Uvre chases NZ bonanza with upcoming Waitekauri drilling

• Uvre to start maiden drilling at its Waitekauri gold project in October 2025
• Program to test the top priority Jubilee prospect that has past gold and silver production
• Underground channel sampling at the prospect has returned high-grade results

Special Report: Uvre is gearing up for its maiden diamond drilling at the flagship Waitekauri project in New Zealand to follow-up outstanding historical trenching results of up to 80g/t gold.

The company has contracted EcoDrilling to carry out the nine hole program totalling 3000m that is expected to begin in early October 2025.

Uvre (ASX:UVA) Waitekauri project is a brownfields play 8km west of OceanaGold Corporation’s 10Moz Waihi gold mine, and along trend from three other +1Moz gold deposits in WKP, Golden Cross and New Talisman Gold’s Karangahake.

Drilling will focus on the Jubilee prospect, which has historical production of 260,000oz of gold and silver at an average grade of 48g/t gold+silver and is believed to be a potential extension of Karangahake.

Drill targeting will be based on the historical mining, trenching and strong rock chip assays up to 18.4g/t from recent reconnaissance sampling.

It may also test recently located untested outcropping epithermal structures south of the Scotia prospect.

“Waitekauri ticks every box you could wish for in an early-stage exploration project, ranging from highly prospective geology and high-grade samples through to multi-million-ounce neighbours,” executive chairman Brett Mitchell said.

“This drilling program will give us the first opportunity to test the resource potential at the historic Jubilee mine, which we consider a highly prospective gold project.

“Our confidence in the potential of Waitekauri is further strengthened by the historic underground trenching results from Jubilee which we have located in preserved historic exploration data.

“These Jubilee underground channel sample results from Cyprus Gold NZ work programs in 1991 are extremely valuable as we define our priorities for this upcoming drilling program.”

Listen: Norm Seckold joins Barry FitzGerald on the Explorers Podcast

Waitekauri project

The 68km2 Waitekauri project sits within the highly prospective Hauraki Goldfield region, which has a global reputation for hosting high-grade silver and gold deposits.

Hauraki, on the North Island, is home to more than 50 epithermal mines and shares many key characteristics with Kalgoorlie such as extensive mineralised systems along with access to well established infrastructure and a skilled workforce.

Waitekauri itself sits in the middle of the northeast/southwest structural trend that hosts numerous multi-million-ounce deposits including WKP, Karangahake and Golden Cross deposits.

Three priority prospects – Jubilee, Scotia and Sovereign – have been identified as priority targets for exploration.

Historical underground channel sampling at the Jubilee prospect returned highly promising assays within a favourable geological setting with nearby multi-million-ounce projects.

The discovery of a previously unmapped occurrence of epithermal quartz boulders interpreted as a new outcropping vein south of the Scotia prospect opens potential for further exploration in a new area.

UVA is targeting bonanza-style gold-silver low sulphidation veins with the aim of identifying a multi-million-ounce resource.

Adding interest, initial field mapping identified a large post-mineral welded ignimbrite unit in the area south of the Scotia prospect.

The extent of this unit was not properly understood by previous operators, and it may cover potential southern extensions of the mineralised system.

This article was developed in collaboration with Uvre, 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.