Gold and copper explorer Warriedar Resources (ASX:WA8) has begun a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its Fields Find Project in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
The $34.91 million market capitalisation company reports 12 holes will be completed for about 2,300m at the Stone Hut prospect within the Rothschild mining lease to test several geophysical targets that share similar characteristics with those seen at the Rothschild deposit.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Warriedar Resources Managing Director Amanda Buckingham says this drilling program is expected to take 10 days to complete, with results expected to be returned from the laboratory by the end of August 2023.
Warriedar reports this drill program has been expedited following ‘excellent’ drilling results recorded at Rothschild, which confirmed the mineralisation extends along strike and down-dip. This drilling also demonstrated the potential for multi-lode discoveries.
The MD tells this new service that the company’s goal is to rapidly advance its gold assets across Western Australia that were secured in February 2023.
“We have made significant progress towards that goal, having extended 4 of the gold resources. The second half of this year will be about focusing on the key deposits, which are the deposits we see being our direct path to development and production.
The 3 gold assets for us that we see moving into production sooner than later would be Rothschild, Ricardo, and Windinne Well, and at the same time, as a blue-sky option, we will be progressing our copper and nickel targets.”
Buckingham tells Mining.com.au that once this new drilling program is completed, Warriedar will focus its efforts to progress the western side of Fields Find, noting it features a layered ultramafic intrusion with some ‘well-defined’ electromagnetic conductors.
“There’s also a historic copper mine at the apex of the layered intrusion. Now, we have several PoWs (Program of Works) under application at the moment. As soon as they are approved, we will be in there drilling these copper-nickel targets this quarter.”
On 12 July, the company reported ‘high-grade’ extensional intercepts at Rothschild including hole BRRC083 with 18m @ 2.43g/t Au from 191m, including 1m @ 7g/t Au; BRRC100 with 15m @ 2.16g/t Au from 180m, including 1m @ 15.3g/t Au; and BRRC104 with 6m @ 4.84g/t Au from 161m, including 2m @ 11.88g/t Au.
Stone Hut lies immediately southwest of Rothschild and features several historical workings of pits and shallow shafts. Modern exploration at the prospect includes soil and rock chip sampling along with shallow reconnaissance drilling.
Hole PRC40, which was drilled by a previous owner in 1990, returned 9m @ 5.21g/t Au from 26m, which Warriedar says demonstrates ‘clear evidence’ of shallow, high-tenor mineralisation.
The company says Stone Hut and Rothschild are part of several prospects within a larger camp-scale gold play on the eastern side of Fields Find and notes it is continuing to progress exploration at the project.
Buckingham says Stone Hut is one of several areas on the Rothschild mining lease that has a similar signature to the Rothschild main lode.
“We plan to build a larger story or gold play on the Rothschild mining lease”
“It has a very similar geophysical response, it sits in a similar geological position and it’s got some historic results, including 9m @ 5.21g/t Au from 26m, which is extremely encouraging. We plan to build a larger story or gold play on the Rothschild mining lease.
Warriedar Resources is an Australian gold and copper explorer focused on growing its existing resource base of about 2 million ounces across Western Australia and Nevada, US.
The company’s portfolio of assets includes the Golden Range and Fields Find projects in Western Australia, as well as the Big Springs Gold Project in Nevada.
As of 31 March 2023, Warriedar had $8.5 million cash at hand and no debt, according to its latest quarterly report published on 21 April 2023.
Write to Harry Mulholland at Mining.com.au
Images: Warriedar Resources Ltd
