Solstice Minerals (ASX: SLS) has commenced first stage aircore drilling at its Bunjarra and Kildare gold targets in the northern Yarri Project in Western Australia.
Drilling is part of an ongoing strategy to test new ‘stand-alone scale’ gold targets – typically structural positions where shallow (<40m) transported soil cover has prevented effective historical exploration.
Targets lie in established, highly gold endowed, greenstone belts and are well supported by favourable geology and drill intersected gold mineralisation along strik.
The company has a pipeline of similar targets available for future fast, low-cost initial drilling.
Solstice has a terrific landholding at Yarri covering structural corridors with proven endowment and pathways to production,” CEO and MD, Nick Castleden, said.
“Our compilation work is highlighting areas where past exploration may have found ‘smoke’ but has not effectively tested along-strike positions. Typically, these targets are under shallow transported cover and suitable for cost-effective aircore testing. We prioritise targets that have space to fit a stand-alone scale gold system and it is always exciting to be doing this style of high-impact first-stage exploration work.”
The Bunjarra and Kildare gold targets lie approximately 70km northwest of the company’s 177,000oz1 Hobbes gold deposit and Northern Star Minerals’ Porphyry mining centre, and 20km east of Saturn Metals’ 1.84Moz Apollo Hill gold deposit.
Both areas lie in promising structural settings, have indications of gold mineralisation in on-strike positions, and are covered by a blanket of shallow transported alluvial material that has limited the effectiveness of previous exploration.
This style of target is best tested via aircore drilling, a rapid and cost-effective drilling technique that can reveal gold and pathfinder mineralisation in the weathering profile as well as adding valuable bedrock information.
The planned programme comprises approximately 70 holes at 800m traverse spacing for approximately 5,000m of drilling.
The drilling component of the programme is expected to take around two weeks to complete, and analytical results will be reported as they are compiled and validated.
