WA-focused Torian Resources has discovered new gold zones at Mt Stirling in WA’s prolific Leonora gold district with hits including 4m grading 3.01 grams per tonne from surface. Drilling continues on the large Mt Sterling gold system as the company closes in on a resource update. New high priority regional targets are also to be drill-tested.
Torian’s 74 square kilometre Mt Stirling tenure, 40km north-west of Leonora, abuts ASX-listed gold producer Red 5’s 4.1-million-ounce King of the Hills project area.
Other new results that will feed into Torian’s upcoming JORC resource update include a bonanza 1m of 20.48 grams per tonne from 241m depth within a 4m intercept grading 10.72 g/t from 240m in the Hanging Wall zone and 1m at 1.2 g/t from 49m in the newly discovered Eastern mineralised zone.
The Mt Stirling project currently has about 50,000 ounces of inferred gold resources in the Mt Stirling and Stirling Well areas within the northern Stirling Block of tenements. They adjoin the southern Diorite Block, which sits closest to Red 5’s major new project.
The existing Mt Stirling resource estimate is based on 26 historical holes and the recent drilling campaigns by Torian have added a further 55 holes to be incorporated into the upcoming resource update, covering some 760m of the 1.16km interpreted strike length at the project.
The latest high-grade gold intercepts are the final results to be included in the upcoming resource estimate.
Torian aims to complete at least 50,000m of resource and discovery drilling in 2021.
Drilling is ongoing at Stirling Well with 12 new holes encountering quartz and sulphide zones beneath existing resources. A further 20 holes for 3,200m targeting mineralisation at depth are scheduled to be drilled at Stirling Well.
The drilling focus then swings to the Diorite Block. Numerous small-scale and high-grade historical mines are charted in the block, including the Diorite King mine that yielded grades up to an eye-catching 73 grams per tonne gold between 1897 and 1922.
Last year Torian collected 157 soil samples at Diorite that returned high-grade gold values of 5.52 g/t and 3.2 g/t gold adjacent to two historic operations. In total 89 soil samples returned anomalous gold.
Results from 19 drill holes recently completed at Diorite are pending.
Torian plans to release another resource update incorporating new drilling results to market early in the September quarter this year.
Regional exploration is also set to gear up over coming months along four key structural corridors adjacent to known mineralisation at Mt Stirling. Management says the corridors present more than 10km of prospective host stratigraphy and structural setting.
Torian has a substantial ground position at Mt Stirling adjacent to a new large-scale mill that will be operating next year and in a part of the Leonora-Wiluna gold belt currently swarming with drill rigs. With A$3.5 million in the bank at the end of March, it is well placed to deliver on its exploration strategy starting with the much-anticipated resource update to come this month.
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By Matt Birney
