Junior exploration company, Torian Resources has delivered several significant gold drill hits at its Stirling Well deposit some 40 kilometres north-west of Leonora in Western Australia including 1m at an impressive 16.81 grams per tonne gold. The company says the recently announced results have increased the mineralised footprint beyond the existing resource which already consists of 253,500 tonnes going 2.01 g/t gold for more than 16,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal.
The high-grade 1m interval at 16.81 g/t gold forms part of a broader 3m hit going 6.5 g/t from 127m. Management says historical drilling surrounding that intercept fell between 12m and 27m short of the high-grade gold lode’s interpreted depth.
Other notable hits from the recently announced drill results include a shallow 1m intersection going 8.44 g/t gold from just 23m. Another hole returned 2m at 2.95 g/t gold from 86m, including a richer 1m interval at 4.92 g/t gold from 87m.
Interestingly, Torian says the high-grade intercepts are significantly above the resource grade of the deposit.
The latest results come on the back of two drilling campaigns at Stirling Well where 18 shallow holes for 888m of drilling were looking to confirm mineralisation and grade continuity, whilst another 17 holes for 2,618m targeted structural repetitions and extensions of mineralisation.
Torian believes the results justify further exploration and show potential to increase the mineralised footprint at Stirling Well.
Torian Resources’ Executive Director, Peretz Schapiro said:“We are very encouraged by the results received from our recent Stirling Well campaigns, as it confirms our structural hypothesis of multiple stacked horizontal lodes, with drilling intercepting high grade gold mineralisation deeper than what has been previously explored. This campaign has also increased the footprint of mineralisation at Stirling Well, warranting follow up exploration….
These results continue to affirm our belief that our Mt Stirling gold project has the potential to turn into a significant gold camp.”
The Stirling Well project consists of two separate adjoining blocks – the Stirling Block to the north and the Diorite Block to the south.
The Stirling Well deposit and the nearby Mt Stirling deposit fall within the broader “Stirling Block”.
The Mt Stirling deposit already boasts an indicated resource taking in 355,000 tonnes at 1.7 g/t gold for some 20,000 ounces of contained gold in the indicated category, with another 1.695Mt at 1.5 g/t gold for 82,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.
Recent drilling by Torian is testing a hypothesis that the gold systems at the two deposits could potentially be connected, with some drill results still pending.
The company believes the Mt Stirling gold system to be open in all directions and it has also identified numerous regional targets along four key structural corridors at the Mt Stirling tenure.
Management says it has now turned its drilling focus to high priority targets at the Stirling Block, including the Viserion prospect and “significant” arsenic anomalies identified at the Hydra and Tyrannus prospects.
Torian also recently launched a 12-hole campaign at the Diorite Block where 1,230m of drilling is targeting the Diorite East and the Diorite North prospects.
At Diorite East, the campaign is testing a 460m target zone where a 1m interval at 2.19 g/t gold was previously returned. Drilling at Diorite North is following up on a recent 1m hit going 4.66 g/t gold.
Results from the Diorite Block drilling are due in the coming weeks.
The Mt Stirling acreage lies a stone’s throw from ASX-listed Red 5 Limited’s King of the Hills mine where more than four million ounces of gold have been defined.
Torian may also be on the way to delivering its own treasure trove of riches as it continues to return solid gold strikes at its Mt Stirling tenure.
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