Brightstar’s gold drilling is ramping up. Pic: Getty Images
Cashed up Brightstar Resources preps 30km gold drilling campaign after banking $6.5m from mining JV
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- 30,000m of RC and diamond drilling to start at Brightstar’s asset portfolio in the WA Goldfields
- First focus at Menzies to increase gold at Lady Shenton and drill the St Francis deposit
- New geology and exploration management appointments made to spearhead major drill campaign
Special Report: With $6.5m in profits from mining its Selkirk gold JV in its pocket, Brightstar Resources is putting that dough to good use with an eye-popping 30,000m drill campaign across its Menzies and Laverton projects.
Deposits within its Linden Gold tenement packages will also be drilled, aimed at enlarging Brightstar’s already significant 1.45Moz resource base.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) recently announced an off-market takeover of Linden Gold’s assets in the Laverton mining district, 350,000oz of gold at 2.1g/t including the operating Second Fortune gold mine and Jasper Hills, which contains 4.9Mt at 1.8g/t for 293,000oz.
The Second Fortune underground mine has produced 13,000oz if gold for FY24 so far, processed through Genesis Minerals’ (ASX:GMD) Gwalia processing facility, where ore was toll treated in the same manner as BTR’s successful Selkirk JV.
The merger could put the producer on a low-cost pathway to become a +100,000ozpa producer from an increased 1.45Moz resource base.
Drilling across Menzies, Laverton and Linden gold assets
On the back of recent success in turning up high-grade gold below the 303,000oz Cork Tree Well deposit and defining a maiden 70,000oz resource at Aspacia, it’s no wonder BTR has committed to such a large RC and diamond drilling campaign.
RC drilling will initially commence at the Link Zone at Menzies, where the miner aims to increase confidence of the Lady Shenton system into measured and indicated categories, de-risking early stages of mining and providing valuable data for mine planning.
A scoping study in September last year outlined a 100,000oz open pit mining operation across two virgin pits and a cut-back of the existing Lady Shenton mine.
Also at Menzies, BTR will drill the St Francis prospect located 1.5km northwest and along strike of the Selkirk deposit, which recently generated a $6.5m profit for the company under a JV mining model.
Further RC and diamond drilling has been planned at Cork Tree Well and Linden Gold’s Second Fortune and Jasper Hills projects (the Fish and Lord Byron deposits) to target both high-grade underground gold resources and baseload feed open pit targets.
Surface and underground drilling will kick off at Second Fortune to increase the current resource estimate consisting of eight diamond holes with RC ‘pre-collars’, targeting pierce points at the southern and northern end of the ore body.
BTR MD Alex Rovira said the 30,000m drill program is the start of an aggressive exploration campaign, including deposits within the recently announced Linden Gold merger.
“Beyond the initial RC campaign at Menzies, the drill rigs will then head to our Laverton Hub with the view to complete diamond and RC drilling programs across the enlarged Brightstar portfolio,” he said.
“We expect these holes to deliver valuable information for geological, mine planning, geotechnical and metallurgical purposes ahead of the combined pre-feasibility study to be released by the end of the year.
“We’re also targeting greenfields exploration growth at the St Francis and Delta 2 prospects within the Menzies and Laverton gold projects respectively, with both highly compelling targets identified for drill testing.”
New appointments
Rovira noted key personnel appointments have also been made ahead of the campaign – Jonathan Gough as general manager – geology and Edward Keys as exploration manager.
“Jonathan and Ed both come to Brightstar with proven successes in their recent geology management roles at Musgrave Minerals and Prodigy Gold, respectively,” he said.
“In addition, Linden Gold has recently appointed Jamie Brown as chief geologist, initially based at Second Fortune, with the site team bolstered by Jamie’s strong background in operational underground mine geology.
“We are fortunate to attract such high-quality mining professionals with a combined +50 years of gold exploration and mining experience joining our team, and we look forward to their contributions to Brightstar’s exciting growth trajectory as we explore and build on our existing 1.45Moz resource base in the Eastern Goldfields of WA.”
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.
