Matsa eyes million ounce gold potential at Sunrise Dam lookalike Fortitude North after drilling success

Matsa Resources boss Paul Poli says the company’s emerging Fortitude North gold discovery will go on to be “substantially better” than its 489,000oz namesake to the south, after a 20-hole RC drilling campaign which demonstrated its similarities with the 12Moz Sunrise Dam gold mine.

Seven of the company’s 12 best intercepts at Fortitude North in the Laverton gold field of WA have come in the 2023 program, including hits of 25m at 3.3g/t from 147m in hole 23FNRC006, 14m at 3.4g/t from 113m and 35m at 3g/t from 150m in 23FNRC016, 19m at 3.8g/t from 100m in 23FNRC011, 11m at 4.2g/t from 130m in 23FNRC007 and more.

Matsa (ASX:MAT) believes the results confirm the discovery of a major mineralised gold system open in all directions, with further drilling likely to add significantly to the scale of the defined mineralisation.

Fortitude North has now been defined by drilling over a 1.7km strike length and extended to the east by 70m to a width 250m across strike in its northern area.

To get a sense of direction, Sunrise Dam is located 23km to the north within the same complex regional structure and geological setting.

Matsa previously used the Sunrise Dam mill, owned by one of the world’s largest gold miners AngloGold Ashanti, to process ore from its trial mining operations in the Lake Carey district of the Northern Goldfields.

Speaking for themselves

If these (pit) walls could talk, they’d have plenty to say about the geological processes that have helped deposit a significant gold endowment in the Fortitude North area.

Mineralisation appears to occur within deformed and altered basalt and dolerite with minor interflow sedimentary intercalations and late stage felsic porphyry intrusions.

The combination of multiple thick and high grade mineralised intersections demonstrates for Matsa the presence of a large hydrothermal gold system which it thinks with more drilling could outline a major gold deposit which would get investors and big regional players sitting up and taking notice.

Luckily for Matsa the drill results are ‘speaking for themselves.’

“These fantastic results speak for themselves and whilst further work is obviously required, we see this as a confirmed significant discovery. In fact, I think Fortitude North will be substantially better than our Fortitude Gold Mine, only 6km to the south, where we have a gold resource of 489,000oz,” MAT exec chair Paul Poli said.

“Matsa’s geology team tell me that they can see multiple phases and styles of mineralisation that speaks to a very long lived system, with up to four gold forming events.

“Before this drilling, we were targeting another Fortitude, but all this now points to something much more substantial and our target is now much bigger commensurate with these bigger intercepts.

“With this new information and the fact that mineralisation is still open in the major directions, we are targeting a mineralised system which is potentially in excess of 1Moz at Fortitude North, all the ingredients are there.”

There’s more water to run under the bridge there. Exploration remains insufficient to declare a JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource estimate at Fortitude North yet.

But more drilling will be undertaken.

Matsa plans to update its geological model and continue research into the application of a 3D seismic survey under R & S to improve drill targeting beneath 40m of cover.

In the next round of drilling Matsa says it is likely diamond drilling will be required to obtain critical info about the orientation of the gold mineralisation and understand structural complexities seen in its eastern margin.

Drilling will initially be focused on the northern section which can be accessed by land-based drill rigs, with drilling to head progressively south beneath the lake where high grade gold intercepts have previously been struck.

The new exploration efforts will continue to build on the scale of the deposit already outlined at a strike of 1700m and width of up to 250m in the northern section, with Matsa to focus on the stark comparison between Fortitude North and the 12Moz Sunrise Dam and 8Moz Wallaby gold mine 23km and 50km away, respectively.

Work has identified four stages of mineralisation at Fortitude North, similar to the multiple mineralising events which created the region’s nearby elephants.

This article was developed in collaboration with Matsa 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.