Horizon Minerals, formerly Intermin Resources, has firmed up confidence in the Crake prospect within its Binduli gold project near Kalgoorlie after drilling returned a top intersection of 3 metres grading 7.41 grams per tonne gold from 81m down-hole.
Other significant results from Crake include 10m @ 1.78g/t gold from 102m in the same hole and 5m @ 4.91g/t gold from 36m and 7m @ 2.78g/t gold from 97m in separate drill holes.
Additionally, several eastern holes intersected shallower, up-dip, mineralisation largely outside the resource area, while several deeper holes on the western side returned encouraging levels of well-developed and consistent gold mineralisation that the company believes may represent resource potential at depth.
Management said that updated resource modelling, mine optimisation and design work for the Crake prospect are now underway while further reverse circulation and diamond drilling will be completed in coming quarters to test areas currently outside the resource envelope.
Crake currently has a resource of 1.12 million tonnes grading 1.59 grams per tonne gold for 57,700 ounces, with about 69% of this metal in the higher confidence indicated category.
This resource was generated from drilling the company carried out in 2018 at the historical prospect, where previous work had located encouraging gold mineralisation within a porphyry host rock.
Geology at Crake is similar to that of the nearby 390,000 ounce Janet Ivy open pit with mineralisation striking northwest and dipping shallowly to the southwest.
Composite samples submitted for metallurgical testing have achieved gravity recovery rates of over 50% for both oxide and fresh samples while overall gold recoveries averaged about 96%.
Managing Director Jon Price said: “The results continue to demonstrate that Binduli is a genuine contributor to our mine development and production pipeline as part of the consolidated feasibility study currently underway.”
“The drilling has improved geological confidence and demonstrated excellent width and grade continuity over a 450m strike length and remains open in all directions.”
Meanwhile, drilling at the Coote prospect, located about 700m west of Crake, to test historical high-grade results, returned a top hit of 1m @ 8.18g/t gold from 40m down-hole.
Horizon said the mineralisation encountered to date at Coote is encouraging though narrower than at the Crake prospect.
The company, which was formed through the recent merger of Intermin Resources and MacPhersons Resources, currently has a global resource of 25.7 million tonnes grading 1.35g/t gold for 1.12 million ounces of contained gold.
It is currently in the process of acquiring the 2.1 million ounce Coolgardie gold project from Focus Minerals, which includes the mothballed 1.2 million tonne per annum Three Mile Hill CIP processing plant.
Should this acquisition be completed, Horizon will then hold a combined gold inventory of over 3 million ounces in the WA Goldfields region.
By Matt Birney
