Aruma set to drill-test Pilbara gold project

ASX-listed gold explorer, Aruma Resources, is gearing up for a maiden drilling program at its Saltwater gold project about 100km south-west of Newman in WA’s resurgent Pilbara goldfields province. Despite the current resources exploration boom, the company has managed to lock in drilling contractors to carry out the first phase of RC drilling totalling up to 5,000m.

All approvals for up to 20,000m of drilling have been granted and Aruma is now ready to put its truth diviner to work.

The Perth-based company says the initial 50 RC holes that are planned to be drilled down to a nominal depth of 100m will be aimed at identifying future gold targets at the Saltwater Ring Structure, a massive 60sqkm magnetic-conductivity anomaly at Saltwater.

The drilling, which the company hopes will kick off by early December, is set to vector in on structures that have yielded anomalous soil and rock assays, together with quartz veining and strongly altered geology defined by visible gold.

The Saltwater project comprises eight granted exploration licences that cover a combined area of 736sqkm.

Aruma has also received some encouraging data from the recently completed geological mapping and geophysical studies at its Melrose gold project about 250km west-north-west of Saltwater.

According to the company, the mineral mapping at its Target 1 prospect resembles the mineral mapping at Northern Star Resources’ Paulsens gold mining operations area.

Aruma’s Melrose project area now spans nine exploration licence applications across 283sqkm adjacent to the Paulsens mine. Prior to the modern-day discoveries, the old Paulsens deposit was mined in the 1930s when it was known as the Melrose mine, with 2,400 tonnes of ore extracted at a bonanza average grade of 12 grams per tonne gold for 900 ounces of production.

Aruma Resources Managing Director, Peter Schwann said: “The last six months since we applied for these areas has seen a tremendous change in company focus that with funding brings the ability to efficiently explore these areas. Over the next year we will seek to progressively drill our new project areas.”

A renewed gold rush is well and truly underway in the Pilbara and Aruma joins a parade of gold explorers, developers and would-be producers in the region including Calidus Resources, Capricorn Metals, Novo Resources, De Grey Mining, Caeneus Minerals, Kairos Minerals and others.

Some Pilbara projects have recently either become or are shaping up as company makers.

The junior explorers are out in force in the region with money being raised at will and ploughed into the ground near mothballed gold mines that were still harbouring undiscovered riches.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au