Augustus fires up the rig for maiden WA gold tilt
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Andrew Todd
Augustus Minerals has begun reverse circulation drilling at the Music Well gold project in Leonora, Western Australia; This marks the first test of the project and its Clifton East target.
The program targets a challenging soil gold and boulder anomaly in a pristine region within favorable structural features.
The company said its 11-hole program for 1,100 meters of drilling will explore beneath promising outcropping quartz veins to test the underlying geology of its 950-metre-long high-grade gold target.
Drilling is expected to be completed within a week, with samples sent to the Kalgoorlie laboratory for gold analysis and results expected in early April.
‘We are excited to drill the first holes on the Clifton East project; A target no one has penetrated before.’
Augustus Minerals Exploration General Manager James Warren
The campaign follows a series of surface exploration victories that have consistently placed Clifton East at the top of Augustus’ priorities.
In particular, boulder samples taken from quartz veins exposed to the surface returned grades of up to 50.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold across the potential zone, giving a glimpse of what might lie below.
James Warren, managing director of exploration at Augustus Minerals, said: “We are excited to drill the first holes in the Clifton East area, a challenging soil, rock and structural target that no one has drilled before. Along with large areas requiring further exploration in this underexplored part of the Northern Gold Fields, we have several other prospects lined up for drilling.”
The broader Eastern Goldfields setting adds weight to the story with the presence of more than 28 million ounces of gold historically produced from the Leonora belt.
Music Well is joined by established operations including Vault Minerals’ Darlot mine to the north, the 5 million-ounce King of the Hills and Northern Star’s Wonder Deeps to the west, and Genesis Minerals’ Leonora operations to the southwest.
Despite the region’s popularity, Augustus managed to acquire tenure rights to more than 1,240 square kilometers in the area, where regional fault systems were interpreted to have channeled mineralizing fluids from neighboring gold camps into his territory.
Recent reviews of state geological data have highlighted sanukitoid-style intrusions, a rock type associated with several significant Goldfields deposits, within the project area.
The company says the interpretation is consistent with lead elements identified in Augustus’ sample, including gold associated with molybdenum, tellurium, bismuth and tungsten, and reinforces the presence of high-grade veins along key structural trends.
Clifton East alone has nearly a kilometer of mapped veining; Samples of average gram gold in the region and modified granite between the veins also show high values.
Narrow veins often contain pyrite or iron ore material, are steeply subducted, and are intermittently exposed beneath shallow overburden.
Beyond Clifton East, the target pipeline at Music Well includes soil anomaly extensions at the company’s Dodds and St Patricks prospects, as well as nugget trends at the Golden Dingo target that warrant closer scrutiny.
The second feather in the company’s line-up is overseas at the high-potential Mt Kare gold project in Papua New Guinea.
Although Mt Kare has been in the permitting process for some time, this project, which is said to have cost approximately $125 million in the region, is a much more advanced project. Augustus says the area hosts a reported but non-JORC resource of 42.5 million tonnes at 1.54 g/t gold and 13.5 g/t silver, equating to 2.11 million ounces of gold and 18.4 million ounces of silver, making it a seriously attractive prize.
Looking ahead, analysis results from existing drillings are expected to refine targets and potentially trigger follow-up programs, while the second phase of soil sampling aims to identify additional anomalies under cover.
Augustus laid the foundation for his promising program through ground-based boot work and high-quality rock fragments. The next part is now based on the drill bit that defines reality.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
