Arika Resources spots +25 undrilled new gold targets at Yundamindra

More than 25 targets have been identified across Arika’s Yundamindra project
The targets are in areas which haven’t been touched by drilling
Phase 2 drilling will kick off next week

Special report: The discovery of new targets at Yundamindra has prompted the start of extensional drilling next week, starting within the Pennyweight Point mineralised corridor.

Data filtering technology was applied to multiple regional and local scale geophysical data sets to identify the new targets.

More than 25 high priority targets have been outlined beyond areas where recent drilling returned a series of spectacular results, including:

14m at 15.48g/t gold from 46m
30m at 3.86g/t gold from 64m; and
14m at 3.31g/t gold from 28m.

The project area appears to be a structurally complex intrusive volcanic and granitic interaction with intense structural disruptions and key elements which are consistently associated with many of the region’s most significant multi-million-ounce gold deposits.

Those include Gold Fields’ Wallaby and AngloGold Ashanti’s Sunrise Dam, among the largest and most consistent gold-rich orebodies mined in WA.

An analysis of recent drilling results, in conjunction with a review of all historical datasets, has revealed that despite the known prospects at Yundamindra appearing to have been extensively drilled, ~90% of all drilling has been limited to near surface weathered zones and depths of less than 80m with very few holes extending into fresh rock beyond 100m.

Valuable orebody underground

Yundamindra is 65km south-west of Laverton and 390km north-east of Kalgoorlie. Gold was first found at Laverton in 1896, with prospectors emerging en masse across a host of fields from the township itself to Mount Morgans in the west and Duketon to the north.

Nowadays a modern-day gold rush and the chasm between the ASX gold sector’s major names NST and EVN and the bottom end of the market has seen a score of miners consolidate assets in the region.

Yundamindra was, until earlier this year, covered by plaints that made exploration tough to pursue despite the project boasting historic production of ~45,000oz at over almost 20g/t gold. It’s the sort of thing modern day miners like to peruse to see if the old timers left a hidden more valuable orebody beneath their workings.

‘Makings of a very large’ system

Arika Resources’ (ASX:ARI) is now getting ready to accelerate exploration and follow up results reported from the company’s first drilling campaigns at Pennyweight Point and Landed at Last.

The structures hosting these two deposits continue for kilometres along strike, and host a multitude of other historical alluvial workings, pits, shafts and open stopes which have never been drilled.

ARI, previously known as Metalicity, believes Yundamindra has the makings of a very large mineralised system in an area surrounded by significant word-class mines.

Mineralisation along the Western Corridor at Landed at Last is highly correlated with the location of two major NW-SE trending faults, identified in the geophysical data extending for over 10km along strike.

Meanwhile, mineralisation along the Eastern Corridor is similarly associated with two major faults but trending NNE-SSW.

Mineralisation at Pennyweight Point is now confirmed to sit on the easternmost of these faults, which extend for at least 4.5km along strike.

‘Off to a great start’

“We continue to take a methodical and systematic approach to our exploration effort at Yundamindra,” ARI managing director Justin Barton said.

“We’re off to a great start with the outstanding results recently reported from our first drilling campaigns at Pennyweight Point and Landed at Last, but the work completed by our geophysics consultants in collaboration with our technical team clearly demonstrates the scale of the opportunity across the entire project area.

“Our exploration team is continuing to gather, analyse and interpret as much information as possible as we build a better understanding of the area, as the company embarks on an extensional drilling program starting at Pennyweight Point, anticipated to commence next week.”

READ: Everyone wants a slice of WA’s Laverton gold field, and these explorers are hunting the next major discovery

Next on the cards

Phase 2 drilling at Yundamindra is scheduled to start next week with immediate focus on testing strike and depth extensions at Pennyweight Point and Landed at Last.

Compilation and assessment of regional and local scale geophysical data will be ongoing to further refine the tectono-stratigraphic setting at Yundamindra.

An assessment of all available geochemical data has commenced with the assistance of industry leading consultants to help understand multi-element anomalism associated with gold occurrences and to identify potential gold trends and targets beyond drill tested areas.

This article was developed in collaboration with Arika Resources , a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.