Enormous: Austin drilling hints at just how large its WA gold play actually is

Further assays from recent aircore drilling at Austin’s namesake gold project in WA has defined further widespread gold mineralisation in the North Sandy block.

Drilling at the new Overdrive prospect, which remains open at depth and for at least 700m to the north, returning these kind of results – 6m grading 1 gram per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of just 12m.

Importantly, the intersection of gold-bearing veins in the bedrock could represent the source of the extensive alluvial gold, making Overdrive a high-priority drill target.

Austin Metals (ASX:AYT) adds that mineralisation at Overdrive is hosted in mafic rocks, similar to host rocks at the Musgrave Minerals’ (ASX:MGV), nearby high-grade Break of Day group of deposits.

Technical director Leo Horn said the discovery at Overdrive adds to the recently discovered Everlong, Generator and Breakout prospects, highlighting the widespread gold in mafic and ultramafic rocks at the Austin gold project.

“We are zoning in now and as shown previously at Shadow, the gravity data continues to provide us with the primary mapping dataset for identifying gold-bearing structures in our exploration quest,” he added.

“These results give us increasing confidence to launch into a much larger aircore drilling program in order to continue our regional exploration success.

“We firmly believe we have only just scratched the surface in uncovering the hidden potential across the northern block area.”

The company plans to kick off a 5,000m to 7,500m aircore drill program to follow-up pending work approvals.

Aircore drilling

Austin had completed 27 shallow aircore holes in the northern Mt Sandy area during March this year as an initial reconnaissance program.

This was aimed at defining shallow, low-level anomalies in areas defined by subtle gravity low ‘breaks’ identified in the ground gravity survey.

Particular attention was paid to anomalies in a similar orientation to the high-grade structures identified by Musgrave Minerals such as Starlight.

At Overdrive, the aircore drilling defined a 50m thick zone of weathered to fresh mafic rocks with variable quartz veining.

This quartz veining is strongly associated with a prominent north-trending gravity low that appears to be a secondary splay from the renowned Tuckabianna West regional shear zone.

Drilling also identified a potential new structure about 2km southwest at the Sandy West structure and the new Sandalwood structure where the historical Sandalwood gold mine is located.

This article was developed in collaboration with Austin Metals, 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.