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New discoveries boosts potential scale of Barton’s 1Moz Tunkillia gold project
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Barton Gold (ASX:BGD) has uncovered a new, ~650m long gold zone called ‘Area 191’, 3km away from the 965,000oz ‘223’ deposit at the Tunkillia project in South Australia.
The 223 deposit sits within a host structure which extends a further ~7km to the north, and ~7km to the south on the ‘Yarlbrinda’ Shear Zone.
Most drilling in the area from two decades ago targeted 223, with little investment in regional exploration prior to Barton’s recent acquisition of the project.
Consequently, multiple promising satellite targets identified by old shallow drilling were not followed up, until now.
Barton has now discovered a third gold zone at Tunkilla called ‘Area 191’ which, alongside the ‘223 North’ discovery, extends Tunkillia’s total gold mineralised strike by almost 60% since Barton’s IPO in late June 2021, to some ~4km of shallow, continuous gold mineralisation.
All zones remain open, the company says.
Highlight intersections across the new Area 191 gold zone include:
- 3m @ 3.45g/t Au from 55m
- 5m @ 7.66g/t Au from 110m
- 8m @ 2.06g/t Au from 108m
- 4m @ 5.56g/t Au from 120m, and
- 4m @ 11.4g/t Au from 132m.
The company expects the balance (742m) of Tunkillia Phase 1 drilling assay results, testing of key structural targets central to the 223 Deposit, to be released shortly.
Area 223 North and Area 191: 223 lookalikes
Mineralisation at the new Area 191 gold zone occurs in multiple prominent zones concentrated around clusters of high-grade gold.
The Tunkillia Phase 1 drilling program was the first to target this area in ~15 years. So far, mineralisation appears similar to the profile seen in the 223 deposit, the company says.
“We are pleased to announce another significant discovery at the Tunkillia Gold Project, where drilling has confirmed our prediction for a new body of mineralisation at the Area 191 target,” Barton managing director Alexander Scanlon says.
“The new Area 191 mineralisation has also been defined on the same maximum ~100m spacing used for Inferred Resources in the 223 Deposit, which hosts a 965koz Au JORC Mineral Resource on ~2.5km of strike,” he says.
“This also follows the recent discovery of a new ~800m gold zone at 223 North, just north of the 223 Deposit.”
Tunkillia is shaping up very nicely with ~4km of total mineralised strike now defined in a relatively small area, Scanlon says.
“All zones remain open to strike and depth extensions, and we remain focused on our objective of rapidly expanding the overall project footprint and JORC Mineral Resources base through further drilling,” he says.
“Barton has now discovered a total ~1.8km of new gold mineralisation with its initial post-IPO drilling programs, bringing the total mineralised strike in its Southern Hub to ~5km.
“We believe we are just getting a glimpse of the potential scale of these projects, and we are already planning our next work programs.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Barton Gold, 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.
