Solstice Minerals makes shallow gold hits at Bunjarra and Box Soak targets
Solstice Minerals (ASX: SLS) has intersected shallow gold mineralisation in follow-up drilling at the Bunjarra and Box Soak prospects within its Yarri gold project in Western Australia.
The campaign delivered a standout high-grade intercept in composite sampling of 10 metres at 3.61 grams per tonne gold from 41m, including 5m at 6.48g/t gold.
Gold intercepts of greater than 0.5g/t were also returned around the saprolite-bedrock interface in multiple locations over at least 2 kilometres along strike, supporting the company’s belief that Bunjarra can deliver significant new gold mineralisation.
Aircore program
Aircore work at Bunjarra has focused on the south-eastern portion of the licence, targeting strike extensions of a magnetic and structural corridor that has seen a significant gold drill-out in the adjoining tenure immediately to the south.
The target will be subject to fast-tracked reverse circulation drilling to test for a potential bedrock gold source below the leached weathered profile.
Bunjarra lies approximately 70km north-west of Northern Star Resources’ (ASX: NST) Porphyry mining centre and 20km east of Saturn Metals’ (ASX: STN) Apollo Hill gold deposit.
Exploration strategy
Solstice managing director Nick Castleden said the intercepts strongly validate a proof-of-concept exploration strategy to test litho-structural gold targets in soil-covered terrain throughout the Yarri project.
“These results confirm we have a genuine bedrock target at Bunjarra that warrants immediate reverse circulation drilling to identify the underlying fresh-rock mineralisation,” he said.
“The December quarter will be a big one for us, with drilling occurring across significant targets including Statesman Well and Bluetooth, leveraging these exciting results and our strong balance sheet.”
Box Soak drilling
In-fill aircore drilling of 14 holes for 803m at the Box Soak prospect has outlined an emerging zone of gold anomalism, with results including 10m at 0.44g/t from surface and 15m at 0.11g/t gold from 25m, while re-sampling of previous composite samples returned 1m at 1.44g/t gold from 22m and 1m at 1.03g/t gold from 36m.
Aircore testing has been completed at 200m line-spacing and defined an anomalous trend at least 800m in strike.
The gold anomalism sits at relatively shallow depths on multiple lines and reports to silicified and sulphide-altered rocks typical of known mineralised zones in the area.
Prospect location
Box Soak lies 35km north of the Porphyry mining centre, 40km south-west of AngloGold Ashanti’s Sunrise Dam gold deposit and 40km to the south-east of Bunjarra.
The local geology is covered by a blanket of shallow transported material shedding from the nearby chert and banded iron formation ridge, which has limited the effectiveness of previous soil sampling.
Local prospectivity is highlighted by the nearby Moody’s Reward deposit owned by Saracen Gold Mines, which has a resource of 110,000 ounces of contained gold grading 1.6g/t.