Askari finds gold in Wheatbelt soils

ASX-listed Askari Metals has turned up an encouraging 2 grams per tonne gold after sifting through the soils of its Burracoppin gold project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region.

The Burracoppin project was historically mined in the 1930s and in some old workings produced gold grades of up to 49 g/t gold. Askari is now revisiting and redefining a prospective gold corridor that looks like it could be over 3 kilometres long.

In its recent expedition to the Wheatbelt, the junior explorer collected surface soil samples to validate past data and test for a potential mineralised strike extension over 1km north of the historical Benbur mine.

In total, 72 surface soil samples were collected with one standout sample returning a solid 2 g/t gold. Askari sees the result as a demonstration of the area’s real potential for higher-grade mineralisation.

Interestingly, 50 samples yielded anomalous gold greater than 20 parts per billion and 15 samples gave up grades higher than 100ppb gold.

Importantly, the company now has a high degree of confidence in its interpreted 1.1km mineralised envelope continuing north of Benbur.

Askari believes the successful replication of historical anomalous gold results has validated the historical data that promotes several anomalous near-surface gold results north of the Benbur historic mine.

Notably, the northernmost anomaly has never been drill tested and has the potential to extend the overall strike length of the mineralisation at the project to over 3km.

In addition, the historic numbers have shined a light on an 80ppb surface anomaly to the east of Benbur. Askari plans to go after that target and several other interpreted mineralised zones with an auger sampling program.

The company hailed its inaugural drill program as a success, yielding a spread of multi-gram results up and down the corridor. In the northern end of the zone, one metre grading 7.4 g/t gold from 40m downhole was encountered. Another 3m intersection gave up 1.2 g/t from a shallow 15m.

Between the strikes lies the Benbur historical mine where Askari sunk some holes slightly west below a historic leach pad and scored another metre running an impressive 14.6 g/t gold.

The second drill program saw the explorer plunge a further 13 holes into an untested zone west of the Benbur mine and it is now patiently awaiting the assays.

Next month, Askari plans to run the rig over the corridor for a third time, testing strike extensions and parallel structures in other areas.

Askari Metals Vice President of Exploration and Geology, Johan Lambrechts said: “….we are very encouraged by the recent surface Lag results indicating excellent anomalism and validating our geological interpretation of the project.”

“The recent surface results give us additional validated drill targets north of Benbur and Burgess Find, which was the previous northern extent of mineralisation on the project.”

Having already built up an encouraging entourage of soils, intercepts and historical data, if the assays keep going its way, Askari could have a significant new thread to follow in the coming months.

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