Norwest Minerals kicks off Bulgera drilling, eyes further gold resource expansion

• NWM has begun RC drilling after a resource upgrade at the Bulgera gold project
• Targets include extensions of existing mineralisation in greenstone belt
• The rig will then move to the company’s Marymia East project

Special Report: Norwest Minerals has kicked off RC drilling at its Bulgera gold project in WA chasing further resource growth.

The move comes just days after the company announced a 33% increase in the project’s resource estimate to 8.4 million tonnes at 1.07 g/t gold for 288,400 ounces.

This follows a review of the 3D geological model to include new gold zones from the margins of shear zones, large areas of near-surface oxide gold and newly defined prospects beyond the historical mining centre.

The modelling also benefited from a doubling of the gold price to A$5000/oz since the last model was completed in 2022, widening the margin of economically viable gold grades.

Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) is now drilling 11 holes for 2600m as it looks to grow the resource further by focusing on potential extensions of shear structures below the old Mercuri, Price and Venus pits, as well as other known gold prospects.

Targeting extensions to know gold mineralisation

The Bulgera project is at the northeastern extent of the Plutonic Well greenstone belt, which also hosts the long-running Plutonic gold deposit, 50km to the southwest.

Around 50 open pit and underground gold deposits have been discovered along the strike of this gold-rich greenstone belt – and Bulgera itself has a history of shallow oxide mining and considerable potential for deeper, high-grade mineralisation.

Norwest believes targeting below the known gold-bearing structures has potential for one or more major gold discoveries within the Bulgera mining lease.

“We are very excited to kick off this RC drilling program at Bulgera, especially on the back of our significant 33% gold resource upgrade to 288,400 ounces announced last week,” NWM CEO Charles Schaus said.

“This drilling program has the potential to further increase our Bulgera gold resource inventory well beyond its current total.

“Norwest is looking for similar extensions to the shear-hosted gold being targeted in this campaign, building on our 2021 success where we defined shear-hosted gold mineralisation to 550m down-dip below the old Bulgera pit.”

Following the Bulgera campaign, the rig will move to the company’s Marymia East project to drill test several gold targets recently identified from an analytical review of recent and historical (1990s) exploration data.

This article was developed in collaboration with Norwest Minerals, 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.