Warriedar Resources has set its 2024 sights firmly on its Ricciardo deposit in Western Australia’s Murchison region after hitting more gold in three new reverse-circulation (RC) holes, with assays going as high as 20m at 4.78 grams per tonne gold from 148m.
Other hits from the program revealed by the company today include 20m at 1.03g/t gold from 177m, 9m at 1.97g/t gold from 201m and 6m at 4.69g/t gold from 142m. Management is now optimistic it can expand its Riccardo gold resource that stands at 476,000 ounces.
The latest results come from 564m of hole drilled in November last year, which followed-on from earlier drilling at the deposit that resulted in assays delivered to the market in June going as high as 7m at 4.48g/t including 1m at 24g/t, 7m at 1.45g/t including 2m at 4.06g/t and 18m at 1.21g/t including 5m at 2.1g/t.
Notably, Warriedar says mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike, with the current model suggesting the deposit stretches for about 2.3km in a north-south orientation. The company says just 37 holes have been drilled deeper than 200m across the entire length of the Ricciardo project area – 29 holes by previous explorers and eight by Warriedar – leaving plenty of opportunity for follow-up drilling to define the resource.
These latest results from the 2.3km-long Ricciardo deposit provide further confirmation that it is a high-quality deposit offering an attractive combination of existing scale, strong grade and excellent further growth potential. Today’s results help to confirm the continuation of high-grade shoots that potentially extend at depth. The Ricciardo area is set to be a key focus area for us this year. Warriedar Resources managing director and chief executive officer Amanda Buckingham.
Interestingly, the top 40m to 65m of the Ricciardo deposit has been targeted by previous operators. Warriedar now believes mineralisation extends about another 450m down-dip and says it has identified multiple high-grade gold-bearing shoots.
Management believes the deep shoots exist along the length of Ricciardo’s strike and represent a tantalising exploration opportunity for follow-up drilling.
Warriedar operates two adjacent projects – Golden Range and Field’s Find – in the area about 100km south-east of the WA mining town of Mt Magnet, which is about 300km east of Geraldton. The Ricciardo deposit sits within the central portion of the Golden Range project.
And the company is not alone in the Murchison gold hunt, with some big players sitting on their own deposits nearby.
Within 50km of Golden Range there is Silver Lake Resources’ Rothsay mine that has 390,000 ounces of gold and 29 Metals’ massive Golden Grove mine that is digging away at a world-class volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposit with a total resource of 61.4 million tonnes grading 1.7 per cent copper, 4 per cent zinc, 0.7g/t gold and 28g/t silver.
Warriedar says the shear zone within its Golden Range project area hosts about 950,000 ounces of gold and also boasts its own processing plant (currently on care and maintenance), which has a capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year.
Field’s Find made headlines late last year when drill assays came back with shallow gold hits as high as 4m at 5g/t from 92m, backing-up historic hits going up to 4m at 36.9g/t gold from 104m, 4m at 29.67g/t from 98m and 19m at 1.64g/t from 115m.
The project also hosts the historic Warriedar copper mine that was in operation until 1969, producing high-grade copper with an average life-of-mine grade of an impressive 9.83 per cent.
With fresh gold hits on the books and the exploration potential of its Murchison ground well and truly begging to see the drill bit, Warriedar will be wasting no time in getting more assays to the lab and to market. The company says it will be back at Ricciardo in the second half of this year to drill more holes to firm up its understanding of just how big the deposit may be.
And that may well prove to be a good plan as gold continues to trade through the $3100 per ounce mark in Australia.
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