Drilling pushes gold strike further at Waratah’s Spur and Consols

• Latest drilling at Waratah’s Spur project has extended gold mineralisation 
• Five rigs are on the go as the company looks to track zones of high-grade mineralisation 
• Two holes are underway at Spur while another three are underway at the Consols prospect 

Special Report: Waratah Minerals has hit another wave of strong gold assays at the Spur project, with new diamond drilling at both Spur and Consols continuing to flesh out what’s shaping up to be a sizeable gold system in NSW.

At Consols, extensional holes SPD009 and SPRCD080w kicked off a string of broad and high-grade intervals. 

SPD009 delivered 71m at 1.65g/t from 582m, backed by several thick zones such as 25m at 2.27g/t, 6.22m at 5.37g/t, plus multiple shallow hits between 278m and 305m grading 2.6–3.2g/t. 

SPRCD080w delivered 16.1m at 1.15g/t, 42m at 0.79g/t, and a handful of higher-grade pockets, including 7m at 3.16g/t and 9.1m at 1.84g/t. 

Infill hole SPD010 at the Spur Zone returned standout hits such as 8m at 1.87g/t from 49m, 26m at 1.03g/t from 80m, 1m at 18.7g/t and a hefty 107.4m at 0.67g/t at depth. 

Five drill rigs are now on the go as Waratah (ASX:WTM) gears up for another round of results. 

WTM managing director Peter Duerden says drilling at Spur and Consols continues to bring in impressive intercepts as the company extends and infills around higher-grade zones. 

“The latest drilling has extended mineralisation approximately 50m above SPRCD062 towards the surface,” he said. 

“Drillhole SPRCD080w tested 150m below SPRCD062 and encountered a flat lying structure which appears to have displaced mineralisation upwards and to the south. 

“Our team is focused on tracking the zones of high-grade mineralisation and we have five diamond rigs currently active along the Spur Gold Corridor.” 

NSW grant funding 

Waratah recently inked a co-contribution grant of $250,000 by the NSW government towards drilling at Consols and Breccia West within the wider Spur project. 

The Spur project is 5km west of Newmont’s (ASX:NEM) Cadia Valley operations within the Lachlan Fold Belt, host to some of Australia’s biggest and most productive copper-gold systems. 

The funding will support deep porphyry drilling along the Spur gold corridor, where the system could extend another 500m, taking the total strike length beyond 1.5km.

What else is happening? 

Three drill holes are currently in progress at the Consols prospect, targeting extensions, while another two are underway at Spur. 

One hole at Spur is designed to drill beneath the mineralisation hit in SPD010, while the other is chasing the shallower continuation of the zone seen in SPD008.

Adding to the excitement, visible gold has now been spotted at Consols, Spur and Essex.

Waratah has already completed a series of checks comparing PhotonAssay performance against traditional fire assay and screen-fire methods at ALS and SGS laboratories. 

Based on that work, the company is confident the shift to PhotonAssay will deliver more accurate, consistent gold grades while dramatically cutting assay turnaround times.

SPD009 will be the final hole put through traditional fire assay, with all significant intercepts now being re-run through PhotonAssay for confirmation. 

This article was developed in collaboration with Waratah 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.