White Cliff drilling at Reedy South

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer, White Cliff Minerals, has the drill rods turning as it moves quickly to test its recently increased footprint around the historic Reedy South gold project, 40km north of Cue in WA’s Murchison goldfields.  The 3,000m RC drilling campaign will target two historic gold prospects, namely Pegasus and King Cole.

Perth-based White Cliff recently tabled an initial inferred and indicated mineral resource estimate for Reedy South after churning through three decades of historical drilling results.  The maiden resource totals 779,000 tonnes, grading 1.7 grams per tonne, for 42,400 ounces of contained gold.

White Cliff Minerals Technical Director, Ed Mead said: “Following the release of the maiden MRE for Reedy South, the Board has been eager to get on the ground and drilling these two prospects. From reviewing the historical drilling data and the MRE, we see scope to expand the resource base along strike and at depth – the 3,000m program will be aimed at confirming this view. Concurrently with the drilling, we have mobilised a small team into the field to undertake structural mapping across E20/969 and the recent Cracker Jack acquisition.”

The Reedy South project area takes in a number of historic underground workings through the old Pegasus and King Cole deposits. It stretches along a few kilometres of strike to the south of the gold-bearing Reedy Shear Zone, within the uber-rich Meekatharra-Wydgee greenstone belt.

The shear zone hosts a clutch of high-grade gold deposits with vertical plunging gold mineralisation extending to depths of 500m.  The deposits include Westgold Resources’ producing South Emu-Triton underground gold mine at the Reedy’s gold mining centre, located just north of White Cliff’s Reedy South.

The company recently snapped up the Cracker Jack gold project where historical reconnaissance drilling also took place and adjoins its existing Reedy South tenements.  White Cliff said it dug up some other historical drill data relating to Cracker Jack, a prospect located only about 10km south of Westgold’s mine.  

First-pass rounds of RC and rotary air blast drilling by St Barbara Mines and Gold Mines of Australia, before the turn of the century, hit pay dirt and led to several small historical prospecting pits being dug along the eastern contact between banded iron formation and mafic rocks, according to White Cliff.

The gold junior believes Reedy South has the potential to host a regionally significant gold resource, particularly in light of the lack of systematic exploration. Historical exploration was limited to near-surface work, consisting of prospecting, soil sampling and wide-spaced shallow drilling that did not exceed 60m-80m depth.

It would seem the work at Reedy South has only just begun with the latest RC program set to target strike extensions and infill locations to increase confidence in the current resource.  If all goes wells with the rotary lie detector over the next three weeks, White Cliff’s Pegasus and King Cole prospects could soon be singing a sweet tune.

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