Junior explorer, Torian Resources has commenced a major 17,500 metre drilling blitz at its Mt Stirling gold project near Leonora in Western Australia. The campaign will test multiple regional gold targets, including recent discoveries, whilst also looking to lift the company’s existing 100,000 ounce plus Mt Stirling inferred resource to the higher confidence indicated category. An updated mineral resource estimate is anticipated to follow early in the new year.
The Mt Stirling tenure consists of two adjoining blocks – the Stirling Block to the north and the Diorite Block to the south.
Torian’s 102,000 ounce Mt Stirling gold deposit and its nearby Stirling Well deposit, with 16,000 ounces of contained gold, both lie in the Stirling Block.
The company has been busy in recent times smashing out the metres in a regional exploration push across both blocks at its tenure. With a new 17,500m campaign now underway, the pace of the program appears to be continuing at a healthy clip.
Torian has adopted auger vacuum, or “AV” drilling in its exploration efforts to identify priority golds targets for follow-up by more precise RC drilling. It has recently unveiled numerous compelling targets, including the Hydra, Tyrannus, Skywing and Estera Lode prospects.
The now commenced RC campaign will see 12,500m of drilling test the high priority targets, with the rods already turning at Estera Lode.
Recent drilling at Estera Lode in the Diorite Block returned a 4m hit going 4.86 grams per tonne gold from 52m, including a stunning 1m strike at 18.79 g/t gold. The intercept added to another recent hit where a 2m interval grading 12.18 g/t gold from 20m was returned at the prospect.
Interestingly, Estera Lode lies about 10 kilometres south of the Mt Stirling deposit.
In the Stirling Block, Torian also recently struck gold along a 1km mineralised zone at Tyrannus, located about 1.5km east from its Mt Stirling deposit. Shallow intercepts at Tyrannus include 1m at 5.13 g/t gold from 14m and 1m at 3.46 g/t gold from just 2m.
At Skywing, notable recent intercepts to be followed-up by RC drilling include 2m at 8.02 g/t gold and 1m at 6.03 g/t gold.
Some 40 per cent of the planned metres in the new RC campaign will also target the shallow parts of Mt Stirling gold deposit as Torian seeks to convert 50 per cent of the inferred resource to the higher confidence indicated category.
It believes the drilling could potentially add more ounces to the existing resource by extending the mineralised system along strike and at depth.
Torian says it has locked in two RC rigs through to the end of January for the major drilling campaign.
Another 5,000m of regional target definition AV drilling is also on the cards for the Mt Stirling tenure.
Torian Resources Executive Director, Peretz Schapiro said:“Today is a landmark day for our company as we embark on perhaps our most ambitious phase of drilling at the Mt Stirling Gold Project.
The last six months or so of continued regional exploration has de-risked this next phase of drilling and put us in the best possible position for this campaign’s ultimate success, which we intend to be realised with a new global MRE increasing both the size and confidence of our resources across the project. This is in addition to us also working to prove up multiple high priority gold targets across the Mt Stirling Gold Project.”
Torian seeks to deliver an updated global mineral resource estimate for the broader Mt Stirling gold project by the end of the first quarter next year.
The updated estimate will include results from the new RC campaign and previous drilling at the project not featured in the existing resource base.
In next to no time Torian has amassed a conga line of exciting gold targets at its Mt Stirling tenure. With a follow-up drilling blitz now underway, the Perth-based explorer can be expected to produce a steady flow of news for some time yet, with the next set of assays expected to be returned over the coming weeks.
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By Matt Birney
