Okapi Resources is onto extensive gold anomalism at its Lake Johnson project east of Norseman in WA. Soil sampling across the company’s Mt Day gold prospect has thrown up three priority gold targets, the largest of which covers close to 2,000 metres of strike. Management is now planning further sampling across the targets as it looks to drill test them in the coming months.
Okapi Resources is onto extensive gold anomalism at its Lake Johnson project east of Norseman in WA. Soil sampling across the company’s Mt Day gold prospect has thrown up three priority gold targets, the largest of which covers close to 2,000 metres of strike. Management is now planning further sampling across the targets as it looks to drill test them in the coming months.
The budding gold explorer has recently completed a program of soil sampling across its northern tenement holding at Lake Johnson, with 520 samples taken on a 400m by 50m grid designed to infill and extend the surface geochemical sampling programs undertaken by previous explorers.
Sampling has successfully confirmed previous results and extended the surface anomaly to the north. Field teams also noted shearing in the sub-cropping stratigraphy through the prospect area which potentially points to an underlying gold-bearing structure in the bedrock, according to the company. Okapi is now planning detailed infill sampling on a 100m by 25m grid across the priority anomalies and will also undertake a ground magnetic survey across the prospect to help delineate the structural controls on the emerging gold discovery.
The Mt Day project is located less than 10km east of the dormant Maggie Hayes and Emily Ann nickel mines and covers more than 100 square kilometres of underexplored Archean Lake Johnson greenstone Belt.
The Lake Johnston terrane is strategically situated between the famed Southern Cross greenstone belt to the west, which hosts multiple economic nickel, gold and lithium occurrences and the Norseman belt to the east, which is arguably one of the premier multi-commodity mineral terranes in Australia.
Interestingly, whilst the Lake Johnson greenstones hosts two nickel mines, in addition to a number of lithium and vanadium prospects, the terrane has yet to produce an economic gold discovery, making it something of an oddity in the WA goldfields.
The company’s project is comprised of two tenements, the southern tenement being a wholly owned application which is presently advancing towards approval with the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, whilst the northern tenement is a joint venture with Lithium Australia, with Okapi currently earning a 75 per cent holding in the granted lease. It is the northern tenement that has been the subject of the current work program.
Okapi’s Mt Day gold discovery was uncovered utilising an innovative mix of forensic exploration and data mining. The company has successfully compiled an array of historical data which initially outlined a broad gold-in-soil anomaly extending over more than 10km of strike. The subsequent field program identified artisanal workings associated with the Mt Day anomalies which have returned rock chip samples grading over 10 g/t gold.
Historical wide-spaced drilling across the prospect area has also returned high-grade gold mineralisation including an impressive intercept of 2m at 11.04 g/t gold from only 26m below surface. The company is now looking to further define the various surface anomalies for drill testing in the course of the current field season.
Okapi has joined a growing clique of ASX explorers and developers looking to stamp their mark on the overlooked Lake Johnson greenstone belt, with other notable players holding tenure across the terrane including Poseidon Nickel, Element 25 and Lefroy Exploration.
With the company now putting the finishing touches to its proposed infill sampling and ground geophysical surveys across the Mt Day tenure and gold simmering along at around US$1,850 per ounce, Okapi is looking to turn out a bumper field season as it puts boots on ground at its projects in the resurgent goldfields of WA and NSW.
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