Brightstar confirms wide, open-pit mineable gold at Jasper Hill

Brightstar reports high-grade, broad results from drilling at Jasper Hills project
Company planning to test compelling targets with more drilling in H1
Drilling is now underway at the Sandstone project

Special Report: Assays from Brightstar Resources’ diamond drilling at the Lord Byron deposit, part of the 293koz Jasper Hills gold project in the company’s Laverton Hub, have returned promising results – including up to 17.3g/t gold.

The 13-hole program was designed to infill deeper zones of the deposit, and increase confidence in the geological interpretation prior to a planned update to the resource estimate later this year.

The drilling also targeted areas surrounding conceptual A$3,000/oz gold optimised pit shells, which were developed as part of the 2024 Jasper Hills scoping study.

Best results included:

20.39m at 3.03 g/t Au from 196.53m, including 1.36m at 9.23 g/t Au from 198.21m and 2.34m at 7.72 g/t Au from 205.53m;
22.86m at 1.68 g/t Au from 178.24m, including 0.30m at 17.3 g/t Au from 179.10m;
23.11m at 1.56 g/t Au from 202.12m;
16.79m at 2.13 g/t Au from 205m, including 2.70m at 5.83g/t Au from 218.42m;
13.40m at 2.53 g/t Au from 141.00m, including 0.60m at 10.3 g/t Au from 153.80m; and
7.80m at 4.07g/t Au from 233.00m, including 1.00m at 10.0 g/t Au from 238.50m.

The results highlight consistent high-grade, south-plunging shoots, which present excellent targets for potentially enlarged pit shells and underground mining scenarios – which Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) says demonstrate the deposit’s capacity for both high-grade and bulk-tonnage mining opportunities.

Wide and open-pit mineable grades

The program also generated important geotechnical and metallurgical data to aid the ongoing development studies of the deposit.

“These highly encouraging results reinforce Lord Byron’s position as a significant gold resource within the company’s portfolio,” BTR managing director Alex Rovira said.

“The increased geological understanding, and additional metallurgical and geotechnical data will contribute to updated development studies at our Laverton Hub.

“The results highlight wide intervals of open-pit mineable gold grades, including discrete zones of high-grade mineralisation identified near the base of, and below, a A$3,000/oz optimised pit shell generated during the 2024 scoping study.

“The outcomes of this program represent a major step forward in demonstrating the deposit’s potential for both high-grade and bulk-tonnage mining opportunities, while reinforcing the opportunities at depth which are compelling targets due to the wide and higher-grade nature of the main lode centred on the Bicentennial Shear Zone.”

These compelling targets are planned to be tested in further drilling at Lord Byron in H1 CY24.

The overall plan is to grow the resource ahead of assessing the potential for future open pit cut-backs or underground mining beneath the planned open pit.

Work is also continuing on the definitive feasibility study and near-term development of mining operations at the Jasper Hills project.

In the meantime, BTR is drilling at its 1.5M oz Au Sandstone project. With the RC program now completed at Lord Nelson, the RC rig is now located at the Vanguard camp.

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.