Barton Gold unveils new mineralisation at Tunkillia project
Barton Gold (ASX:BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has again significantly extended its historic Tunkillia gold project in South Australia with around 300 metres of mineralised strike added near the southern end of the main 223 deposit.
This follows the recent identification of a similar area of new strike at the northern end of the 223 deposit.
Managing director Alex Scanlon said the intersection of 55m at 1.52 grams per tonne of gold in a new zone offset from 223 deposit’s main strike was a real highlight of the latest assay results.
“We are encouraged to see further broad zones of mineralisation in a key target at the southern end of the 223 deposit,” Mr Scanlon said.
“Combined with last week’s assays from the northern end of the 223 deposit, we have added a total of approximately 600m of new mineralisation along strike, or around 30% of the April 2023 JORC [Joint Ore Reserves Committee] resource footprint.”
New 223 deposit modelling program
As with the mineralisation highlighted to the north of the 223 deposit, drilling results have indicated that the newly identified approximately 300m of mineralisation identified near the southern end of the 223 deposit is offset from the main strike trend of the April 2023 JORC mineral resources block model.
Barton is currently undertaking an update of modelling of the 223 deposit with the aim of confirming additional low-cost growth in the long-term JORC resources base.
That modelling will include the recently reported extensions of the 223 deposit’s mineralised strike.
The new modelling exercise will include all the new drilling information along with the results of the updated JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). That April 2023 upgrade for the 223 deposit estimated it holds 1.15 million ounces of gold, for 38 million tonnes at 0.94 g/t.
Notably, the update confirmed the addition of 189,000 oz of gold at a cost of only ~A$12/oz.
Follow-up drilling
Barton followed up the MRE update announcement by kicking off drilling at 223 deposit extensions and regional targets in early September.
In mid-November Barton announced promising reverse circulation (RC) drilling assays from the 223 North, Northern 223, and Central 223 targets, with around 12,500m RC and 1,400m of diamond drilling (DD) undertaken in late October.
That work was designed to test 223 deposit extensions, satellite gold zones at 223 North, as well as testing Areas 191 and 51 and a new target southeast of the 223 deposit.
Combined current and historical drilling assay results indicate bulk mineralisation is potentially amenable to open pit mining.
Successful year on a number of fronts
The Tunkillia campaign followed on from a highly successful period of activity when Barton also undertook a new exploration program at its Tarcoola gold project, recovered millions in gold from a clean-out of its Central Gawler mill, listed on the US OTCQB market and completed an oversubscribed capital raising.
At Tarcoola, Barton completed a regional seismic program designed to identify potential repeats of the high-grade Perseverance mine’s mineralisation in preparation for RC and DD testing during early 2024.
It also completed three diamond drilling holes for a total of approximately 600m on the Perseverance mine’s southern extension to assist geological interpretation and modelling in support of a potential mineral resources upgrade.