Dreadnought Resources (ASX: DRE) has reported high-grade gold hits at three separate targets along the Minga Bar shear zone within the Mangaroon project in Western Australia.
First-pass drilling of 28 holes for a total 2,313 metres confirmed mineralisation across 7 kilometres of strike at Cullen’s Find, Midnight Star, and Midday Moon, with assays from 1m-split samples upgrading the results from previously-reported 3m gold composites.
Highlights were 25m at 1 gram per tonne gold from 22m including 12m at 1.4g/t from 25m, and 2m at 4.4g/t gold from 81m including 1m at 8.7g/t from 81m.
The results – the thickest intercepts to date at Mangaroon – highlight the potential for bulk gold deposits in addition to the existing narrow, high-grade gold.
Gold System Focus
Dreadnought’s initial focus at the 5,000-square-kilometre Mangaroon project is on the gold system situated over the shear zone between the crustal scale Minga Bar and Edmund Faults with multiple phases of intrusions.
The area contains the 12km by 6km Bordah and 50km-long High Range prospects, where limited historical exploration identified outcropping gold and base metal mineralisation.
Seven reverse circulation holes for a total 352m were drilled into an outcropping vein swarm along the Minga Bar shear zone in 1986, with only 126m of samples submitted for analysis.
These returned a best intercept of 3m at 6.5g/t gold from 26m including 1m at 16.2g/t from 28m.
The zone has since been devoid of any exploration work, and Dreadnought has defined Midnight Star and Midday Moon with no previous exploration at either target.
Maiden Drilling Program
Dreadnought will commence a maiden drilling program across all three targets at Minga Bar in April on completion of a similar campaign at the Metzke’s Find prospect within the company’s Illaara gold-iron ore-volcanogenic massive sulphide project near Kalgoorlie.
The company is deploying modern geochemical and geophysical techniques to explore for mineralisation under shallow cover in an effort to generate new prospects with stronger and larger signatures than the region’s historical mines.
“Finding gold in the structure [at Minga Bar] is the breakthrough, and following it along structure becomes systematic,” managing director Dean Tuck said.
“We believe this mineralised structure continues to the north and south undercover, with extensional reverse circulation drilling our focus for follow-up exploration,” he said.
“Adding high-grade gold from Midnight Star underscores the significant potential within the Minga Bar shear zone—only one of our camp scale targets at Mangaroon, covering approximately 80km of strike within our tenure, [and] truly a corridor of opportunity that could hold multiple gold discoveries.”
