Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR) has intersected multiple zones of shallow gold mineralisation at Side Well South that are believed to be extensions of the high-grade lodes within the historic Golden Bracelet mine workings further south.
First-pass reconnaissance drilling at the Side Well South prospect has returned top hits of 34m @ 1.25 grams per tonne gold from 17m including 8m @ 3.16g/t from 26m, and 41m @ 0.57g/t from 57m including 7m @ 1.11g/t from 57m.
Drilling is testing two large, high-tenor geochemical anomalies in an area with several historic mine workings and a history of small-scale prospecting activity.
Side Well South, part of Great Boulder’s flagship Side Well Project in Western Australia, is a new discovery within the over 18km Ironbark Corridor and outside of the existing 668,000-ounce resource.
Managing Director Andrew Paterson says the new shallow, high-grade gold lode is located 200m north of the historic Golden Bracelet mine and 140m west of the “high-grade” discovery Great Boulder announced in January.
The last aircore hole drilled at the Side Well Project returned intercepts including 3m @ 4.16g/t gold from within 23m @0.94g/t, as previously reported by Mining.com.au.
“This area is extremely prospective, highlighted by the number of historic mine workings and the surface anomalism we’ve identified using auger geochemistry,” Paterson says.
“Any new discoveries of shallow gold at Side Well are exciting because they have potential to add resource ounces quickly, giving us more options to optimise a mine development.”
The latest results are from nine aircore holes drilled so far this year and Great Boulder is waiting on the results of another 62 aircore holes drilled in the program at Side Well South.
“Follow-up drilling will be scheduled in conjunction with the reverse circulation program currently underway at Mulga Bill North,” Paterson notes.
Great Boulder, which has a market capitalisation of $47.8 million, is also still waiting on the results of 22 holes drilled northwest of Saltbush.
The company has expanded the prospective tenure at Side Well South a further 4km to the south, known as the Tal Val area, where mapping and auger sampling are being completed to generate additional targets for aircore drill testing.
A heritage survey is scheduled for Side Well South in March to provide clearance for follow-up drilling around and below high-grade aircore intersections.
Meanwhile, the remaining assays from the aircore program are expected to be received over the coming weeks, while initial results from reverse circulation drilling at Mulga Bill North are expected in the second half of March.
Reverse circulation drilling is continuing on priority targets at Mulga Bill North and maiden reverse circulation drill planning is underway for Side Well South.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Great Boulder Resources
