Warriedar Resources has nailed a perfect “five-from-five” run by adding its Mugs Luck prospect to four other gold discoveries this year at its Golden Range and Fields Find projects in Western Australia’s Murchison region.
With 90 per cent of its assays now back from this year’s drilling – totalling 142 holes for 26,990m – management says its model now shows extended gold mineralisation along strike and at depth at its Rothschild, Ricciardo (“Silverstone”), Windinne Well, Austin and Mugs Luck deposits, all of which sit on existing mining leases.
The company now has a rich bag of high-priority drill targets to keep its rigs busy for the rest of this year, in an effort to add mineable gold ounces along strike and below its existing mineral resources.
Since acquiring the historically shallow-drilled Golden Range and Fields Find projects in mid-February this year, Warriedar has been busy chasing deep targets with the hope of mirroring some big players producing mineable ounces of gold from deep rock next door.
About 20km away from the company’s ground, 29 Metals’ Golden Grove mine is producing from about 1800m and about 120km away, the Mount Magnet mine operated by Ramelius Resources is producing from about 1500m.
Warriedar’s strike rate is 5 from 5 for resource extension drill programs this year. Adding Mugs Luck to the success stories this morning, we have an outstanding portfolio of gold deposits to pursue during the second half of 2023. Mineable, high-grade ounces – the team is pumped to keep building our gold resources. And as mentioned this morning, we are finally in a position to open the treasure trove of goodies at Fields Find west this quarter– seriously good looking EM conductors in the layered intrusive complex, Cu-Au associated with small porphyries. A complete treasure trove!
The company says results from drilling within its five gold deposits have been encouraging, with assays from the first half of the year providing modellers with plenty of reasons to extend the footprint of deeper lodes. It has provided a strike and depth extension for the Rothschild gold deposit, with management saying the main lode is now believed to extend another 150m into the ground along the entire strike length, in addition to confirming the presence of additional parallel mineralised lodes. Warriedar Resources managing director Amanda Buckingham
This year, Rothschild has seen 47 holes drilled for a total of 7529m, with 3169 samples sent to the laboratory and 2981 returned. The existing inferred mineral resource estimate for Rothschild is 693,000 tonnes at 1.4 grams per tonne gold for 31,300 ounces. The company is also now eagerly awaiting results from a drill program completed earlier this month about 1km away at its Stone Hut prospect.
The Windinne Well gold deposit has had 21 holes drilled for 4687m, with 3865 samples taken and 3849 returned. The existing total mineral resource estimate for Windinne Well is 975,000 tonnes at 2.9g/t gold for 91,700 ounces.
The drilling allowed the company to extend the depth of a high-grade shoot at Windinne Well to 240m, just 150m away from the existing pit. Management says there are multiple high-grade shoots within the main deposit sitting beneath the pit, all of which will be targeted with drilling in the second half of this year.
Ricciardo, also known as Silverstone, is modelled as a cluster of gold deposits and is the flagship operation at Golden Range. It has had 17 holes drilled for 3148m, with 1725 samples taken and 1604 returned. The existing total mineral resource estimate for Ricciardo is 8.72 million tonnes at 1.7g/t gold for 475,900 ounces.
The company says the mineralisation at Ricciardo remains open at depth and to the south. Follow-up drilling in the second half of this year will be coupled with metallurgical testwork.
Warriedar’s most recent gold discovery at Mugs Luck is believed to be a series of narrow mineralised lodes close to surface and has had 16 holes drilled for 3657m, primarily aimed at extending hypothesised mineralisation below the existing resource.
A total of 1364 samples were taken and 920 returned by the lab, with the best intercepts being 12m at 1.1g/t gold from 96m, 4m at 0.61g/t from 80m and another 4m at 1.45g/t from 140m, which the company says confirms that the main gold-bearing lode extends at depth. The existing total mineral resource estimate for Mugs Luck is 713,000 tonnes at 1.7g/t gold for 38,600 ounces.
Austin is a polymetallic deposit with gold and base metal prospectivity and was the target of a smaller drill program, with just five holes drilled for 1086m. There were 379 samples taken and 273 returned.
Management says the samples suggest the depth of the gold mineralisation reaches 40m deeper than previously thought and confirms the deposit’s polymetallic nature. The existing mineral resource estimate for Austin is 434,000 tonnes at 1.4 g/t for 19,200 ounces of gold.
And Warriedar has promised that its drilling will not stop, with two focuses for the second half of this year – gold and base metals.
The company plans to mature its geological model for another six gold targets, including Bugeye North, which is between two of its other deposits – Bugeye with 48,100 ounces and Monaco-Sprite along strike to the north with 74,000 ounces.
To keep the Austin polymetallic deposit company, Warriedar plans to explore for more base metal by drilling targets identified from electromagnetic (EM) data.
Exploration in the first half of this year involved the acquisition of an extensive aerial EM survey that was designed to identify new conductors in previously unsurveyed areas. The survey identified about 90 targets that were ranked and targeted by ground-based surveys and revealed seven high-priority base metal targets.
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