ASX-listed junior explorer, Brightstar Resources has continued its run of solid drill hits at its flagship Cork Tree Well project near Laverton where ongoing gold intersections have confirmed the high-grade nature of the system. Notable intersections from the latest round of RC drilling include a 12 metre intersection grading 3.47 grams per tonne gold from 157m downhole and a 9m hit going 1.46 g/t gold from 178m downhole.
Other notable recent intersections include 5m grading 2.67 g/t gold from 226m downhole, 12m at 1.69 g/t gold from 133m and 4m going 3.19 g/t gold from 107m downhole.
The latest round of assays were the last remaining drillholes from a 90-hole RC program conducted in late 2021 at Cork Tree Well. The program successfully confirmed the location of gold mineralisation and showed significant upside to the previously modelled gold grades.
Importantly, 70 out of the 90 holes drilled intersected significant gold mineralisation and Brightstar says recently received grades appear to be higher than the previously modelled resource grade at Cork Tree Well.
The resource definition drill campaign at Cork Tree Well was the first drilling to occur in the area since 2012. The program consisted of over 12,000m of drilling and was designed to infill and extend its current JORC resource estimate of 237,000 ounces at 1.9 g/t gold.
The company says the mineralised intersections continue to confirm the high-grade gold tenor across the Cork Tree Well project and show mineralised intercepts aligning well with the geological model.
According to the company, RC drilling has consistently intersected mineralised dip extensions throughout the entire strike length of the Cork Tree Well landholdings. Furthermore, it believes mineralisation is still open at depth with more planned drilling in the pipeline to determine the dip extent of the gold system.
Multiple drillholes intersected exceptional mineralisation outside of the current resource estimate extents that management says show significant upside exploration potential for the Cork Tree Well project.
Interestingly, significant mineralisation has been noted on a basalt-ultramafic contact rather than within sedimentary chert units that open pit mining efforts targeted previously in the nearby open pits. Brightstar says the different host rocks may indicate that parallel lodes, splay lodes or cross lodes may exist within the project that have not been effectively tested.
Two historical open pits exist within the Cork Tree Well project area and drilling near the northern end of the southern open pit showed some of the better gold intersections from the program. Brightstar says the area has the potential to be developed into another open pit in the future following further closer spaced confirmational drilling.
To the north of both historical open pits at Cork Tree Well, an underexplored area called the Delta prospect also returned multiple shallow high-grade gold hits. Significant intersections from the Delta prospect include a 6m section grading 5.56 g/t gold from 29m downhole and 4m going 2.75 g/t gold from 82m downhole. The company says Delta has the potential to be turned into a shallow open pit resource and the mineralisation is still open along strike and down dip.
Brightstar Resources Managing Director, Bill Hobba, said:
“Opportunities for extensions of the orebody have consistently been noted throughout the program and along the strike length of the deposit and this has continued into the final set of results.”
“Of the twenty holes returned in the current batch, 16 have returned significant results (>1g/t). The overall proportion of drillholes with significant intersections over the total program was approximately 80%. We look forward to presenting a new resource model in the coming months”
With a serious 12,000m RC program producing significant results in 80 per cent of holes drilled - it begs the question as to why this project has not seen any follow-up drilling since 2012. Regardless, Brightstar looks to be breathing some real life back into the project with further drilling planned soon and a new resource estimate model in the works to be released over coming months.
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