Okapi hits high-grade gold in NSW

Okapi Resources has received the last of its assay results from a recently completed seven-hole diamond drilling program for 1440m at the company’s Enmore gold project in NSW’s New England Fold Belt. Further significant gold mineralisation was encountered including a broad 28m hit grading 2.03 grams per tonne gold from 191m downhole.

The drill program was designed to follow up high-grade mineralisation intersected in RC drilling at the project’s Sunnyside prospect last year. Okapi’s latest results build on an initial tranche of results reported in September and confirm Enmore’s potential as an emerging high-grade gold project. The previously reported results include 4m grading 8.85 g/t gold from 184m from one hole and 26m going 2.52 g/t from 182m from another hole.

The explorer says its Sunnyside prospect shares common characteristics with ASX-listed Red River Resources’ Hillgrove gold mine that has produced more than 730,000 ounces of gold and lies just 20km to the north. In particular, the style of mineralisation and observed development of mineralised shoots at depth is thought to be similar.

Okapi’s analysis suggests the recently drilled extent of Sunnyside reflects only the upper part of Red River’s deposit with potential gold-rich mineralisation at deeper depths. Notably, four of Okapi’s seven drill holes ended in gold mineralisation grading as high as 1.7 g/t, indicating that mineralisation is open at depth, to the north-east and down plunge.

Okapi Resources Managing Director, Andrew Ferrier said: “The drill results across the entire program returned significant high-grade gold intervals and achieved the objective of the program which was to test for depth extensions and determine the true width of the mineralisation intersected in last year’s RC Drilling Program.”

“The project continues to return high-grade gold from drilling that remains open at depth whilst also having significant regional potential, all whilst being close to existing infrastructure.”

The company believes Enmore has significant regional potential with the majority of targets as yet untested by deep drilling. The project contains 36 identified mineral occurrences ­– the majority of which are untested by deeper drilling or modern exploration methods. Most previous exploration targeted shallow mineralisation with only 41 of the 233 historical drill holes penetrating a depth of more than 100m.

Today, the spot price of gold was hovering around the US$1666 per ounce mark – not far from its two-yearly low of US$1621 that was reached just last month on September 26. When it comes to the price of the precious metal the renowned economic forecaster Fitch Solutions recently lowered its price expectations for the rest of 2022. The forecaster anticipates the full-year average to sit at US$1800 an ounce, representing a depreciating slide of $50 from its previous forecast of US$1850.

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