ASX-listed explorer Zuleika Gold is set to embark on major expansionary drilling programs across its Kalgoorlie gold projects. After a significant effort in 2021, the company is gearing up to plough an additional 20,000 metres into the ground for what will ultimately be a serious 40,000m campaign over two years for the Mark Creasy backed junior.
The latest campaign will run to ground a grab bag of newly defined targets generated by the 2021 drilling blitz.
The last round of drilling gave up some respectable intercepts which more than warrant a second passing of the rig. In particular, the Breakaway prospect yielded 4 metres grading 4.3 grams per tonne gold from 40m downhole.
The 2021 effort primarily tested targets within the Zuleika and Credo projects and saw 23,370m drilled in total. Nearly 80 per cent of the program comprised of air core holes and the remaining portion were reverse circulation holes.
Typically, explorers will drill aircore holes to efficiently test large areas of prospective ground as the rigs are lightweight, much quicker to mobilise and cheaper to operate. Reverse circulation rigs on the other hand are typically used for more focused targets as they are capable of drilling to deeper depths and cost more to run.
This year the company will continue with its dual pronged approach, aiming to complete a further 20,000m of aircore and reverse circulation drilling to advance its flagship Zuleika project.
The drilling will initially focus on the priority prospects including Breakaway Dam, Browns Dam, Little T and Carnage Shear that will be tested with 5,500m of aircore and reverse circulation drilling.
The junior explorer has also planned a further 4,500m of aircore drilling at its Menzies and Goongarrie projects to the north.
Bringing the total to 15,000m, an additional 5,000m of drilling across new target areas is planned following the receipt and analysis of all assay results from its extensive surface geochemistry programs completed in 2021. Exploration programs will also be designed for newly granted tenements covering the Zuleika and Carnage Shear Zones.
The final 5,000m of the mammoth program is planned for the Paradigm East prospect of Zuleika’s flagship project and the Credo project to the east, subject to the results from last year’s drilling.
Additionally, Zuleika will continue to systematically carry out soil sample surveys on its other tenements using new technology developed by the CSIRO. The newly developed tech can define subtle gold anomalies in the soil covered terrain and will hopefully generate more targets to drill test.
The company says it is well-financed to complete the planned systematic exploration of its highly prospective portfolio after the recent influx of cash from prominent West Australian prospector and investor, Mark Creasy.
The Zuleika project sits within the renowned and gold rich Kundana – Ora Banda district west of Kalgoorlie. The significant tenement holdings pegs the company as the third largest landowner along the Zuleika and Kunanalling shears behind ASX-listed Evolution Mining and domestic gold producer Norton Goldfields.
The project area has been strategically elongated along significant regional structures within the highly prospective stratigraphy. Remarkably, this area of interest has produced more than 20 million ounces of gold over the last 30 years.
At today’s gold price of about $2,600 an ounce, that is the equivalent of about $52 billion worth of the precious yellow metal.
Zuleika’s assays from 2021 have re-sounded the horn on the region’s prolific gold mineralisation and Zuleika appears to be ahead of the pack with a bag of cash in the bank and a swathe of interesting targets that look like they are screaming to see the drill bit.
Back-to-back campaigns of over 20,000m a year is a commendable effort for any junior explorer and things could get interesting quickly for this West Australian junior explorer if its targets start to come in.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
