Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) says its latest drilling results have returned wide zones of gold mineralisation at the Lord Byron deposit, part of the Jasper Hills Gold Project in Western Australia.
The drilling program, comprising 54 holes for 8,000m, was completed to infill the existing mineral resource and increase confidence in the geological interpretation, prior to a planned update to the resource estimate.
Some of the results include 26m @ 2.69 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 2m @ 12.4g/t gold; 29m @ 2.62g/t gold, including 1m @ 35.7g/t gold; and 1m @ 22.2g/t gold and 7m @ 3.32g/t gold.
Managing Director Alex Rovira says the latest results show the wide intervals of great, open pit mineable gold grades and also contain high-grade, discrete zones at the base of a $3,000 per ounce optimised pit shell.
“These highly encouraging results will feed into updated development studies at the deposit, as outlined in the recent Jasper Hills Scoping Study,” Rovira says.
Brightstar, which has a market capitalisation of $106.36 million, says an additional diamond drilling program is ongoing, totalling 13 holes for 1,700m.
Assays remain outstanding for all diamond holes, with six short diamond tails remaining to drill to complete the program.
Rovira says with reverse circulation drilling completed at the Fish and Lord Byron deposits, the Jasper Hills Project is rapidly advancing.
“Once the reverse circulation assays are received from the Fish deposit, attention will turn to geotechnical and metallurgical testwork utilising the diamond core material produced from the drilling program concluding in the coming weeks,” he says.
“With the current drilling program ending and both rigs soon demobilising, a short drilling break will allow assays to be returned and geological interpretations to be updated, prior to resource updates across the projects.
“Drilling will then restart, with a large program being planned at the company’s exciting new Sandstone assets set to commence once those transactions complete.”
The gold spot price is currently sitting at $3,830.75 per ounce, as reported by the ABC Bullion.
The 30,000m drilling program at the Menzies and Jasper Hills projects, which was designed to advance the projects through the Definitive Feasibility Study workstreams currently underway, are nearing completion.
Brightstar Resources is a Perth-based gold explorer and developer focused on its assets in the Laverton and Menzies regions of Western Australia.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Brightstar Resources
