ASX-listed Kalgoorlie gold miner, Horizon Minerals, has cranked out further promising near-surface drill intersections from one of the four core satellite deposits supplementing its advancing Boorara gold project 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Perth-based Horizon recently completed a round of resource extension drilling at the Crake deposit consisting of 10 holes totalling 804m to a depth of 132m, as part of its continuing 70,000m drilling blitz this financial year.
The stand-out intercept from the step-out drilling at Crake was 28m grading 3.37 grams per tonne gold from 32m including 4m at 12.40 g/t from 36m. Other encouraging assays were 8m at 1.85 g/t from 56m, 16m at 1.43 g/t from 56m and 4m at 1.27 g/t from 92m.
Diamond drilling to 100m depth at Crake for ore reserves conversion purposes also returned an intersection of 19.3m at 2.09 g/t from 68m.
Horizon Minerals Managing Director, Jon Price said: “These further excellent drilling results continue to demonstrate the potential scale and quality of Crake and the entire Binduli project area and we are just getting started.”
“The more we drill, the more we find, which gives us great confidence with a 70,000m drill program for FY21 well underway. Further drilling results will continue to be generated as we work towards updated resource estimates and mine design work to feed into the consolidated feasibility study.”
The measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate for Crake, which forms part of the Binduli project area and lies 9km west of Kalgoorlie, currently stands at 1.27 million tonnes going 1.82 g/t for 73,820 ounces of contained gold.
According to the company, the deposit remains open to the north and west. Binduli also takes in the new Coote prospect 700m to the west of Crake.
Horizon says mine optimisation and design studies culminating in ore reserves definition next year has begun. Results from this work pertaining to the Crake deposit will be plugged into the definitive feasibility study, or “DFS” on the proposed development of the overarching Boorara project.
The company intends doing the same for the other key satellite deposits – Teal, Rose Hill and Kalpini – in order to complement the main 507,000-ounce Boorara gold resource. The DFS will consider the viability of the proposed construction of a stand-alone gold processing plant at the Boorara mine site based on an initial five-year mine plan.
Trial mining at three open pits at Boorara has finished and the related toll processing of Boorara ore will continue to generate revenue for Horizon through to January. To date the 2020 trial mining and toll-milling campaign has seen gold production of approximately 2,900 ounces realise total gross revenues of $7.82 million.
In parallel with the Boorara trial, the massive 70,000m drilling assault continues unabated and the company incorporates new resource drilling data to fine-tune geological models.
Horizon is targeting the release of updated mineral resource estimates for Boorara, Binduli/Crake, Teal, Rose Hill and Kalpini in the December 2020 and March 2021 quarters and ore reserves generation in the June 2021 quarter, when the DFS is due.
It also hopes to deliver a maiden gold resource estimate for Coote.
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