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Barton uncovers high-grade gold assays at Area 51 zone, expanding Tunkillia project potential

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Barton Gold ASX BGD mining resources Tunkillia Area 51
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Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has validated a zone of broad and coherent gold mineralisation with shallow high-grade assays during infill drilling at the Area 51 gold zone within the Tunkillia gold project in South Australia.

Drilling started in May 2022 to target the Area 51 zone, which sits 4 kilometres north-west of Tunkillia’s 223 deposit, for potential resource modelling.

Four months into the program, Barton identified a 500-metre gold zone that was subsequently extended to 700m during April 2023.

The combined drilling mapped out a broad (up to 100m) zone of gold mineralisation along strike and suggested a potential higher-grade concentration of mineralisation at the ‘core’ of Area 51.

Drilling highlights

Best intercepts from the infill work were 17m at 3.20 grams per tonne gold from 77m, 45m at 0.92g/t gold from 97m, 8m at 0.99g/t gold from 140m, 10m at 1.22g/t gold from 158m, 28.55m at 1.32g/t gold from 91.45m, 25m at 0.78g/t gold from 125m, 6m at 1.99g/t gold from 140m and 20m at 0.70g/t gold from 163m.

Barton has since drilled 10 diamond holes (for 1748.5m) and nine reverse circulation holes (for 1700m) at Area 51 for a total 3448.5m.

Key new intersections have been reported as 47.6m at 0.48 g/t gold from 48.4m, 21.4m at 1.06g/t gold from 41.6m including 12.4m at 1.54g/t from 44.6m, 24m at 0.93g/t gold from 138m and 28m at 0.74g/t gold from 79m including 6m at 1.93 g/t from 79m.

Expansive potential

Managing director Alex Scanlon said the results validate the expansive potential of Tunkillia’s gold mineralisation.

“Area 51 is the fifth new gold zone we have confirmed within the radius of [the] 223 Deposit during the past two years,” he said.

“Three of these zones have been converted to joint ore reserves committee resources during December 2023 and we are now reviewing Area 51 for the same potential as we continue to build out the project’s mineralised footprint.”

Mr Scanlon said the company would be working with an external consultant to evaluate the conversion of Area 51 mineralisation to a mineral resource estimate to enable Tunkillia’s continued near-term growth.