More gold? The signs are pointing to yes at Brightstar’s Cork Tree Well

An upgraded gold resource is very much on the cards for Brightstar’s Cork Tree Well project with most gold assays – including high-grade hits – from its drill program being located outside the resource envelope.

Final assays from its 30-hole drill program returned results such as 10m grading 4.54 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 192m including 2m at 17.23g/t gold from 194m (BTRRC184), 2m at 11.81g/t gold from 172m (BTRRC200), and 13m at 1.83g/t gold from 143m (BTRRC223), which also serves to confirm upside both along strike and at depth.

Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) is currently incorporating the results into an updated resource estimate, which could pack considerably more gold ounces into Cork Tree Well then the current 252,100oz estimate.

Managing director Alex Rovira said the continued high grade results returned from reverse circulation drilling to increase the overall size of the resource and increase the confidence in sections of the model to underpin the mining scoping studies that are currently underway was pleasing.

“Encouragingly, the assays received continue to highlight that the mineralisation is still open at depth and along strike, and drill planning is currently underway to continue exploration at CTW to further expand the limits to the mineralisation,” he added.

Drill results

The company noted that significant gold assays were received from 20 of the 30 holes drilled and assayed.

These indicate that the mineralised zone is open along strike to the north and at depth, both of which require further drill testing to continue growing the resource.

It noted that the standout result from hole BTRRC184 was intersected about 70m down plunge from hole SDR105201, which intersected 11m at 1g/t gold from 114m within an interpreted zone of a higher-grade, northerly-plunging shoot within the ore body.

The intersection at BTRRC184 is the deepest on this section and indicates that mineralisation is open at depth and that there is potential for further depth extensions given that the Cork Tree Well resource is in what are still moderately shallow depths.

Restart decision

Along with the upcoming completion of its merger with Kingwest Resources, an updated Cork Tree Well resource in Western Australia’s Laverton-Leonora District is likely to provide the critical mass for the company to advance its projects towards potential low capex restart scenarios.

This is facilitated by the existing Brightstar processing plant in Laverton.

A Scoping Study is currently underway to assess restarting this plant, the results of which will be used in the planning stages for the next drill program at the project.

Future drilling will include diamond holes to support metallurgical and geotechnical studies to progress Cork Tree Well towards potential mining operations.

This article was developed in collaboration with Brightstar 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.