Zuleika Gold’s namesake project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields continues to deliver some tantalising results, with aircore drilling across the company’s Paradigm East discovery outlining gold mineralisation along more than 1.8 kilometres of strike. Results from the recent drilling program include 12 metres at 3.3 grams per gold, which includes 4m at 6.0 g/t gold from 72m down-hole, pointing to the deeper potential of the extensive ore system.
The company’s Stage 1 aircore drilling program was designed to infill on an earlier reverse circulation drilling program completed in 2020 and to extend the drill pattern to east along the interpreted strike extensions of the discovery. Zuleika completed 68 holes across the Paradigm target, with more than a third of the drill holes returning intercepts of over 0.1 g/t gold and defining a broad envelope of gold mineralisation, which remains open along strike and at depth.
With the company’s drill pattern extending along more than 1,800m of the target stratigraphy, Zuleika is now designing the second stage of aircore drilling to test the entire interpreted 2,500m strike length of the prospect and to infill on the current drilling in areas of anomalous mineralisation.
Ultimately, the company will look to chase the high-grade gold mineralisation to depth, utilising reverse circulation drilling as its exploration and development program over the prospect continues. Additional high-grade intercepts from previous drilling at Paradigm East include an impressive 24m at 6.39 g/t gold from 28m and 7m at 9.8 g/t gold from 42m down-hole.
Zuleika Gold Managing Director, Annie Guo said:“The high-grade intersections confirmed the presence of hydrothermal gold mineralising fluids along 1.8km of the 2.5km strike tested to date. This gold mineralisation is present both within the weathered zone and fresh primary bedrock, supporting the geological model that the Zuleika Gold technical team developed in 2020. We will continue to test this highly prospective Paradigm East corridor with infill and extended Aircore drilling followed by targeted RC drilling.”
“The Zuleika Shear and parallel shears have delivered more than 20 million ounces of gold from numerous mines over the last 25 years and we remain optimistic that our robust exploration at Paradigm East along the 2.5km east-west structural corridor and on other prospects along the Zuleika Shear will deliver to Zuleika Gold shareholders gold resources suitable for rapid commercial development.”
The Paradigm East discovery forms part of the company’s flagship Zuleika Shear project and is located just 1.5km to the east of Northern Star’s Paradigm gold mine, which boasts a resource of 187,000 ounces of gold grading 6.7 g/t.
The Zuleika Shear project lies 40km to the west-northwest of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Zuleika’s ground holding covers more than 220 square kilometres of the fertile exploration terrane and represents and enviable opportunity for the company.
It hosts a ready-made pipeline of prospects, with the company having already identified more than 40 targets for ongoing evaluation and testing.
Zuleika’s exploration program is underpinned by the wealth of mineralisation surrounding its ground holdings, with the mines and deposits in the region owned by some of the heavyweights of the gold mining sector. Northern Star, Evolution Mining and Zijin Mining own resources totalling more than 20 million ounces of gold across the Zuleika Shear, positioning the region as one of Australia’s most fertile gold terranes.
The company’s tenure covers more than 20km of strike along the fertile Zuleika Shear and its mirror, the under-explored Carnage Shear with priority targets including the Paradigm East, Browns Dam and Castle Hill East discoveries. An ongoing evaluation of Zuleika’s ground is continuing to identify a raft of new structural and geochemical targets for future drill testing.
With drilling across the Zuleika Shear already looking good, the company’s 2021 field season is off to a cracking start and as work continues across its projects in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, it is looking like being an interesting few months ahead as this budding explorer looks to stamp its mark on one of Australia’s richest gold jurisdictions.
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