Surefire Resources is eyeing a rapid return to drilling at its Yidby Road gold prospect in WA, following recent outstanding results from the discovery which included an imposing 56 metres at 1.97 grams per tonne gold from only 44m down-hole. The company is currently putting the finishing touches on a second 40-hole, 6,000m drilling campaign which will test the down-dip and down-plunge extensions to the discovery and will look to further define the high-grade gold mineralisation at depth.
The drilling at Yidby Road has previously delineated a wealth of shallow gold intercepts associated with an intrusive porphyry unit. Intersections from the campaign completed in late 2020 included an impressive 40m at 3.01 g/t gold, hosting 4m at 26.57 g/t gold from only 24m and 36m at 1.51 g/t gold, hosting 5m at 5.86 g/t gold from 32m down-hole.
Surefire Resources Managing Director, Vladimir Nikolaenko said: “We are looking forward to re-starting the drilling program at Yidby Road, aimed at expanding and defining this significant new gold discovery.
“This next stage of drilling will target immediate extensions of the exceptionally thick and relatively high-grade gold zones both at depth and along strike to the northwest and southeast.
“We will also be testing the other gold bearing structures within this wide corridor of gold mineralisation, that may continue for up to 5km within the Surefire tenements.”
Surefire’s Yidby gold project lies 320km north-east of Perth in the resurgent Murchison Mineral Province of Western Australia. The project is accessed via the Great Northern Highway and shares the terrane with a plethora of operating mines and discoveries including the world-class Golden Grove copper-zinc mine located 60km to the north-west and the 1.7 million-ounce Mt Gibson gold mining camp, which lies only 30km to the south.
Yidby also appears to sit on the same structure that hosts the dormant Mt Gibson gold mine and seemingly hosts a similar style of geology and mineralisation to the previously mined ore bodies within the gold and silver-rich system at Gibson.
The company’s Yidby tenure covers over 110 square kilometres of the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt and has been the subject of limited gold exploration over the past two decades, presenting an exceptional opportunity for Surefire. The project hosts three key target areas including the Cashens Find, Delaney Well and Yidby Road prospects. All three host artisanal mine workings with associated anomalous surface geochemistry and ore-grade intercepts in the sparse, shallow drilling, which add further weight to the targets as the company looks to recommence drilling in the coming weeks.
First-pass results from Yidby Road have lit a fire under the company’s exploration program with Surefire now champing at the bit to start kicking up dust at the prospect in 2021. The planned 40-hole reverse circulation drilling program is set to extend the thick intercepts of shallow gold mineralisation at depth, both down dip and down plunge, whilst also extending the 400m wide, multi-lode gold system along strike.
Presently, drilling over the Yidby Road system has only tested the discovery along 200m of strike and down to around 100m below surface, leaving plenty of room for the discovery to grow as the company jumps back into drilling in the coming weeks.
However, with the gold-bearing structure at Yidby Road now outlined over more than 5km of strike, and a potential parallel structure nearby at Cashens Find, Surefire may quickly find itself tugging on the tail of a tiger in this under-explored terrane.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
