Caprice makes strong start at Island, diving into thick, shallow high-grade gold assays

Caprice Resources’ Phase 1 drilling returns multiple zones of thick, shallow high-grade gold
Multiple stacked gold lodes intersected with assays such as 28m at 6.4g/t from 113m and 27m at 3g/t from 48m
Phase 2 drilling underway with work continuing to define maiden resource for New Orient mine

Special Report: Caprice Resources’ hope of finding a ‘Break of Day’ style deposit at its Island project in Western Australia’s Murchison region has been buoyed by drilling returning multiple zones of thick, shallow high-grade gold.

Initial Phase 1 drilling carried out in December 2024 returned gold assays of up to 28m at 6.4g/t from a down-hole depth of 114m including 4m at 16.4g/t from 130m in hole 24IGRC009 at the Vadrians Hill target and 12m at 3.9g/t from 90m including 6m at 5.9g/t from 94m in 24IGRC001 at the Baxter target.

Both holes also intersected shallower gold intersections of 27m at 3g/t from 48m including 5m at 6.9g/t from 69m (24IGRC009) and 9m at 2.8g/t from 27m including 3m at 5.8g/t from 30m (24IGRC001).

Notably for Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS), the multiple thick, stacked gold lodes intersected at depth and down-plunge from surface workings remain open in all directions with drilling constrained to less than 100m vertical depth.

“It’s a great pleasure to be delivering these exceptional gold results from our Island Gold project December drill programme,” CRS chief executive officer Luke Cox said.

“These first 10 holes of the planned 40-hole drill programme have highlighted mineralisation thickening and increasing grade down plunge compared to the near surface gold mineralisation. Even more encouragingly, multiple stacked lodes were intersected by this drilling.

“Identical structural settings are present in historical workings at the New Orient gold mine in the north and at Shamrock in the south, and these fertile structures have been mapped at multiple locations within the host banded iron formations along the 5 kilometres of strike connecting these historic workings; providing numerous additional greenfield targets and highlighting an enlarged scale to the project.

“The Phase 2 RC drill programme will continue to test this highly prospective structural corridor through Baxter, Golconda and Vadrians Hill, before moving north to test additional cross-cutting structures, with the objective of delivering a potentially significant Island Gold project maiden resource in the coming months.”

The Island gold project. Pic: Caprice Resources

Island project

Gold mineralisation at the Island project occurs along a strike length of 5km from the historical New Orient mine in the north to the Skipper prospect in the south within the IGP corridor.

The IGP corridor is 700 to 1000m wide and contains multiple banded iron formations up to 30m thick, which is the preferred style of host rock for gold mines in the Murchison.

The Murchison boasts a +15Moz gold endowment while Island itself has historical production of 54,000oz at 43.2g/t from shallow workings.

Prior to the company’s drilling, historical drills were limited to an average depth of 70m below surface, leaving plenty of room at depth for more discoveries.

Targets at Island are northwest and northeast cross-cutting high-grade gold structures analogous to the Break of Day deposit, Cue, and Mt Magnet gold mines.

Of these, Ramelius Resources’ (ASX:RMS) Break of Day deposit just 12km from Island is the gold standard by which CRS is looking to measure up to.

Finding a deposit similar to Break of Day, with its resource of 327,000oz at a super-high grade of 10.4g/t gold, will be a shiny feather in the company’s cap.

Next steps

CRS started Phase 2 of its 5000m drill program on February 1 and expects to complete all 30 holes totalling ~3500m this month with assays expected in late March or early April.

It is also continuing geological interpretations and modelling on the New Orient gold mine and broader IGP with a view to undertaking further drilling to expanding the Phase 1 drill results.

The company is also continuing work to deliver a maiden resource estimate in the first half of this year for New Orient.

Looking further ahead, this work at Island is just one part of its three-pillar Murchison gold development pipeline strategy, with planning also underway at the Cuddingwarra project and development studies planned at the New Orient gold mine.

This article was developed in collaboration with Caprice 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.