Surefire Resources’ share price vaulted more than 50 per cent higher in opening trades on Monday following news the budding gold explorer had hit a bounty of broad gold intercepts in the Murchison Goldfields of WA. The company’s maiden drilling program over the Yidby Road prospect returned mineralised intercepts up to 56 metres wide including a stunning 40m at 3.01 grams per tonne gold, hosting 4m at 26.57 g/t gold from only 24m down-hole.
The company says that its reverse circulation drilling shows the mineralisation at the prospect is hosted by an array of gold-bearing quartz-carbonate veins within a porphyry intrusion. Other notable intersections from the first drill holes of the program include 56m at 1.97 g/t gold, hosting 12m at 7.73 g/t from 44m and 36m at 1.51 g/t, hosting 5m at 5.86 g/t gold from 32m down-hole.
A review of the drill results indicates all eight of the drill holes, which have been reported to date, intersected gold mineralisation delivering a perfect strike rate for Surefire. The samples for a further twelve drill holes are currently in, or making their way to, the laboratory in Perth for assay.
The preliminary interpretation of the Yidby Road prospect indicates that it follows a north-west striking trend with mineralisation currently defined along more than 300m of the host structure. The gold-bearing system appears to be unconstrained by the present drill pattern and remains open along strike and at depth, presenting an enticing target for ongoing exploration.
Surefire has joined a phalanx of explorers now clambering into the Murchison Goldfields north of Perth in WA. The crowd of hopefuls are all being driven in by a buoyant gold price, still trading at over A$2,400 an ounce and the successes of various other gold miners in the region including Silver Lake Resources, south of Yalgoo and Ramelius Resources at Mt Magnet.
Other explorers to recently join the hunt for gold in the region include White Cliff at Reedy’s South and Emu at Gnow’s Nest. Terrain is also in the mix with its Smokebush project, adjacent to the massive developing Mt Mulgine tungsten-gold mine south of Yalgoo.
Surefire’s Yidby gold project lies 320km north-east of Perth and is easily accessed via the Great Northern Highway, which runs through to the regional gold mining centres at Mt Magnet, Cue and Meekatharra to the north.
The project is surrounded by a wealth of gold and base metal deposits including the world-class Golden Grove copper-zinc mine, 60km to the north-west, the 1.1 million ounce Golden Dragon gold deposits, just 50km to the north-west and the high-grade Rothsay gold mine, 40km to the west which was acquired by Silver Lake Resources in late 2019 for a cool $68 million.
Interestingly, the discovery also lies only 30km to the north of the dormant, 1.7 million-ounce Mt Gibson gold mining camp, with the geology and mineralisation at Yidby showing a marked similarities to several of the substantial ore bodies within the gold and silver-rich system.
The company’s Yidby tenure covers over 110 square kilometres of the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt, which has seen little gold exploration in the last 20 years presenting a tantalising opportunity for Surefire. The project hosts three prospect areas which display a wealth of gold prospectivity, including the Cashen’s Find, Delaney Well and Yidby Road prospects. The three gold targets all host historic artisanal workings, anomalous surface geochemistry and ore-grade intercepts in the sparse, shallow drilling undertaken by previous explorers. Initial results from Yidby Road bode well for ongoing exploration across the company’s tenure and future drill programs.
Surefire looks to be bang on target with its maiden program at Yidby and with the samples from twelve drill holes still to be assayed, it is a fair bet that the company will be waiting with bated breath on the next batch of results and looking to jump back into drilling at the earliest opportunity.
Surefire shares closed Monday’s session up 1c or 32.25 per cent at 4.1c on the back of nearly $10 million worth of turnover in its heaviest trading day of the year.
Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
