Estrella Resources reports bonanza 234.7g/t assay from drilling at Munda gold project
Drilling at Estrella’s Munda project returned two gold intersections with bonanza grades.
Diversified exploration and development company Estrella Resources (ASX: ESR) has reported high-grade mineralised zones containing bonanza intersections from a drilling program at its wholly-owned Munda gold project near Kambalda in Western Australia.
Assays from two diamond holes drilled north of the Munda pit returned “very high” grades and a bonanza 234.7 grams per tonne gold from an “exceptional broad high-grade zone” of 16m at 21.6g/t gold including 9m at 35.9g/t gold.
Drilling commenced in July and was designed to target and define interpreted high-grade plunging gold shoots at depth, away from the main pit zone.
Estrella said the results to date had exceeded expectations.
“This will have a significant impact on future drill targeting, allow an update to the [current] mineral resource, provide confidence in 3D geological models and allow robust economic evaluations to occur for the first time on this project,” the company said.
Drilling encountered multiple zones of gold mineralisation, occurring mainly within the upper ultramafic and below the nickel sulphide mineralisation within the lower basaltic unit.
The mineralisation has been associated with zones of silicified and bleached or chlorite altered rocks surrounding weak to moderate quartz vein or veinlet development.
“The primary mineralised gold zones characteristically contain narrow stockwork veinlets with weak-moderate alteration, returning elevated bismuth, cesium, potassium, molybdenum, rubidium, strontium, tellurium and tungsten geochemistry,” the company said.
“This indicates a granitic source to the mineralising fluids rather than a classic shear-hosted origin.”
Next steps
Further analysis of the structural and mineralisation controls, as well as alteration mapping, has been planned.
Geochemical modelling of multi-element data will also be employed to vector towards the primary source of mineralising fluids in order to more accurately define the next stage of drill targeting.
Last month, Estrella reached an agreement with Neometals (ASX: NMT) subsidiary Mt Edwards Lithium Pty Ltd to divest its nickel rights in the Munda project.
At midday, shares in Estrella Resources were up 45.45% to $0.016.