Arika’s drilling follows recent high-grade gold hits at Yundamindra

• Arika Resources starts drilling to follow-up on high-grade hits at the Landed at Last and Pennyweight Point prospects
• Drilling will also test new high-priority geophysical and geochemical targets at Yundamindra
• Rig will then move to test gold targets at the Kookynie project

Special Report: Arika Resources has launched a 10,000m drill program at its Yundamindra gold project in WA’s northeastern Goldfields region to follow up on recent wide, high-grade intersections at the Landed at Last and Pennyweight Point prospects.

A multi-purpose aircore/reverse circulation rig – used to provide increased target testing capability – has started drilling at the Landed at Last prospect which sits towards the northern end of the ‘Western Corridor’.

Previous drilling by Arika Resources (ASX:ARI) at this area, which includes the F1 Fault, had returned results such as 14.8m grading 3.1g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 87m including 2.25m at 9.76g/t gold from 99m in hole 25YMD003.

The Landed at Last structure has been drill defined over 800m of strike and extending to a depth of at least 150m while the cross-cutting F1 Fault structure has been defined to a strike length of 300m and to a depth of at least 80m.

Both systems remain open in all directions along strike and downdip/down-plunge.

Once drilling at Landed at Last is completed, the company will then move the rig to test the Pennyweight Point prospect at the northern end of the ‘Eastern Corridor’ where previous drilling had returned hits of up to 14m at 15.48g/t gold from 46m.

Pennyweight Point is currently drill defined over 350m of strike and to a depth of at least 200m from surface. It remains open along strike to the south and at depth as well as to the north past the disruptive effects of a localised cross-cutting fault.

“We are absolutely delighted to be back drilling at Yundamindra to follow up a suite of high-priority targets, with an initial focus on the rapidly emerging Landed at Last prospect and F1-Fault,” managing director Justin Barton said.

The  Landed at Last prospect and F1-Fault “form part of the mineralised +10km ‘Yellow Brick Road’ on the Western Corridor, which remains underexplored or largely unexplored particularly along strike from the known occurrences and at depth below 50m,” Barton added.

Arika’s boss also noted that the company had committed to carrying out detailed drone-supported airborne magnetics and ground gravity surveys to further refine targets and follow up on recent high-grade intercepts at Pennyweight Point.

“With an initial 10,000m of drilling planned, we expect this program to be the start of a comprehensive drilling campaign to continue throughout the remainder of the year at Yundamindra and Kookynie, ensuring plenty of news flow for shareholders over the second half of the year.”

The drill program was expanded from the initially planned 6000m program following the success of the company’s recent $5m capital raising.

Yundamindra project

ARI has an 80% interest in the Yundamindra project alongside 20% minority JV partner Nex Metals Exploration (ASX:NME).

It sits 65km southwest of Laverton and is within close trucking distance to a number of mills in the region, which have demonstrated gold endowment as illustrated by impressive deposits such as the 8Moz Sunrise Dam and 7Moz Wallaby mine.

Yundamindra has a proven gold system with historical high-grade production of 74,000t at 19.3g/t for 45,000oz of contained gold.

Like much of the eastern Goldfields, visible fine gold mineralisation is contained within laminated quartz veins.

Once drilling at the Landed at Last and Pennyweight Point prospects has progressed, the company will move to test new high-priority geophysical and geochemical targets at Yundamindra.

It will then move the rig to carry out drilling at the Kookynie project where ultrafine soil geochemistry has been used to expand the target pipeline with another 17 new targets.

Like Yundamindra, Kookynie has seen little modern exploration despite its significant gold endowment.

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.