Arika hits shallow gold on maiden Queen of the May voyage

Arika Resources initial Queen of the May results return significant shallow gold mineralisation
Gold footprint expands in tune with aggressive drill program
More assays and drilling due in previously overlooked Laverton gold field

Special Report: Arika Resources has logged some enticing shallow intercepts from the Queen of the May prospect on its mission at Yundamindra to unearth a large-scale Laverton gold system.

Assays from three holes of Arika Resources (ASX:ARI) maiden RC drill campaign at the prospect returned significant shallow zones of mineralisation and a headline strike of 20m at 1.62 g/t gold from 28m.

The prospect comprises multiple gold-bearing lodes and historical workings across a structural corridor defined by two major faults extending more than 10km along strike on the western end of the greater Yundamindra project.

It is one of many targets worthy of the drill bit that Arika has racked up at the project, and managing director Justin Barton said its gold footprint continued to rapidly expand through an aggressive drill campaign.

“We are continuing to expand our exploration focus at Yundamindra and systematically test several undrilled high-priority targets and extensions to known mineralisation,” Barton said.

“Queen of the May forms part of more than 10km of identified gold-bearing structures on the Western Limb of Yundamindra and has only seen very sparse aircore drilling and limited modern exploration in the last two decades.

“To return such impressive results from our first-pass RC drilling program on previously untested areas of this prospect is a great result and further strengthens our conviction that we are in the very early stages of exploration of a major mineralised system.”

The area in question has yet to be drilled beneath 50m, and Arika plans to restart soon for a follow up and test new targets while awaiting results from recent drilling over the Landed at Last and Pennyweight point prospects.

Significant new results:

20m at 62 g/t gold from 28m, including 4m at 4.80 g/t gold from 28m, 3m at 3.81 g/t gold from 42m, and 1m at 10.28 g/t gold from 42m; and
6m at 35 g/t gold from 52m, including 1m at 11.45 g/t gold from 56m.

Laverton’s game of mines

The bigger fish in Australia’s gold sector will increasingly need to look down the curve to capture the benefit of record gold prices, and there are few areas with more competitive tension than the previously overlooked Laverton gold field.

Both Arika’s Yundamindra and its Kookynie project near Menzies are examples of the tenure which had been previously ignored by the majors, who the company believes will come knocking if it keeps hitting shallow gold on granted mining leases.

And in spite of record bullion markets, there is a growing chorus from the investment world that there is plenty more room to grow and that miners may remain keenly undervalued.