Brightstar gets drill spinning at Cork Tree Well in WA’s goldfields

Brightstar Resources starts inaugural ~2,000m diamond drilling campaign at Cork Tree Well at Laverton gold project
Drilling expected to assist with metallurgical and geotechnical test work as part of the PFS underway
Company targeting first gold pour at Menzies project in Q1

Special Report: Brightstar Resources has commenced its inaugural, twenty holes for ~2,000m diamond drilling program at Cork Tree Well (CTW) within its Laverton gold project in WA.

Back in May last year, the company completed a merger with Kingwest Minerals which consolidated both the Menzies and Laverton projects in WA.

This diamond drilling is targeted across the open pit shells which were included in the scoping study released in September last year that estimated gold production of roughly 40,000ozpa over an initial eight years, generating a post-tax NPV of $103 million, IRR of 79% and payback in 1.5 years.

Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) says the drilling will also assist with metallurgical and geotechnical test work as part of the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) underway looking at potentially restarting its mothballed processing plant near Laverton, which was recently valued as having a $60.9 million replacement cost.

“As part of the PFS work streams underway, Brightstar has commenced the maiden diamond drilling campaign at Cork Tree Well in order to generate information both within the ore zones and the designed pit walls, which will provide the requisite material for metallurgical test work and improve Brightstar’s knowledge of geological and geotechnical domains within the CTW area,” BTR managing director Alex Rovira said.

Assays pending for Menzies drilling

Late last year, the company announced a maiden resource of 21,200oz at 1.07g/t gold for the Link Zone prospect, bringing the total resource estimate at Menzies to 525,000oz at 1.3g/t gold.

But BTR is also investigating the lithium prospectivity within its project tenure, specifically within its Northern Trend, with assays from drilling in Q4 2023 at the Aspacia and Link Zone deposits due shortly.

“This 5,000m program was designed as extensional and infill drilling to grow the existing resource at the Link Zone, and provide sufficient drill density to potentially declare a maiden resource at Aspacia,” Rovira said.

Positive cashflow could be on the horizon

BTR also has a profit-sharing JV deal with BML Ventures which will see the company as Western Australia’s next gold producer with first gold pour from the Selkirk gold deposit in Menzies due in Q1 CY 2024.

“It is an exciting time to be drilling, growing our mineral resource base, completing the technical work for the PFS underway and also see the progress our joint venture partners BML are making with the Selkirk mining campaign, which is due to conclude this quarter,” Rovira said.

“A successful mining campaign at Selkirk will see positive cashflow generated for Brightstar to continue to fund exploration efforts across the Laverton and Menzies gold projects.”

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.