In gold news today: Catalyst and Navarre hit 3m at +95g/t at Tandarra, Predictive’s Bankan discovery is now 1.3km long (and growing), and AusQuest is searching for Haverion/Winu “lookalikes” with miner South32.

Project partners Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) and Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) are hitting grades up to ~95 grams per tonne (g/t) at the Macnaughtan prospect, part of the Tandarra joint venture in Victoria’s goldfields.

‘Infill’ drilling (between existing ‘step out’ drill holes) uncovered gold over a 600m strike-length, “with some indications of multiple mineralised horizons”, the JV partners say.

The gold zone at Macnaughtan now extends for 1.4km.

“The high grades and continuity of gold mineralisation revealed by this AC (aircore) drilling are highly encouraging, confirming the potential of the southern Macnaughtan prospect to become the second significantly mineralised structure at Tandarra, in parallel with the high-grade gold intersections at the Tomorrow Zone, 250m to the east,” Catalyst technical director Bruce Kay says.

READ: Barry FitzGerald — The juniors vying for some hotly contested gold ground near Fosterville

 

The greenfields Gunanya project in WA’s red-hot Paterson Province has been accepted under the Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) with miner South32 (ASX:S32), AusQuest (ASX:AQD) says.

$9.5bn market cap miner South32 has exclusive rights to the AusQuest’s projects under the terms of the SAA and can earn a 70 per cent interest in each project by spending a total of $US4.5m ($6.5m) on exploration.

At Gunanya, the alliance will be targeting large-scale gold and copper discoveries like Winu (Rio Tinto) and Havieron (Newcrest/Greatland Gold).

A drilling program is now being planned to test these relatively shallow targets.

“The Gunanya project has several compelling targets based on analogies that we are able to draw with new discoveries in the Paterson Region from both a gold and a copper perspective,” AusQuest managing director Graeme Drew says.

“Our focus will be on drill-testing these targets as soon as we have all the necessary approvals and clearances to be able to undertake the program.”

READ: Miners throw cash at Paterson explorers as Winu, Havieron edge towards development

 

Power auger drilling has boosted the length of Predictive’s (ASX:PDI) company-changing NE Bankan gold discovery to 1.3km.

Power auger drilling is a rapid (and cheap) way to collect ‘bedrock’ samples below the transported soil cover.

This ~20m deep drilling returned better hits of 16m at 1.13g/t gold and 16m at 1.39g/t gold within the new 300m long zone – both these holes stopped in +1g/t gold mineralisation.

Ongoing power augur drilling is looking to extend the NE Bankan trend to the north and south of this 1.3km-long zone, the company says.

In April, Predictive rocketed from 0.7c to 7c per share – a 900 per cent gain – on this promising discovery in West Africa.

The stock is currently up 1,590 per cent over the last three months.

READ: Here’s where Predictive Discovery’s 733pc rise in 1 day sits in the record books