Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR) is about to commence a large reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling (DD) programme immediately across the broader 1.45Moz Brightstar and Linden Gold portfolio, targeting gold mineralisation within known pit shells and underground designs outlined within Brightstar’s Scoping Studies.
The RC programme will initially commence at Menzies, where Brightstar aims to increase the geological confidence of the Lady Shenton System into Measured and Indicated status, thereby de-risking early stages of mining and providing valuable information for mine planning purposes.
As outlined in the September 2023 Scoping Study, approximately 100,000oz Au are to be mined from open pits within the Lady Shenton system across two virgin pits and a cut-back of the existing Lady Shenton mine.
Concurrently with this infill programme at Menzies, Brightstar will also take advantage of operational synergies and drill the St Francis prospect, located 1.5km north-west along strike of the Selkirk deposit which was recently the focus of a successful mining joint venture which generated $6.5 million profit to Brightstar.
Additional RC and DD drilling has been planned at Cork Tree Well and Linden Gold’s Second Fortune and Jasper Hills (Fish and Lord Byron deposits) projects to target both high-grade underground gold resources and baseload feed open pit targets.
“This drilling programme is the start of an aggressive exploration campaign by Brightstar, including deposits within the recently announced Linden Gold merger,” Managing Director, Alex Rovira, said.
“Beyond the initial RC campaign at Menzies, the drill rigs will then head to Brightstar’s Laverton Hub with the view to complete diamond and reverse circulation drilling programmes across the enlarged Brightstar portfolio.
“We expect these holes to deliver valuable information for geological, mine planning, geotechnical and metallurgical purposes ahead of the combined pre-feasibility study to be released by the end of the year.
“We’re also targeting greenfields exploration growth at the St Francis and Delta 2 prospects within the Menzies and Laverton Gold Projects respectively, with both highly compelling targets identified for drill testing.”