Okapi nails down Enmore gold asset purchase

ASX-listed junior explorer Okapi Resources has pressed ahead with its phased acquisition of the historical Enmore gold project about 30 kilometres south-east of Armidale in the New England fold belt in New South Wales after satisfying minimum expenditure and drilling requirements under the terms of the original purchase agreement. The Perth-based company says it has elected to make the first milestone payment of $300,000 to Enmore vendor Providence Gold and Minerals through the issue of Okapi shares, subject to shareholder approval.

Okapi recently completed an exciting maiden reverse circulation drilling program at the project consisting of 10 holes for an aggregate coverage of 1,257 metres across three prospects, being Sunnyside East, Sunnyside West and Bora.

The results certainly turned a few heads.

One of the spectacular thick RC intersections from Sunnyside East was an incredible 174-metre drill hit weighing in at an average grade of 1.83 grams per tonne gold from surface which sent Okapi’s share price on a tear a couple of weeks ago.

Another of the stand-out assays from that first round of drilling also emanated from Sunnyside East, with a deeper 3m intercept in the same hole that went 174m grading an impressive 8.86 g/t gold from 171m including 1m going 15.15 g/t from 172m.

Further notable RC drill intervals, again from Sunnyside East, included 37m at 1.27 g/t gold from 27m depth and 39m at 1.19 g/t from 51m.

The $58.5 million market-capped company says gold mineralisation has now been delineated over some 400m between Sunnyside East and Sunnyside West along the district-scale Sunnyside fault.

Mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike in both directions with indications that grades may increase with depth, according to Okapi.

Planning of a follow-up program the company hopes will culminate in a maiden mineral resource estimate for Enmore is under way.

Delivering an indicated or measured Enmore resource that is JORC compliant and no less than 100,000 ounces of gold equivalent at greater than 1.5 g/t gold will trigger Okapi’s second and final milestone payment to Providence of $400,000 for the asset acquisition.

Previous operators drilled more than 230 diamond, RC and percussion holes between them for a combined total coverage of more than 11,000m at several prospect areas at Enmore between 1974 and 2016.

About 140 of the historic holes were vectored in on Sunnyside, with just 16 pushing through beneath the oxide mineralisation level.

Okapi Resources Executive Director David Nour said: “These results show the potential for a very large, shallow, high-grade gold deposit at our Enmore gold project. The depth potential is very encouraging, and we have multiple prospects that remain untested.”

Okapi has been on somewhat of a shopping spree of late, interestingly also picking up a uranium project in Utah that bears the name Sunnyside.

With high-grade gold potential at its Enmore project in Australia and highly prospective uranium ground in the US, this junior explorer seems intent on growing up fast.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au