Barton Gold kicks off drilling at newly-defined Area 51 prospect
Barton Gold’s 2,300m RC drilling program will focus on a 500m long gold zone within the Tunkillia project.
South Australian explorer Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) has kicked off drilling at the newly-defined Area 51 prospect within the Tunkillia gold project in Western Australia.
The reverse circulation program is expected to comprise 2,300 metres of drilling over a two-week timeframe, focusing on the prospect’s 500m-long gold zone.
It follows recent extensional drilling at the 223 Deposit, where 90% of historical drilling was completed at a gold price below US$800 to inform the current 965,000-ounce resource estimate.
Assays at the Main Deeps, South Plunge and Southern targets returned shallow high-grade results up to 23.5 grams per tonne gold while multiple assays indicated 500m of potentially continuous, broad mineralisation below the resource pit shell.
Depth extensions and regional targets have been poorly tested.
Recent results from the 223 Deposit campaign include: 5m at 9g/t gold from 339m; 1m at 23.5g/t gold from 146m; 20m at 0.88g/t gold from 257m; 10m at 2.52g/t gold from 275m; and 32m at 1.22g/t gold from 322m.
Other assays were: 9m at 1.74g/t gold from 296m; 14m at 1.07g/t gold from 312m; 9m at 1.38g/t gold from 309m; 17m at 1.05g/t gold from 335m; and 9m at 2.2g/t gold from 225m.
Zones of mineralisation
Barton managing director Alex Scanlon said the results show significant zones of mineralisation are likely to exist in poorly tested areas outside of, and below, the resource block model.
“These assays demonstrate 223 Deposit’s growth potential and emphasise Tunkillia’s historical under-exploration,” he said.
“We have recently defined three new satellite gold zones near the deposit on the Yarlbrinda Shear, including on the other side of the shear, and we still have more than 20km of untested strike to evaluate.”
Tunkillia investment
Barton is the first company to invest significantly in the Tunkillia project area since before 2008, when the gold price was below US$800/oz.
The project’s total mineralised footprint has grown over the past 24 months through the discovery of the 223 North, Area 191 and Area 51 gold zones.
Area 51 represents a 4km step out of Tunkillia’s mineralised footprint.
Over the past 20 years, there has been limited drilling completed outside 223 Deposit.