Firefly Resources Ltd (ASX: FFR) has announced the commencement of the first phase of a 30,000m RC drilling campaign aimed at aggressively growing the resource base at its Yalgoo Gold Project in Western Australia.
The company said that the maiden JORC 2012 resource for Melville Deposit is imminent, with an expansive drilling effort underway aiming to establish JORC Resources across a further seven prospects in 2021.
FFR said that two RC rigs are currently on-site drilling 7,000m of close-spaced Grade Control drill-holes at the Melville Gold Deposit, and third RC rig will commence drilling in early March targeting JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimates at both the Don Bradman (3,600m of drilling) and Applecross (2,000m of drilling) Gold Prospects.
Firefly has committed to establishing numerous updated JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimates across its extensive Yalgoo Gold Project during 2021.
Drilling at Yalgoo
FFR announced that it has commenced the first phase of a 30,000m RC drilling campaign at its Yalgoo project.
Phase 1- Oxide Zone drill program
The company announced that the first phase of drilling would consist of 7,000m of close-spaced Grade Control (GC) drilling across the shallow, flat-lying gold mineralised Oxide Zone. FFR said that the Oxide Zone drill program consists of 600 small diameter RC drill-holes.
The company said that two RC rigs are currently on-site conducting this work which is scheduled to continue through to March 2021 and will deliver approximately 7,000 assays for use in the creation of a JORC 2012-compliant Melville Grade Control model by mid-year 2021.
FFR said that the GC drilling is designed to prove up the potential economic extent of the extensive flat-lying surface gold mineralised zone, or “Oxide Zone”, at Melville noted in historic drill-holes and emphasised again during Firefly drilling in 2020.
Phase 2 – drilling at Don Bradman, Applecross
The company said that the second phase of RC drilling beginning in early March 2021 and overlapping with the first phase GC drilling at nearby Melville Gold Deposit will comprise approximately 3,600m of drilling at the advanced Don Bradman Gold Prospect and a further 1,400m at the Applecross Gold Prospect.
FFR said that this drilling will also provide assays for use in producing JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resources for both prospects by mid-2021.
Phase 3 – drilling at Victoria United, Crescent, City of Melbourne
The company announced that the third phase of RC drilling at the Yalgoo Gold Project will commence in early May 2021 and will comprise approximately 13,000m of drilling across the Victoria United Gold Prospect, the Crescent Gold Prospect, and the City of Melbourne Gold Mine.
FFR said that the drilling at Victoria United will be the first drill-holes drilled across the 30 or so historic high-grade shaft and stope gold workings along the 2km long trend, while the assays from the Crescent and City of Melbourne drilling will underpin two additional JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimates for these two prospects in the latter half of 2021.
Phase 4 – drilling at Brilliant, Eagles Nest
FFR announced that the fourth phase of drilling is scheduled to commence in the third quarter of 2021 and will comprise approximately 6,000m of RC drilling across the Brilliant Gold Prospect and Eagles Nest (the Holland Acquisition) prospects.
The company said that the drilling at the Brilliant Gold prospect will underpin a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource update while the drilling at Eagles Nest will be the first exploration drilling ever undertaken to define the in-situ high-grade gold structures from which significant alluvial gold has been derived over the years.
Updated JORC 2012-compliant MRE planned
Firefly announced that it has committed to establishing numerous updated JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimates across its extensive Yalgoo Gold Project during 2021.
This includes Prince George Gold Prospect – updated MRE in Q2 2021; Victoria United Gold Prospect – 5,000m of drilling in Q2 2021; Crescent Gold Prospect – 5,000m of drilling in Q2 2021; City of Melbourne Gold Prospect – 3,000m of drilling in Q2 2021; Brilliant Gold Prospect – 3,000m of drilling in Q3 2021; and Eagles Nest “Holland Acquisition” – 3,000m of drilling in Q3 2021.
Management comments
Firefly Managing Director Simon Lawson said: “This is a major commitment to resource development and exploration at Yalgoo, with 30,000m of drilling budgeted, aimed at advancing our existing gold prospects and establishing a robust JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource base right across the broader project.
The journey begins next month with a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource update for the Melville Gold Deposit. As best practice, we currently have an external consultancy reviewing the Melville MRE to ensure independence in the evaluation of our core gold deposit. We expect to complete that work shortly and finalise this cornerstone MRE for release to the market early next month. In the meantime, we also already have several rigs spinning to advance our existing gold prospects through to resource level. Geophysical targeting work is also underway to deliver new targets and our small and active technical team is out there getting it all done. 2021 is going to be a massive year for Firefly!!
Our team is young and aggressive and we know we have an amazing opportunity in front of us. We have a strong plan to deliver results at Yalgoo in 2021 and there are very few of our peers that can say they will produce at least seven JORC-compliant resources across their key project area this year. I am confident that our bold and aggressive approach will continue to deliver results for our shareholders.”
*Image source: Firefly Resources Ltd