High grade hits could deliver growth to Cork Tree Well resource. Pic via Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: Brightstar Resources’ Cork Tree Well deposit within its Laverton gold project in WA is looking like an absolute dish after returning a spectacular 27.6m @ 17.8g/t gold intersection in the final two holes of its diamond drill program.
Adding to the company’s bragging rights, bonanza grades of up to 1,028.37g/t gold were also recorded.
Cork Tree Well currently has an open pittable resource of 303,000oz @ 1.4g/t gold which is expected to provide baseload feed for the proposed restart of Brightstar Resources’ (ASX:BTR) processing facilities at the Beta deposit, about 30km south of the Laverton township.
This resource envelope is defined over a strike length of +3km and to a depth of 200m. It is based on the detailed exploration which has thus far stuck been limited by its close proximity to historical open pits.
Aircore drilling completed to the north of this resource has already extended the strike length by +1.5km, while the same structural and lithological setting remains untested at depth.
More recently, BTR launched a 20-hole diamond drill program across the open pit shells included in the scoping study released in September last year to generate information both within the ore zones and the designed pit walls.
It was also designed to recover the requisite material for metallurgical test work.
The first two metallurgical diamond holes returned intersections such as 34.4m @ 7.94g/t gold from 43.5m (including 8.4m @ 13.47g/t gold from 43.5m, 3m @ 7.05g/t gold from 54m and 15.6m @ 8.23g/t gold from 58m) in hole CTWMET004, which was drilled into the virgin Delta deposit at Cork Tree Well North that remains completely open at depth.
Assays received from CTWMET002 below the historical open pit at Cork Tree Well include 6.5m @ 1.42g/t gold from 104m and 1.65m @ 1.82g/t gold from 112m.
BTR now has more reason to be smiling with priority assays from the remaining two metallurgical diamond holes returning significant intersections with visible gold.
Hole CTWMET003, which was drilled into the unmined central deposit at Cork Tree Well, returned an outstanding intersection of 27.6m @ 17.77g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 51m – complementing the high-grade hit at CTWMET004.
Meanwhile, hole CTWMET001 returned intersections of 11.4m @ 3.1g/t gold from 133.5m and 8.3m @ 1.45g/t gold from 120.7m below the historical shallow open pit.
“It is great to see further high-grades assays continuing and visible gold being observed from the diamond drilling program that has recently been completed at Cork Tree Well,” BTR managing director Alex Rovira said.
“The drilling campaign represented the first diamond holes drilled at Cork Tree Well by Brightstar, with our understanding of the geology and mineralisation styles being strengthened by the knowledge being gained from this recently completed program.
“Today’s results continue to reinforce our view that the gold mineralisation at Cork Tree Well is structurally hosted, with a mafic metadolerite host rock observed in CTWMET003 whilst gold mineralisation returned in CTWMET001 is positioned within the sedimentary package underneath the historically mined shallow open pit.”
Rovira added that the four metallurgical diamond holes drilled into the known orebody locations fall within the optimised $2,750/oz pit shells generated in the 2023 scoping study.
CTWMET003 and CTWMET004 were drilled to maximise the amount of material recovered for test work, while the first two holes were drilled perpendicular to the orebody and represent estimated true width.
“Given the calibre of the assays received from the drilling to date, Brightstar continues to see strong potential to build on the existing 303koz @ 1.4g/t gold mineral resource, both at depth with high-grade plunging shoots and strike extensions targeting the structurally-controlled mineralised trends,” Rovira added.
“The high-grade results returned to date are significantly higher than the current 1.4g/t gold head grade of the mineral resource and 1.85g/t mine grade from the 2023 scoping study, representing significant upside.”
BTR is awaiting assays from the remaining diamond holes drilled at the deposit.
It is also conducting continued analysis into the effects of the nuggety gold at Cork Tree Well, specifically within the ‘Delta’ deposit, in future drilling programs.
Metallurgical analysis, in addition to re-assaying more samples using further analytical methods, will assist with continued understanding of the nature of mineralisation.
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.
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