ASX-listed gold explorer, Surefire Resources has unleashed a second drill rig on the exciting Yidby Road gold prospect at its Yidby Road gold project in Western Australia’s south-west Murchison region. The company’s current RC drilling campaign comes on the back of its recent initial spectacular, thick drill hits of 40 metres at an average grade of 3.01 grams per tonne gold from 24m including 4m at 26.57 g/t, and 56m at 1.97 g/t from 44m including 4m at 14.47 g/t.
Other stand-out intersections from Surefire’s maiden 20-hole RC drilling program late last year were 36m grading an average 1.51 g/t from 32m including 5m at 5.86 g/t, 17m going 1.74 g/t from 51m including 4m at 5.13 g/t, and 16m at 1.51 g/t from 50m including 4m at 4.18 g/t.
The follow-up round of drilling at Yidby Road – consisting of up to 40 holes totalling up to 6,000m – is aimed at extending the gold mineralisation intersected by the earlier drilling. Those notable intercepts came from an east-dipping, auriferous zone straddling the boundary between sheared ultramafic and mafic rocks and a large felsic “porphyry” intrusion.
Perth-based Surefire says that so far, the gold mineralised zone at Yidby Road has only been probed for a 150m strike length and to a shallow depth of less than 100m.
Latest drilling has intersected the mineralised structure and felsic porphyry at depth and to the north of the earlier drilling, the company says. Significantly, the mineralisation remains open in all directions, it added.
The second rig will be testing for extensions of the mineralised zone at depth and to the south-west, targeting what the company calls a “doubly plunging zone” – or a zone that folds in different directions – potentially extending both to the north-west and south-east, Surefire says.
Surefire Resources Managing Director, Vladimir Nikolaenko said: “Now that the second rig has commenced at Yidby Road we will be able to accelerate this very exciting program. Drilling has already intersected extensions of the mineralised zone at depth and to the north and we look forward to the first results within weeks.”
According to Surefire, historical aircore drilling encountered gold mineralisation across a 400m area to the west of the company’s recently intersected zone. It says soil sampling results indicate the anomalous corridor may extend for at least a further 400m to the north-west.
Surefire notes this corresponds to a major structural corridor identified through interpretation of gravity imagery that continues to the north-west and south-east of the drilled Yidby Road mineralisation.
The company says it will look to test these targets with additional aircore drilling.
The 114-square-kilometre Yidby Road project area within the southern portion of the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt is surrounded by several significant gold projects including Minjar, Kirkalocka, Mount Gibson and Rothsay, all within 70km of Yidby Road.
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