Augustus wraps up drilling at emerging WA gold discovery

Augustus Minerals has completed a follow-up phase two reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at its Clifton East prospect in the company’s Music Well gold project, 35km north of Leonora in WA’s gold-rich Leonora-Laverton greenstone belt.

The company has wrapped up the 11-hole, 1650m RC drilling program, designed to build on the success of its maiden phase one campaign in March. The latest drilling sought to infill between previous drilling lines and extend mineralisation deeper into fresh rock.  Assays have been submitted to the laboratory in Kalgoorlie and results are expected within six weeks.

The previous March drilling delivered a raft of encouraging long mineralised intercepts from 4m composite samples, which inspired the recently completed follow-up campaign. 

Notable results from that maiden campaign included 16m at 1.46g/t gold from 28m, including 12m assaying 1.91g/t gold in the best hole, 12m at 0.80g/t gold from 68m in a second hole, and a hefty 32m at 0.90g/t gold from 40m, in in a third hole, which included 4m at 2.72g/t gold.

In a move that could generate a bit of near-term news flow, Augustus says one-metre re-split samples from its phase one four-metre composite samples have been sent for fire assay, with results expected back in the next fortnight.

The company’s drilling at Clifton East has targeted a 1.2-kilometre-long soil gold anomaly that was first outlined by surface soil geochemical sampling in October and was supported by high-grade surface rock chips. 

The latest drilling was undertaken using a relatively detailed hole pattern along a 400m northeast-trending strike length, with drill lines spaced at 40m and 80m intervals. The company expects that its May program will better define the continuity of the mineralisation.

The Music Well project sits in what can only be described as elephant country for gold. The Leonora-Laverton district boasts a gold endowment of more than 28 million ounces, as evidenced by a string of major operating mines in the immediate neighbourhood.

These include Northern Star’s Darlot gold mine, about 12km to the north and its Thunderbox operation, 20km to the west. Genesis Minerals’ Leonora gold camp, incorporating the Gwalia mine, lies 30km to the southwest.

Geologically, management sees strong similarities between the setting at Clifton East and the Golden Cities group of deposits, 50km north of Kalgoorlie, which is one of the largest granite-hosted Archaean gold systems in Australia, with a resource of 1.4 million ounces. 

The company has identified sanukitoid-type mafic granitoids at Music Well, which are often indicative of deep-tapping fault structures that can act as conduits for gold-fertile, mantle-derived fluids.

With the latest round of drilling complete, Augustus is already planning its next moves. A diamond drilling program is slated to begin in the next few weeks to test mineralised zones and provide crucial structural information. 

Soil sampling is also planned for other regional prospects in the company’s greater contiguous tenement area northwest of Clifton East, including Black Cat East and Teutonic East, to build a pipeline of drill-ready targets.

Augustus Minerals general manager exploration Andrew Ford said: “The Phase 2 drilling program at Clifton East has provided drill coverage over a 400m strike, with spacing between drill lines of 40 and 80m. The new drilling has extended further into fresh rock than the first program, which should provide valuable gold grade, mineralogical, and alteration information.” 

Augustus has put the drill rigs to bed at Clifton East for now, while it eagerly awaits multiple batches of assays from its Clifton project, which is nestled in one of WA’s most productive gold regions. 

The company says it plans to kick off a small diamond drilling program in the next few weeks to test the mineralised zones defined in its phase-one RC drilling program. The drilling is expected to refine understanding of the dip of the mineralisation and provide valuable alteration and structural information. 

With results from the one-metre re-splits due in a fortnight and assays from this latest 1650m program to follow, the market may not have long to wait to see if the company’s early drilling success is the start of something bigger.

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