Brightstar's Cork Tree Well project could grow a lot bigger. Pic: Getty
Mining
Final assay results from drilling at the Cork Tree Well gold deposit have improved Brightstar’s understanding of the orebody and highlighted potential for further growth.
Here’s why:
And this is over the entirety of the project – confirming the tenor and locations of the lode compared with the geological model.
That also includes the delineation of mineralisation outside the current resource of 3.86Mt at 1.9g/t for 237,000oz of contained gold.
Previous results from the same program drilled by Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) had returned results indicating that the deposit became thicker and richer at depth.
“Similarly to the previous results received these assays have continued to confirm the orebody model location as well as thickness and grade of earlier intersections,” managing director Bill Hobba said.
“Opportunities for extensions of the orebody have consistently been noted throughout the program and along the strike length of the deposit and this has continued into the final set of results.
“Of the twenty holes returned in the current batch, 16 have returned significant results (>1g/t). The overall proportion of drill holes with significant intersections over the total program was approximately 80%.”
Hobba added that the company aimed to not only present a new resource model in the coming months, it will also delineate high-priority areas for follow-up drilling to grow the footprint of known mineralisation.
Brightstar noted that significant results north of the pits seem to sit further east than the main lode at CTW on a basalt-ultramafic contact rather than the sedimentary chert units within the pits.
This may indicate that there are parallel lodes, a splay lode, or cross lodes that have not been effectively tested in this area, which represents an area of potentially material upside that will require further drilling to effectively test.
Additionally, drilling in the northern end of Cork Tree Well – the Delta project area – have returned significant results, which are open along strike and downdip, that could contribute to a shallow open pittable resource.
The company has now started geological and orebody interpretation with modelling and estimation to be undertaken as soon as the interpretation is complete.
This will feed into an upgraded resource later in the current quarter.
Brightstar is also likely to propose additional drilling to extend mineralisation down-dip and along strike to the north as well as north of the northern pit to resolve potential for parallel lodes.
Work is also underway to better understand the nickel potential of Cork Tree Well.
This article was developed in collaboration with Brightstar 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.
Mining
Mining
Mining
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
