Brightstar hits high (grade) note, as Whistler drilling returns golden bounty

Brightstar’s drilling intersects thick, high-grade gold at the Whistler deposit within its Montague East project
Drilling has also returned high-grade hits at the Fish deposit within its Jasper Hills project
Further drilling underway at the Lord Nelson deposit in the Sandstone deposit

Special Report: Maiden drilling has aptly validated Brightstar Resources’ move to acquire the Sandstone region assets in August 2024 after returning strong gold hits at the Whistler deposit within its Montague East project.

The company picked up Montague East from Gateway Mining (ASX:GML) as part of its move to consolidate the Sandstone district – which also included the acquisition of Alto Metals – as its third production hub.

Collectively, the acquisitions about doubled Brightstar Resources’ (ASX:BTR) gold inventory close to its own and third-party milling infrastructure up to ~3Moz Au.

Montague East itself represented about a third of the new addition with 526,000oz of contained gold already defined and is a proven producer with historical output of ~150,000oz.

Plan view showing Whistler drill collars. Pic: Brightstar Resources

Drilling highlights rich mineralisation

Initial assays from the company’s ~6000m reverse circulation drill program to infill resources and test for depth extensions at the Montague-Boulder and Whistler deposits – which collectively host a resource of 4.7Mt at 1.8g/t, or 283,000oz of contained gold – have now returned thick, high-grade results at Whistler.

Notable results include:

11m grading 6.74g/t gold from 114m including 1m at 30.2g/t from 121m, and 7m at 1.69g/t from 142m (WHRC24011);
21m at 2.86g/t gold from 145m including 1m at 26.4g/t from 146m, and 4m at 6.1g/t from 82m (WHRC24005); and
7m at 5.78g/t gold from 127m including 1m at 13.9g/t from 129m (WHRC24004).

Whistler drilling totalled 3300m and was designed to infill the mineralisation beneath the existing open pit to achieve adequate drill spacing for indicated resource classification in future resource updates.

Several extensional holes were also drilled to test the northern and southern extents of the mineralisation.

Separately, assays have also been received from RC and diamond drilling at the Fish deposit within the company’s Jasper Hills project within its Laverton hub.

Results including 3.45m at 5.21g/t gold from 288.25m in diamond hole FHRCD2418 and 1m at 16g/t gold from 179m in RC hole FHRCD2421 were returned from the program to infill and test extensions to gold mineralisation below and adjacent to the conceptual “Stage 1” underground mine design.

“The initial results from the Whistler deposit are hugely encouraging, highlighting the wide, high-grade nature of the mineralisation,” managing director Alex Rovira said.

“We eagerly anticipate sharing further results as they become available, with assays still pending from the remaining phases of the Whistler, Montague-Boulder, and Lord Nelson programs in our 2024 drill season at Sandstone.

“We are already planning and looking forward to recommencing drilling in the Murchison during 2025 to build on these results.

“The assay results from Fish continue to display the high-grade nature of the resource, below the area of the proposed Stage 1 underground mining operation.

“Drilling at the deposit in 2025 will be focused on delineating and extending this mineralisation at depth, with the aim of building information and mineral inventory to extend mine life.”

Drillbit still spinning

Flush with funds from a recent $30m placement, BTR is now drilling at the Lord Nelson deposit within the Sandstone project until the Christmas break.

“This program contains Brightstar’s first holes at the Sandstone project, commencing days after the completion of the merger with Alto Metals, which highlights Brightstar’s determined approach to organic growth via exploration,” Rovira said.

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

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.