Brightstar Resources defines high-grade gold extensions at Sandstone hub
- Doug Bright
- 6 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Brightstar Resources’ (ASX: BTR) assays from a further 5300 metres exploration drilling program at its Sandstone gold project in the Western Australian Goldfields include strong gold intercepts up to 6m at 6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 250m. The hits are below the company’s Lord Nelson open pit.
That 6g/t gold intercept includes 1m going 24g/t gold from 250m and follows a separate handsome 20m run at 1.98g/t gold from 212m, which includes 10m assaying 3.07g/t gold from 220m.
Another interval in the same hole gave up 11m assaying 1.49g/t from 235m.
The current Lord Nelson program of 25 reverse circulation drill holes for about 3800m follows Brightstar’s earlier 14-hole, 3700m program which reported results a month ago. That program confirmed high-grade gold continues at depth within the company’s $2500 per ounce optimised pit design.
The Lord Nelson deposit hosts a total resource of 5.6 million tonnes at 1.6g/t gold for 291,000 ounces of gold.
The object of the latest program was to infill drilled mineralisation within the current Lord Nelson conceptual pit shell, optimised at a gold price of $2500 per ounce, and build the necessary hole density to support an indicated resource category.
In addition to the main hits, the Lord Nelson drilling program also intercepted 32m-long runs in two separate holes. The best of the pair yielded 32m assaying 3.44g/t gold from 200m, including 17m running 5.44g/t gold from 215m.
The other hole gave up 32m going 1.22g/t gold from 104m, including 2m at a handy 5.80g/t gold from 106m.
The better hits from Lord Nelson continue with three other intercepts ranging between 10m, 18m and 28m, which have primary grades ranging from 2.5g/t to 2.96g/t.
Two secondary hits were 1m at 13.9g/t gold and 2m going 5.79g/t gold in the 18m and 10m primary intercepts, respectively.
The results reinforce the presence of persistent gold in the Lord Nelson system below and west of the old pit floor and confirm that high-grade gold remains open to depth.
The assay results from the ongoing drilling program at the Sandstone hub continue to be hugely positive. At Lord Nelson, some of the widest, highest-grade intercepts at the deposit have been produced from the base of optimised pit shells, which bodes well for possible future open pit mining operations.
Brightstar Resources Managing Director Alex Rovira
Other results beyond the Lord Nelson work include analyses of recent samples from a small, six-hole, 728m drill program at the Havilah Camp, 2500m southwest of Lord Nelson. Havilah is on the opposite flanks of the ultramafic-granodiorite contact, which likely controls mineralisation at both locations.
Havilah has a current total resource of 1.2Mt at 1.3g/t gold for 54,000 ounces. The company’s modest drilling program targeted the down-plunge extension of mineralisation of the Havilah and the Maninga Marley deposits and followed up on old drilling that reported anomalous gold.
One hole, almost 200m west of the old Havilah main shaft, intercepted gold at about the same depth as the lowest mine level, with an intriguing 3m assaying 11.4g/t gold from 129m, including 1m going 29.5g/t gold from 252m.
That result seems to confirm that emphatic gold grades persist to depth and remain open down-plunge to the northwest of the historic Havilah workings. A previous intercept that gave up 4m at 4.56g/t gold also offered the same hints.
Rovira said the identification of high-grade mineralisation at Havilah could represent new shoots that are untested by deeper drilling, which is an exciting prospect.
The latest results also include significant numbers from the Bull Oak deposit, which has a current resource of 2.5Mt at 1.1g/t gold for 90,000 ounces.
As with Lord Nelson and Havilah, Brightstar’s recent drilling program probed for possible extensions of the deposit below the current mineral resource.
Bull Oak’s mineralisation comprises multiple high-grade quartz reefs within a lower-grade halo surrounding a small local elongated granodioritic intrusive, which measures about 500m and up to 150m wide.
Some of the quartz veining radiates beyond the intrusive into the enclosing mafic wall rocks and high-grade gold may also be encountered at contacts with banded iron formations.
Results from drilling at Bull Oak include 2m at 8.93g/t gold from 112m, including 1m assaying 13.7g/t gold from 112m, included within a broader, unconstrained intercept of 167m running 0.59g/t gold from 11m.
A second hole intercepted 19m running 1.18g/t gold from 177m, including 1m going 10.1g/t gold from 192m, enclosed within a broader, unconstrained 106m intercept averaging 0.6g/t gold from 134m.
Some felsic intrusives at Bull Oak have not been tested by drilling and Brightstar says it is working up exploration programs to include geophysics and drilling to test these targets. The work is part of the company’s effort to continue developing its resource base at the Sandstone hub.
The company is also piecing together the geology and controls on mineralisation at the Bull Oak deposit at Sandstone, which has produced significant high grades from a small program within wide zones of low-grade mineralised granodiorite.
Brightstar says it is pressing on with its fully funded drilling program for the year of more than 130,000m. A reverse circulation rig is drilling at the Indomitable Camp in the Sandstone hub.
In work beyond Sandstone, Brightstar is awaiting the results of a second reverse circulation program it completed in April for about 6000m at its Yunndaga deposit in Menzies hub.
The company is also waiting on analytical results from recently completed drilling from its Cork Tree Well extensional and infill drilling program, within its Laverton hub, and from the Yunndaga infill drilling program at Menzies.
The Laverton hub is a key area for Brightstar. The hub hosts a gold processing plant that is within 75km of all the deposits in the hub environs.
Brightstar is on a serious roll with its drilling metreage output and it seems certain work will stitch together significant discoveries in extensions and new zones as it advances.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au
