The next phase of exploration at Hamelin Gold’s (ASX:HMG) West Tanami project in Western Australia will include major soil sampling programs and further drilling.
Building on key learnings from recent phase one reverse circulation drill programs at the Sultan and Fremlins South prospects, Managing Director Peter Bewick says the mineralisation footprints of both systems can be measured in kilometres of strike and remain open along strike and at depth.
“These are the sort of footprints that can host large scale, high grade gold deposits in the Tanami,” Bewick says.
“Results from the first phase of RC drilling at Sultan West and Fremlins South have provided strong evidence that both areas have the potential to host a major gold mineral system.
“Our understanding of the geology and mineralisation styles within these systems is growing significantly with every program we complete.”
The three Sultan prospects were generated following a detailed soil sampling program in 2023 along a covered, previous unexplored and unrecognised structural corridor.
Samples from the program were analysed via the CSIRO developed Ultrafine technique.
This first phase drilling at Sultan West confirmed the effectiveness of soil sampling and Ultrafine analysis to identify gold mineralisation under shallow sand cover. The footprint of the bedrock gold mineralisation is of significant scale and remains open along strike.
A second program of soil sampling has now been completed at Sultan was designed to follow the defined mineralised trend further west into an area of interpreted structural complexity and to locate potential parallel mineralised structures to the north of the Sultan Fault.
An area of particular interest is an interpreted complex folded and faulted dolerite unit, 5km to the southwest of the Sultan West prospect.
Aircore drilling of high priority targets are planned for October and November 2024.
The phase one drill program along the Sultan Corridor focused on three separate prospects within a 3km long section of the +10 kilometre long gold corridor.
A total of 19 holes were completed across the Sultan West, Sultan Central, and Sultan Main prospects for 3,184m.
The program was partly funded by the Western Australian Government’s EIS co-funded drilling program.
In 2023–24, Australia’s gold export volumes rose by 13% to 258 tonnes on the back of higher production and rising prices. The value of production increased by 35% to $33 billion.
Australia’s export earnings for the precious metal are forecast to increase by 5.6% in 2024–25 and by 0.7% in 2025–26, reaching $35 billion in 2025–26. High Australian dollar gold prices and higher volumes of gold exports are expected to contribute to increased export earnings.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Hamelin Gold
