Greenstone Resources (ASX:GSR) reports it has uncovered a ‘bonanza’ grade intercepts at the Burbanks Gold Project in Western Australia.
The ASX-listed gold exploration company says the results of the phase one drill campaign continue to reaffirm the ‘high-grade’ nature of Burbanks, which is located 9km south of Coolgardie.
Holes BBRC371D and BBRC373D both form part of the current 10,000m drill campaign targeting unclassified mineralisation which supports the recent JORC exploration target of between 215,000 ounces to 330,000 ounces of contained gold.
Significant intercepts recorded include 7m @ 57.84g/t Au from 90m including 1m @ 375g/t Au from 90m, and 2m @ 5.88g/t Au from 38m in BBRC371D, as well as 3m @ 4.18g/t Au from 17m including 1m @ 10g/t Au from 19m in BBRC373D.
Greenstone Resources Managing Director Chris Hansen says: “We are highly encouraged by the first results from the phase one drill campaign at Burbanks, having returned multiple high-grade intercepts in the first holes drilled which are in line with the historical underground production grades from the Burbanks Gold Project of 324,000 ounces @ 22.7g/t Au.
“We are highly encouraged by the first results from the phase one drill campaign at Burbanks”
Furthermore, with BBRC371D having returned 1m @ 375g/t Au, serves to place the Burbank Gold Project in the top 10 gold intercepts for pre-development projects in Western Australia.
Importantly these most recent intercepts serve to highlight the potential to significantly increase the resource base at Burbanks over the coming months through the completion of the 10,000m phase one drilling campaign which is targeting the unclassified mineralisation supporting the exploration target.
Following the completion of the phase one drill campaign in March 2023, we look forward to testing the broader strike and depth extensions at Burbanks, which remain open in all directions and are not included in the existing resource or exploration target.”
Greenstone reports BBRD371D and BBRC373D are outside of the current resource estimate of 3.4 million tonnes @ 2.5g/t Au for 277,547 ounces, which is supported by a number other ‘high-grade’ intercepts including 11m @ 20.82g/t Au from 60m in BBRC219, 4.9m @ 30.46g/t Au from 291.1m in BBRC340D, and 6.6m @ 9.79g/t Au from 395.9m in BBRC341D.
The Burbanks Gold Project includes the Burbanks Mining Centre, as well as over 5.5km of the ‘highly’ prospective Burbanks Shear Zone, which the company notes is historically the most ‘significant’ gold producing structure within the Coolgardie Goldfield.
The Burbanks Mining Centre comprises both the Birthday Gift and Main Lode underground deposits, where recorded historic underground production totalled 324,479 ounces at an average grade of 22.7g/t Au from predominantly the upper 140m.
Despite the history of ‘high-grade’ production, Greenstone states there has been limited exploration attention focused to the north of the Burbanks Mining Centre, and this area has been the focus of more recent drilling activities over the past 12 months. However much of the drilling completed remains too widely spaced to support either indicated or inferred resource classification.
Greenstone reports a conservative methodology was adopted in the estimation of an exploration target which is exclusively defined by this wide spaced drilling which demonstrates the continuity of ‘high-grade’ mineralisation at depth and supports drillhole targeting for the phase one campaign.
The exploration target does not include any of the untested along strike or at depth extensions which have yet to be drilled, however these areas provide an ‘excellent’ exploration target as they represent the continuation of the main mineralising structure and will be drill tested in phase two and phase three of the planned exploration program.
Recent drilling to the north has shown the development of 2 discrete zones of ‘high-grade’ mineralisation, often hosting coarse visible gold, indicating a zone of intense deformation which subsequently allowed for significant volumes of mineralising fluids to pass through.
Greenstone says this recent drilling continues to support the exploration model of multiple ‘high-grade’ quartz veins parallel to the main mineralised shear zone.
These intercepted quartz reefs are directly analogous to the Tailor Lode, which was observed during mining at Birthday Gift and historically yielded some of the ‘high-grades’ observed within the Burbanks Mining Centre.
The company has subsequently defined a three phase drill campaign to test the true geological potential of the Burbanks Gold Project across the entire 5.5km strike of the Burbanks Shear Zone.
Phase one consists of a 10,000m infill drill campaign targeting unclassified mineralisation as defined by the exploration target, while phase two is a 15,000m program targeting down-dip and along strike extensions of known mineralisation lodes, and phase three is a 25,000m program targeting greenfields targets and extensions down to 500m.
Greenstone Resources is an ASX-listed gold exploration and development company focused on the ‘high-grade’ Burbanks Gold Project in Western Australia. Other projects held by the company include the Phillips Find, and Mt Thirsty projects.
Images: Greenstone Resources Ltd
