Alloy Resources progresses exploration programs ahead of Horse Well drilling

Alloy Resources (ASX: AYR) has been progressing with exploration programs at its Ophara cobalt project in New South Wales and the Horse Well gold project in Western Australia, ahead of a planned drilling campaign.

The Perth-based explorer today updated investors on the completion of an infill soil sampling program at Ophara, with 604 samples collected for multi-element analysis.

An extension of this soil sampling is currently being undertaken and is expected to be completed within the next fortnight. Results will come through in batches over the coming weeks, Alloy said.

At the Horse Well project, two field reconnaissance trips were conducted over the last month to review potential extensions to the Coralie Jean high-grade quartz discovery made by acreage neighbour, Renegade Exploration (ASX: RNX).

In addition, Alloy has been reviewing regional targets along the Celia Shear, north of the Coralie Jean prospect, and is planning extensive soil sampling in “areas of interest”.

A 1500m reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign is scheduled to begin at Horse Well at the end of next week. The program will comprise the drilling of two key prospects, Warmblood and Dusk Til Dawn.

Alloy had previously drilled the Dusk Til Dawn prospect in 2014 and 2015, yielding gold intersections including 16m grading at 7.2 grams per tonne of gold from a depth of 109m, including 6m at 16.3g/t of gold from 116m. Another RC hole returned 65m at 2.6g/t gold from 50m, including 13m at 8.17g/t gold from 50m.

The company has theorised that the high-grade mineralisation at Dusk Til Dawn is an intersection shoot, and there may be a higher-grade core. A number of RC holes have been planned to test this hypothesis.

At the Warmblood prospect, a mineralised structure has been well defined as extending over a strike length of 700m, although it has only been drilled to a depth of less than 100m. Alloy said it planned to drill a number of RC holes to test for higher grade shoots within this structure.

According to Alloy, field crews will commence work next Monday, with two more teams on site later that week to kick off the drilling campaign together with regional and infill soil sampling programs.

Shares in Alloy had shot up 12.5% to A$0.009 on the news by midday trade.