Matsa gold drilling proves there’s plenty of room for Fortitude North to grow

Matsa’s extensional drilling at its Lake Carey gold project has achieved its objective of extending gold mineralisation at the Fortitude North prospect.

First assays from its April drill program of 19m grading 2.78 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 166m and 11m at 3.79g/t gold from 108m has extended the Fortitude North mineralised zone by almost 200m to the north to 1.7km as well as 60m to the east, which takes the total width up to 250m.

This has added significant size and scale to the mineralised system, which remains open in both directions along strike.

Adding further interest for Matsa Resources (ASX:MAT), independent and highly regarded economic geologist Nigel Maund noted that key geological observations of the style, mode and alteration of mineralisation at Fortitude North compares favourably with the 12Moz Sunrise Dam gold mine just 23km to the north in the same regional geological structure.

“Our recent drilling results have returned thicker packages of mineralisation than we’ve seen before. What is really pleasing is that the mineralised zone has been extended and remains open along strike, and importantly, across strike to the east as well,” executive chairman Paul Poli said.

“The mineralised zone remains open in all directions and Nigel Maund’s work provides vast potential to the upside … We could be looking at a very significant discovery here.”

Going for the big prize

Poli added that while the new drilling provided the company with enough certainty to formalise a model over a small portion of the Fortitude North deposit, which would likely take the Lake Carey project over the target 1Moz mark, it had chosen not to do so at this stage.

“Why? Because we only need 114koz to get us over the 1Moz resource mark and we firmly believe we’d be selling Fortitude North short, when the prize appears to be so much bigger,” he explained.

“Once again, I’ll say that in 2023 Matsa is determined to deliver strong exploration results in both precious and green metals, and I am confident this will be a real turning point not only for Lake Carey, but the company as well.”

Matsa also noted that the new results all come from the northern end of the gold mineralisation defined by initial aircore drilling and that more than 700m of the 1,700m long basement gold footprint remains untested below aircore refusal.

Defining a larger resource at Fortitude North will also support the company’s plans to develop Lake Carey using its own processing facilities.

Next steps

The company will now finalise assays from the drilling and update its geological model before designing the next round of diamond and RC drilling.

Diamond drilling in particular will be needed to obtain critical orientation data associated with the various phases of mineralisation as well as understanding structural complexities seen in the eastern margins of the mineralised system.

This drilling will also test for further northern extensions to the mineralisation before Matsa turns its attention to the south under the lake.

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.