A junior explorer chasing Hemi-style targets in the steaming Pilbara gold space is back on deck with a full wallet to bankroll a long-awaited drill drive.

New Age Exploration (ASX: NAE) has been refreshed from a short break while varying their program of works – a local mines department requirement in West Australia – to get a 40-hole, 2800m aircore drilling program under way.

It comes off the back of a cash splash on the Pilbara gold hopeful, which made good work of its downtime by locking up $3.6 million at 1.8c a share last week from sophisticated and professional investors.

New Age is honing in on targets across three exploration licences within 50km to the north of Hemi, the monster intrusive gold discovery you may have heard of made by market darling De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG).

Hemi has continued to grow and grow for De Grey, and a maiden mineral resource for the discovery is expected around the middle of this year.

Drilling down

The same kinds of intrusions that are believed to host the monster gold find at Hemi have been identified across New Age’s northern Pilbara package, picked up under a 100 per cent option agreement from Canada’s Monterey Minerals last year.

The structure of the deal enables New Age to claim full ownership of the tenements down the line.

Recent aeromagnetic surveys identified a number of discrete, circular magnetic anomalies on licences E47/5064, E47/5065 and E47/3958 with characteristics similar to the Hemi magnetic signature.

High priority anomalies will be tested with shallow aircore drilling, with a KL-150 Moorooka Track Drill mobilised to complete holes to between 50-120m in depth.

“We are very pleased to have finalised all required variations in a short time frame to allow the drilling to recommence with minimal downtime,” NAE executive director Joshua Wellisch said.

“We were also able to further underpin the drilling with a significant capital raising during the break of $3.6m allowing for an aggressive exploration programme to be undertaken across our portfolio of projects.”

Multiple exploration fronts

With that cash in hand, NAE is set to be busy exploring on a number of fronts in the Pilbara, with a 220kmaeromagnetic survey recently identifying a slew of potential targets at its 100 per cent-owned Bullock Well and Quartz Hill gold projects to the south.

On top of that is an exploration package on New Zealand’s south island, comprising the Lammerlaw and Otago Pioneer projects down the road from the 10Moz Macraes gold mine.

A maiden drilling campaign is being prepared at Lammerlaw on the back of identifying two gold-arsenic anomalies in a recent soil sampling program.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with New Age Exploration, 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.