Barton Gold targets untested zone at Tarcoola with new exploration drilling program
Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has continued to progress its development plans for the historic Tarcoola mine with the commencement of a new drilling campaign.
Fresh off receiving promising new Tarcoola assay results, Barton has begun a major regional exploration drilling program over previously untested sections of the Lake Labyrinth Shear Zone (LLSZ) at the South Australian project.
The program will begin with a campaign of aircore (AC) drilling spaced at intervals of between 0.5 kilometres and 1km along a 10km-long section of the LLSZ.
Commercialisation pathway
Managing director Alexander Scanlon said the AC program is part of Barton’s range of ongoing activities aimed at bringing Tarcoola to commercialisation.
“We recently upgraded the Perseverance mine’s JORC resources, discovered a new high-grade ‘Tolmer’ gold zone in Tarcoola’s western area and outlined a competitive 130,000-ounce per annum gold operation at the neighbouring Tunkillia gold project,” Mr Scanlon said.
“While incrementally advancing each of these key project areas, we are also now stepping further out along major regional structures with the potential to host the next major discovery on our ground.”
New assay results
The news comes a day after Barton reported the receipt of high-grade assays from the Perseverance mine area confirming additional open-pit gold opportunities.
Barton recently defined a new shallow JORC mineral resource estimate (MRE) of approximately 20,000oz at around 2 grams per tonne of gold in the open-pit floor at Perseverance.
The new assays from ten holes of follow-up drilling undertaken during July have confirmed another pit floor gold zone to the east of the July 2024 MRE block model.
New mineralisation encountered in this drilling is shallow, providing Barton with confidence it can increase the total number of gold ounces that could be recovered from the same development profile.
Modelling review
The company is also reviewing modelled, but unclassified, extensions for potential follow-up drilling.
In late August, Barton Gold’s Tarcoola picture expanded with the receipt of further high-grade assay results from the Tolmer discovery.
The Tolmer find confirmed the first significant test of Tarcoola’s new structural model, demonstrating the project’s broader potential to host multiple shallow, high-grade gold zones.