Matsa shares lift on thick, tasty Fortitude gold hits as explorer pushes to million ounce mark

Matsa Resources’ quest to hit the magical million ounce mark at its Lake Carey gold project in WA’s northern Goldfields has received a shot in the arm, with a string of new drilling results capturing the attention of the market.

Matsa’s (ASX:MAT) thickest intercepts to date from RC drilling at the Fortitude North gold project have provided confidence it will be able to grow its resource base further in the bountiful Laverton gold field, where it sits among multi-million ounce monsters like the Sunrise Dam and Wallaby gold mines.

The company’s shares climbed on the open on Thursday, after revealing hits from seven of the nine completed holes from a 3310m, 19 hole RC program at Fortitude North showing the mineralised system remains open to the north and south.

They include:

14m at 2.87g/t Au from 130m (23FNRC010)
19m at 3.77g/t Au from 100m (23FNRC011) incl. 14m at 4.59g/t from 100m
16m at 1.44g/t Au from 88m (23FNRC012)
4m at 3.32g/t Au from 110m (23FNRC013); and,
11m at 1.21g/t Au from 67m (23FNRC014).

Matsa ASX MAT — The results show Fortitude North remains open with thick intercepts to the north. Pic: Supplied.

Located 6km north of the 489,000oz Fortitude project – where Matsa already has an established resource, has completed a run of trial mining and boasts a 2021 study showing positive cash flow of $95m – the RC drilling program at Fortitude North is aiming to provide sufficient drilling coverage to establish a maiden resource covering just one third of its 1.6km strike.

The race to 1,000,000

Matsa executive chairman Paul Poli reiterated the company’s plan to take its entire Lake Carey gold bounty to 1Moz before the middle of this year.

“These results continue to support our view that Fortitude North is a bigger system than the Fortitude Gold Mine where Matsa has an established resource of 489,000oz and a 2021 mining study that indicates a positive cash flow of AUD$95M,” he said.

“The thicker intercepts in the high grade shoots provide substantial volumes of gold not seen in previous drilling and certainly eclipse what we have seen at Fortitude Gold Mine. I am confident that with additional drilling, we can start to replicate some of these results further along strike and back towards the south.”

In an exciting discovery, the current drilling has shown the system remains open to the north where previous drilling missed the target.

“What is really exciting, is that the drilling previously completed to the north appears to have completely missed the orientation of these high grade shoots. This new drilling emphatically indicates the system remains open to the north, potentially due to simple fault offset,” Poli said.

“The results have forced us to rethink our model in a very positive way. I want to reinforce that this year, we have set out a clear key objective for Matsa.

“We aim to deliver a maiden resource at Fortitude North and take our total Lake Carey Gold Project resource base to over 1 million ounces before mid-year. Never have I been more confident that we can deliver on this objective.

“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 for the Company.”

Matsa currently has a resource of 11.5Mt at 2.4g/t for 886,000oz across its Red October, Devon and Fortitude gold projects, all within the broader Lake Carey project.

The explorer expects its new understanding of the northern geometry at Fortitude North will bode well for the remaining 1792m still to be drilled at the project, with Matsa hoping to strike additional thick, high grade shoots not defined in existing drilling.

Previously reported results have been similarly strong, including: