• Brightstar Resources defines maiden resource of 70,000oz gold at the Aspacia deposit at the Menzies Gold Project
  • This includes higher grade subset of 290,000t at 3.72g/t gold for ~35,000oz gold
  • Drilling to test for extensions along strike and at depth
  • Technical pre-feasibility study workstreams for Menzies and Laverton projects also underway

 

Special Report: Brightstar Resources has cranked up total resources at its Menzies Gold Project in Western Australia after recording a maiden resource of 70,000oz at the Aspacia deposit.

Aspacia is the latest addition to the company’s stable of deposits within the historical Menzies gold mining area that it plans to develop to fund its surrounding, large-scale project ambitions.

The wisdom of this strategy was amply demonstrated by Brightstar Resources’ (ASX:BTR) successful Selkirk JV with BML Ventures.

As of the last update in late March, 5,546oz have been sold to the Perth Mint after refining at an average realised sale price of an eye-watering $3,306/oz, well above the $2,850/oz that was envisioned by the JV.

Australian gold prices have soared well past the $3,600/oz mark since then, which could mean that the company is on track to comfortably pad out its bottom line and cash reserves even after taking the 50/50 profit split with BML into consideration.

 

Brightstar ASX BTR
The Aspacia deposit. Pic: Brightstar Resources

 

More Menzies gold

BTR has now further vindicated its strategy of identifying, drilling and delineating areas considered prospective to hold future potentially mineable ounces by pencilling in a mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 1.37Mt at 1.6g/t gold for 70,000oz at the Aspacia deposit.

This includes a higher-grade subset of 290,000t at 3.72g/t gold, or ~35,000oz contained gold.

Importantly, this is just the beginning as mineralisation at the deposit remains open at depth and along strike with the company planning to carry out drilling to grow and improve the confidence of the resource.

The addition of Aspacia also takes BTR’s total resources across its Menzies and Laverton Gold Projects up to +1.1Moz Au with another 0.35Moz Au to be added once the off-market acquisition of Linden Gold Alliance is successfully completed.

“We are delighted to announce that we’ve added a further 70koz to the Menzies Gold Project, with +90koz added by Brightstar to the original 505koz acquired three quarters ago through the transaction with Kingwest Resources Ltd,” managing director Alex Rovira said.

“Encouragingly, the Selkirk-First Hit-Lady Shenton trend seems to be distinct to that of the Aspacia deposit, which may lead to similar repetitions north and south of Aspacia and warrants further follow up exploration which we’ll target in our upcoming drilling programs, set to re-commence this quarter.

“The results from the previous drilling and the MRE output utilising a typical underground mining economic cut-off grade indicates to Brightstar that strong potential exists to assess a modest-scale underground operation at Aspacia given the grades and widths observed.

“With the technical PFS work streams underway, RC and diamond drilling will shortly recommence at Brightstar’s projects and conduct large programs targeting conversion and upgrades to our current MREs proposed to be mined within our BTR 2023 Scoping Study, along with Linden Gold projects at Second Fortune and 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.