Okapi reaches for diamond drill in NSW gold search

ASX-listed Okapi Resources is all set to commence an 11-hole diamond drilling program at its wholly-owned Enmore gold project in NSW within the next three weeks. The company plans to follow up last year’s reverse circulation drilling at the Sunnyside prospect that returned exceptional gold assay results.

Okapi says mineralisation at the Sunnyside gold prospect remains open at depth and along strike. Additionally, drilling is proposed at the nearby Sherwood prospect.

The planned program consists of 1800 metres of diamond drilling and is designed to test depth extensions of the exceptional gold assay results from its previous RC campaign at the Sunnyside Prospect, where gold mineralisation is present over 400m of strike and remains open at depth.

In 2021 Okapi terminated one hole at 174m depth with the final 3m interval assaying 3m at 8.86 grams per tonne gold, including 1m at a promising 15.15 g/t gold from 172m.  The company is understandably keen to reinvestigate the area as soon as possible.

The exploration also aims to test the Sherwood prospect on the Bora Fault beneath old workings and follow up on historically intersected high-grade gold mineralisation.

A drill rig has been secured and the company estimates the work will take 2-3 months to complete.

Okapi’s Enmore project is within the New England Fold Belt, about 30km south of the regional centre of Armidale in northern NSW. Red River’s operating Hillgrove gold mine is about 20km north of Enmore and has produced over 730,000 ounces of gold. The company says the Enmore project shows similar geological characteristics to the Hillgrove deposit.

Management believes there is significant exploration potential at Enmore, with 36 identified mineral occurrences – the majority untested by deep drilling, modern geophysics or other targeting methods applied across the project. The mineralisation at Enmore generally comprises structurally controlled orogenic style gold and antimony mineralisation.

Okapi’s geological interpretation of the historical exploration data points to the potential for cross-cutting structures at Enmore. Past exploration targeted the dominant east-west mineralised structures. However, at the nearby Hillgrove deposit, higher-grade ore sections are recognised as being associated with the confluence of cross-cutting north-west-south-east structures and the main east-west structures. At Enmore this structural relationship is yet to be investigated with drilling.

Earlier explorers punched out more than 210 diamond, RC and percussion holes totalling 11,323m at several prospects between 1974 and 2016 across the Enmore project area. About 140 of the historical holes were drilled at Sunnyside, with only 16 penetrating below the oxide mineralisation level. Okapi says high-grade gold mineralisation associated with quartz veins and breccias was encountered in the few deeper historical holes drilled.

Previous best intercepts include 22m at an average grade of 2.66 g/t gold from surface including 4m at a hearty 11.94 g/t from surface, 20m at 1.7 g/t from 18m including 4m at 4.4 g/t from 21m, and 2m at stunning 14.6 g/t from 46m.

Okapi completed 10 RC drillholes for 1257m last year across three prospects at Sunnyside East, Sunnyside West and Bora. Excitingly, assay results returned significant gold values from all 10 drillholes with the best numbers coming at the end of the holes. All eyes will surely be on the numbers that come out of Okapi’s this diamond drill campaign - watch this space.

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