A second rig has arrived at Silver City Minerals’ Austin gold project in WA’s Murchison region, a move which will ramp up the company’s exploration efforts.

The rig will allow Silver City (ASX:SCI) to kick off a reverse circulation drilling program at the same time as the diamond drill program currently underway at Austin.

A total of 3000 metres is initially planned for the RC rig, testing the Brians, Brunswick Hill and Mt Sandy prospects where high grade gold mineralisation has been intersected in previous drilling and at surface.

SCI technical director Leo Horn said the added rig would accelerate progress at the project, which sits directly adjacent to Musgrave Minerals’ (ASX:MGV) Cue gold project and its high-grade Break of Day deposit and Starlight discovery.

“The Austin project is a highly prospective gold asset for the company and the commencement of the second drill rig is testament to our commitment to exploration on the project,” he said.

“We are starting to build some momentum at the project and are encouraged by what we’re seeing to date, and look forward to a steady flow of results to follow in the coming weeks.”

SCI
The RC drill rig onsite at the Austin gold project. Pic: Supplied.

Exciting targets in the pipeline

Diamond drilling at Austin kicked off earlier in the month with the intention to characterise the gold-bearing veins controlling the gold mineralisation and their orientation at three key prospect areas where high-grade gold has been hit in the past.

The newly announced RC program will supplement the diamond program and assist in stepping out from key structures identified in the diamond holes.

There’s some seriously interesting mineralisation to follow up at each of the three targets.

At Brunswick Hill, previous drilling has intersected six metres at 15.8 grams per tonne gold from just 36m, including 2m at 43g/t – a hit never properly followed up.

At Brians, visible gold in surface veins has returned assays of up to 1109g/t gold, and a previous drilling intersection of 2m at 20.1g/t gold from 31m, including 1m at 28g/t was also never properly followed up.

Meanwhile, outcropping narrow veins at Mt Sandy which were sampled by Silver City returned up to 10g/t gold and have never been drill tested.

Silver City said recent work suggested encouraging previous drilling intersections of 7m at 1.7g/t from 21m, including 3m at 3.4g/t, may not have been drilled to an optimum orientation.

Given the high grade and shallow nature of some of this mineralisation, and the fact its just down the road from Musgrave’s 617,000oz Break of Day deposit, it’s little wonder SCI is going hard with the rigs at its flagship project.

SCI
The Austin gold project in regional and geological context. Pic: supplied.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Silver City Minerals, 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.