable results include 2.6m at 0.76 g/t from 117.5m and 1m going 0.71 g/t gold from a depth of 2911m. In addition to the precious metal scores, the latest round of assays also contained whiffs of anomalous silver running up to 6.7 g/t.

Three of the five holes were sunk beneath old workings and struck the same shear zone identified in the shallow, historical programs.

Despite the three holes not offering up significant gold, the company says the results suggest the site’s mineralisation is linked to south plunging shoots – targets the duo now plans on locating.

Future programs will also vector in on an area along strike where previous explorers intersected shallow gold mineralisation.

The company’s latest program was wrapped up in September and designed to follow up a successful phase one campaign completed in December 2021. The two programs were aimed at validating historical results and extending bores that ended in mineralisation.

Significant results from the December program include a 5m intercept at 13.5 g/t gold from 143m in one hole and a 14m hit grading 3.4 g/t gold from 112m in another. Other notable strikes include a 1m strike at 48.77 grams per tonne gold from 42m, inside a longer 21m going 4.5 g/t gold from 34m.

Godolphin’s Calarie project is an earn-in joint venture operation with gold-copper explorer Orange Minerals.

As part of the tie-up Orange can earn an up to a 70 per cent stake in the project through an exploration outlay of $1.5 million.

The NSW-based project sits in an area renowned for its gold, copper and rare earths mineralisation known as the Lachlan Fold Belt.

The zone’s productivity has seen a suite of heavy-hitting miner’s peg ground adjacent to Calarie including Fortescue Metals Group, Newmont Corporation and Sandfire Resources.

Notable gold plays in the region include CMOC’s 2.9 million ounce North Parkes mine and Alkane Resources’ 1.8 million ounce Tomingley operation.

According to Godolphin, the immediate area around Calarie was once an underground gold mine that produced roughly 39,000 ounces at a striking grade of 22 g/t between the late 1890s to 1908.

Outside of Calarie, Godolphin has its foot on several supplementary projects in the district including Copper Hill East, Lewis Ponds, Yeoval and the Narraburra rare earths project.

NSW-based Godolphin believes Narraburra is one of Australia’s largest, rare earth resources and management believes the tenure could also house a combination of supplementary commodities including lithium and rare metals.

The operation has been deemed to hold a “major” rare earths deposit by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Australian Trade and Investment Commission has also listed Narraburra as a “critical minerals project”.

The allocation means Godolphin could lean on the Government for funding, information and support as work at the project ramps up.

The company recently launched a 25-hole diamond drilling program at the site to modernise the project’s historical JORC 2004 resource and align it with contemporary 2012 standards.

Narraburra currently hosts a rare earths resource totalling 73.2 million tonnes.

With both gold and rare earths on the cards in NSW Godolphin may soon find itself with plenty of news flow as work around the two projects gathers steam.

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