Javelin Minerals is about to kick off a highly anticipated maiden 2500-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its newly acquired Eureka gold project, 50 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company expects to have boots on the ground in early March for a three-week campaign that will target extensions of established high-grade lodes below the pit.
It submitted a program of works to the local shire last month and has locked in an RC drill rig with TopDrill under an existing drill for equity contract.
Javelin bought the project, which sits on a granted mining lease, from Delta Lithium in October for A$3 million in cash and shares. The project includes a 112,000-ounce resource grading 1.42 grams per tonne (g/t). Of this, 62,000 ounces falls into the indicated category, valuing the acquisition at less than A$30 per discovered ounce.
Drilling will first target extensions of high-grade lodes below and immediately to the north of the old workings. Previous drilling, which stretched 180m beneath the bottom of the pit, successfully hit five high-grade gold lodes and all appear to remain open at depth, particularly into the east-dipping mineralised zone.
The rig will then move further north to test 12 high-priority structural and geochemical anomalies, some of which sit immediately along strike of the existing deposit.
Javelin says there is a significant opportunity for discoveries in 750 metres of mineralised strike that remains largely unexplored in the north section of the lease.
Delta’s previous drilling in this patch reported some remarkable shallow hits – now interpreted as a supergene zone - including a whopping 4m intercept of 134g/t gold from 53m, along with 4m running at 11 g/t gold from 42m and 4m at 11.2g/t gold from 32m.
The drilling, however, was not deep enough to sniff out the primary source of the high-grade supergene, leaving Javelin chomping at the bit to see what treasures may lie beneath.
Javelin Minerals executive chairman Brett Mitchell said: “We have identified numerous highly promising structural and geochemical drilling targets at Eureka. Some of these are supported by high-grade drilling intersections nearby and others represent potential extensions of known mineralisation. There is clearly huge potential to create significant shareholder value by testing these targets and ultimately growing the resource.”
Javelin is also drawing up plans to kick start mining operations on a portion of the 30,000-ounce indicated resource at the southern end of the Eureka pit.
WA’s regulatory framework now prioritises fast-track project approvals for operations sitting on granted mining licences, and so Javelin hopes to be in production within 12 months.
Discussions with potential mining contractors and nearby toll milling facilities are underway to expedite the process.
Given the rampant gold price currently trading at US$2890 (A$4540) per ounce, a near-term strategy of monetising a portion of the existing resource via toll treating would appear a smart thing to do. Management says by generating some early cash flow, funds for further exploration could be released without necessarily diluting shareholder capital.
Eureka is strategically positioned in the prolific Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt and is in good company being just 25km north of the 4-million-ounce Paddington gold mine owned by the China-based Zijin Mining Group.
Javelin is also busy testing out a theory for its other focus, the Coogee gold project, 20km northeast of Kambalda and 100km from Eureka.
Javelin has just completed a 2921m RC drilling program to test the ground just north of Coogee, taking a leaf out of the books of its neighbours Spectrum Metals and Spartan Resources. Both companies recently found multi-million-dollar gold deposits lurking just north of their old open pits.
The first results from Coogee are starting to trickle in with the drill bit hitting a 5m intersection grading 14.22g/t gold from 143m with a 1m slice running at an eye-opening 65g/t gold and 1.91pc copper from 145m.
Both Eureka and Coogee have a rich history of high-grade discoveries and production. Therefore, punters are likely to be laser-focussed on news from both projects as results start to flow in.
With two exciting gold exploration programs on the go, Javelin is starting off 2025 with a bang and a bit of a tailwind. It may just be on the cusp of a company-defining moment.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By James Pearson
