Exploration begins for newly-listed Rafaella Resources at Sandstone gold project

Newly-listed explorer Rafaella Resources (ASX: RFR) has commenced a maiden soil geochemistry program at its wholly-owned Sandstone gold project, 640km northeast of Perth in Western Australia.

Sandstone consists of one granted exploration licence (E53/1920, over 214 square kilometres) and one tenement application (E57/1055, over 45sqkm), both considered prospective for gold.

Rafaella acquired 100% of the project from Topdrill this year and plans to progress the under-explored asset through to development.

“Limited drilling and exploration [has been completed] to date, representing an excellent opportunity for Rafaella to recognise the potential of this area,” the company said in its prospectus prior to listing.

Prospective location

The Sandstone project comprises 250km of exploration licences in the Gum Creek greenstone belt adjacent to the Gum Creek project held by Horizon Gold (ASX: HRN), with E53/1920 located along the north-western boundary and E57/1055 along the southern boundary.

The Gum Creek belt is similar in structure, lithology and stratigraphy to the other greenstone belts within the Southern Cross province of the region’s Archaean Yilgarn Block.

Sandstone contains extensions to structures which host mineralisation within the Gum Creek project, with prospectivity demonstrated by the presence of historical workings and gold-in-soil anomalies.

Mining and production history of the Gum Creek project have shown widespread gold occurrence in the region and significant potential for further discoveries.

Various targets including historic gold workings and soil anomalies have been defined at Sandstone by former operators and remain inconclusive.

Chunks of the project area, despite covering favourable structure and geology, remain unexplored.

ASX listing

Rafaella Resources was incorporated as an unlisted public company in November 2017 for the purpose of acquiring interests in cobalt, copper and gold development projects.

Officially admitted to the ASX in July, the company plans to apply approximately $1.6 million of funds raised from its initial public offering to conduct exploration and assessment activities over the next two years at Sandstone.

The investment represents 28.40% of total funds raised from the IPO.

Rafaella said initial exploration will consist of first pass rotary air blast or aircore drilling across the Gidgee and Bolger Well shear zones, extending from the Gum Creek project, and surrounding areas to confirm and validate stratigraphic and alteration targets.

Bottom of hole samples will also be collected for multi-element analysis.

Reverse circulation and diamond drilling will be completed on targets identified from initial holes and surveys.

At midday, shares in Rafaella Resources were steady at $0.20.