A first phase of exploration drilling has yielded Horizon Minerals high-grade drilling results from its Pinner prospect at the company’s Cannon gold project 30km south-east of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Goldfields. Notably, new and shallow mineralisation was encountered with intercepts including 1m at 35.39 grams per tonne gold from 36m within a broader 6m hit going 6.94 g/t from 35m.
The initial campaign sunk 35 RC holes for 1181m of infill and validation drilling over historical drill results on the southern edge of the project’s existing open cut mine.
Further gold intercepts include 5m at 2.8 g/t from 20m, 1m at 12.03 g/t from 17m and 9m at 1.86 g/t from 12m.
Mineralisation is now defined along a strike length of 110m and remains open to the south and at depth within the project’s granted mining lease. Phase II follow up drilling at Pinner is planned to commence in the final quarter of the year.
In addition, Horizon’s exploration efforts extend over the broader region with the company on the hunt for both gold and nickel at several historical prospects across Cannon and its neighbouring Glandore project to the east with further results expected in the current quarter.
Horizon Minerals Managing Director, Jon Price said: “These excellent drilling results at Pinner clearly demonstrate the potential of the area to deliver significant resource growth in close proximity to the advanced Cannon underground gold project.”
“We now look forward to the results of the next round of drilling and resource modelling to complement our existing resource base in the area supporting both an open pit and underground production hub for future cash generation.”
The results have been flowing in for Horizon following a reinvigorated exploration program with a focus on new discoveries within its prospective Goldfields portfolio.
The company boasts a total gold tally of 1.15 million ounces and the Cannon underground resource of 32,330 ounces looms as its next development-ready project.
Prior to Horizon acquiring Cannon in 2021 and publishing its underground resource, the deposit had been mined as an open pit up until 2017 producing 55,143 ounces of gold at a grade of 2.98 g/t.
The company sees the broader area surrounding Cannon as highly prospective with several historical prospects located within a 1km radius of the open pit mine.
Two of the more advanced prospects, Monument and Homerton were drilled during April and May to both validate historical drilling and test for potential strike and depth extensions.
Significant gold results were picked up with one hole delivering 4m at 4.63 g/t from 68m and 4m at 7.76 g/t from 80m.
Horizon is also awaiting the return of assays from an additional phase of infill drilling completed at Monument with the results anticipated by the end of the month.
Pinner is the third historically drilled prospect at Cannon which Horizon is now diving into. Whilst past exploration at Pinner determined the mineralisation was too patchy and ultimately not amenable to economic mining, Horizon’s early success could result in the prospect evolving into a potential southern cutback of the Cannon open pit.
Horizon will assess the potential of a future cut-back operation over the coming 12 months and plans to kick off further RC drilling over the trio of prospects in the final quarter of the year as it looks to table an initial mineral resource and scoping studies.
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