Dampier Gold has uncovered a new zone of high-grade gold mineralisation at its Browns Dam prospect, west of Kalgoorlie in WA. Wide-spaced aircore drilling, targeting the auriferous Zuleika Shear, has intercepted near surface gold mineralisation in a series of shallow aircore holes with better results including 5m at 3.1 g/t gold from only 38m down-hole.
These tantalising hits come from a larger drilling program in the region, with the company having now completed 5,500m of aircore and reverse circulation drilling across its Zuleika Gold Project in recent weeks. The aircore drilling program comprised 1,950m of drilling on wide-spaced drill lines, whilst the RC drilling program has focused on the Paradigm East target, around 3km south of the new Browns Dam discovery.
The program over the Browns Dam prospect comprised 40 drill holes, across four 500m spaced lines, with the aircore holes drilled at 40m spacings. Drilling has returned a number of enticing intercepts including the aforementioned result which also hosted 1m at 5.23 g/t from 39m and 1m at 6.60 g/t gold from 42m.
In an adjacent drill hole, the bit returned a further broad zone of gold mineralisation, including a solid 17m at 0.33 g/t with 4m at 0.68 g/t gold from only 40m down-hole. These first-pass results come from the transitional oxidation zone, between the base of weathering and the fresh rock and hint at a deeper source to this newly discovered gold-bearing zone.
While it is still early days at the discovery, a review of the Dampier exploration and historical drilling indicates that the Browns Dam prospect may extend over more than 1,000m of strike and remains open both laterally and at depth, presenting what appears to be a significant opportunity for the WA-based gold explorer.
Dampier Gold’s Managing Director, Annie Guo said:
“This part of the Zuleika Shear has not previously been tested and now we have established there are significant gold bearing structures with high grade intersections and gold anomalies, within a large area still to be tested.”
“The high-grade intersections were achieved from a wide spaced 40m X 500m Aircore drilling program, which is considered highly successful because the drilling results covered a large area and proved the existence of anomalous gold in the clay and weathered fresh rock zones over this area. These results in the weathered zone also provide a clear pathway for Dampier’s future drilling to test the deeper fresh rock, which typically hosts the large high-grade gold deposits along the Zuleika shear, with a goal to find the continuity of the gold mineralisation.”
“The drilling also has successfully identified a number of high-priority targets. Dampier’s technical team is working on a further follow-up Aircore drilling and Reverse Circulation drilling to test for extensions to these excellent first pass results.”
Dampier Gold holds a swag of gold projects across Western Australia, with its current focus being the exceptional gold-bearing terrane surrounding Kalgoorlie. The company holds five WA projects in total, including the extensive Ruby Plains placer gold project in the Kimberley region and four project areas surrounding Kalgoorlie, including the Menzies and Goongarrie tenure north of town and the Zuleika and Credo projects to the west.
The Browns Dam gold discovery is hosted by the company’s Zuleika gold project which is located around 30km to the west-northwest of Kalgoorlie. The project covers around 20km strike of the auriferous Zuleika and Carnage Shears with the company’s tenure extending to the north-west of the 7 million-ounce Kundana mining centre managed by Australian behemoth Northern Star. The Shear also hosts the 3-million-ounce White Foil-Frog Legs mines which are operated by Evolution Mining. Notably, these world-class operations lie a mere 3km south of Dampier’s tenement boundary.
The gold deposits on the Zuleika Shear tend to have relatively small surface footprints but plumb the depths of the ore-bearing stratigraphy, with mining at Kundana currently exploiting the gold-rich lodes at more than 650m below surface. The morphology of these ore bodies makes exploration all the more challenging but incredibly lucrative once the drill zeroes in on the gold system which Dampier appears to have done at Browns Dam.
The company also shares the Zuleika terrane with a bevy of fellow gold explorers and developers, with Ora Banda Mining currently eying a restart of the Davyhurst gold mining centre to the west and nickel-gold explorer Ardea Resources also holding a commanding ground position in the region surrounding the project.
Dampier’s tenure at Zuleika is a joint venture with Torian Gold, with the company currently earning a 75 per cent interest in the tenure by spending a modest $1 million over a 4-year period.
In the wake of recent successful drilling at Zuleika and geochemical surveys at the company’s Credo and Goongarrie projects, the next cab off the rank for Dampier is touted to be its Menzies gold project.
Located around 130km north of Kalgoorlie, the project at Menzies consists of a large exploration license on the downslope side of the high-grade gold camp, with the company’s exploration target being shallow alluvials, and potentially open pitable positions, adjacent to the rich gold-bearing mines in the terrane that have already given up more than 800,000 ounces of gold.
Dampier’s tenure at Menzies abuts Emu, Ardea and Kingwest Resources’ holdings in the historical goldfield. Kingwest is continuing to return a cascade of high-grade drill results through its project area which should provide more than sufficient encouragement for Dampier to get boots on ground in the resurgent mining area.
For now, Zuleika remains the star of the show with the company’s analysis of the project outlining no less than 36 prospective gold targets. With drilling at Paradigm East continuing to hit paydirt, Dampier’s new discovery at Browns Dam looks to be once again turning the spotlight onto this fertile terrane west of Kalgoorlie.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
