All eyes will be on Gawler Craton-focused aspiring gold developer, Barton Gold, next month as the results from its 5,328m phase one drill program around and below the old Perseverance open pit at its Tarcoola project in South Australia start to roll in.
The public unlisted Perth-based company recently drilled 37 RC holes at the Perseverance pit, targeting near-surface extensions in the Deliverance, Eclipse and Morning Star mineralised zones. It also devoted two holes to testing depth extensions of the old pit into which it hopes to breathe new life.
Results from Barton’s phase one and phase two infill drilling programs and the geological interpretation work to follow will go towards building a better understanding of the mineralised system that lurks beneath and along strike at Tarcoola. They will also culminate in a new Tarcoola resource estimate and potential mine plan.
Phase one drill results are expected next month.
The former Tarcoola mine was put on care and maintenance two years ago and hosts the partially depleted Perseverance deposit.
In the acquisition of its Gawler Craton projects, Barton also picked up the 650,000 tonne-per-annum treatment plant and associated infrastructure at the former Challenger operation about 160km trucking distance from Tarcoola.
Gold grades for Perseverance ore averaged about 4 grams per tonne in the final months of mining under previous owners in 2018 and according to Barton, the geological complexities of the Challenger underground mine led to the closure of operations rather than difficulties with Tarcoola that was just hitting its straps at the time.
Barton Gold Managing Director, Alexander Scanlon said: “We are very pleased to have successfully concluded our phase one drilling after many months of work and planning, and we especially thank our team, technical partners and fellow stakeholders who have been essential in facilitating our rapid progress at the Tarcoola project. We look forward to sharing assay and geology results as they become available, and to planning our phase two drilling program following phase one analysis.”
Barton, who is eyeing an ASX listing next year, has provided an existing non-JORC resource estimate for Tarcoola of 1.1 million tonnes at 1.58 g/t for 56,000 ounces of contained gold.
The company’s first priority is a low CAPEX restart of gold production at Tarcoola in the short term. It plans to undertake about 30,000m of drilling over the next year or so to grow the Tarcoola open-pit and shallow-depth gold resource inventory and establish a larger base of mineralisation across near-mine structures on the Tarcoola mining lease.
Barton is also sitting on the undeveloped Tunkillia gold deposit about 80km south-east of Tarcoola that hosts a JORC measured, indicated and inferred resource of 12.32Mt grading 1.41 g/t for 558,000oz of contained gold.
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By Matt Birney
