Okapi is looking to build on its golden discoveries at Enmore

Okapi has unveiled a 11-hole drill program to follow-up on “exceptional” maiden drilling at the Sunnyside prospect within its Enmore gold project in New South Wales.

And it has good reason to be excited given that the top hit from the maiden drill program returned a thick 174m intercept grading 1.83 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from surface that ended in an enticing 1m interval grading 15.15g/t gold.

Not only does this raise the potential for open pit mining at Sunnyside, but the fact the highest grades are found at depth is a tantalising hint of the potential riches to be found.

Okapi Resources’ (ASX:OKR) plan for intense follow-up drilling at the prospect, which remains open at depth and along strike, will add significantly to the structural and lithological information on the project and aid interpretation of the controls of mineralisation.

Two of the 11 holes will test the Sherwood prospect to test for mineralisation between old workings and follow-up on historically intersected high-grade gold mineralisation.

“While the company remains focused on advancing and developing its key uranium assets in North America, the Enmore Gold Project in NSW remains an important project for the team and we are excited by the upcoming drilling program, which is expected to commence in late March,” managing director Andrew Ferrier said.

“The proposed 1,800m diamond drilling program is focused on the Sunnyside prospect, which generated significant gold intercepts in the last drilling program completed by Okapi in 2021.

“The objectives of the additional drilling are to focus on testing the high-grade mineralisation along strike and down dip at Sunnyside East and also to drill at depth beneath the existing near surface oxide mineralisation at the main Sunnyside prospect.”

Shockingly underexplored gold potential

Despite its location just 20km from Red River Resources’ Hillgrove gold mine, which historically produced around 730,000oz, the Enmore project area has seen little exploration.

Most previous exploration targeted very shallow mineralisation with 153 holes of the 233 holes drilled prior to Okapi’s entry drilled to depths of less than 50m while just 41 holes were drilled to depths of more than 100m.

Adding more to the shock, Enmore has 36 identified mineralised occurrences, most of which have been untested by deep drilling, modern geophysics or other targeting methods applied across the project.

It is no wonder then that the company moved to snap up Enmore once its maiden drilling revealed the prize contained within the project.

Proposed drilling

The 1,800m drill program is expected to begin in late March and will initially focus on testing the mineralised zone outlined by the company’s previous drill results, which suggested that the mineralisation plunges to the east along the Sunnyside Fault and Fault Splay.

Five of the holes will be drilled at Sunnyside East from the northwest to test this mineralisation along strike and down dip while the remaining four holes will test the mineralisation at depth.

At Sherwood, drilling will follow up on historical drilling completed by Silver Valley Minerals in 1973 where the lone hole to be assayed after intersecting visible gold returned a thin but rich interval of 0.6m at 56.6g/t gold within a zone of low-grade gold mineralisation.

This article was developed in collaboration with Okapi 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.