JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Following the completion of a prefeasibility study of its 80%-owned Dalgaranga gold project earlier this year, which proved the project to be a robust development, ASX-listed gold hopeful Gascoyne Resources on Tuesday announced that an aggressive drilling programme was currently under way at Dalgaranga, with three drill rigs on site.
This included reverse-circulation (RC) and aircore exploration drilling to target new discoveries at the Hendricks, Beefeater, Vickers and Gilbeys South prospects.
RC and diamond drilling was also under way at the Gilbeys and Golden Wings deposits, targeting resource conversion and extension.
Further, large-diameter metallurgical diamond drilling had been completed at the Gilbeys deposit, with samples currently being tested in a Perth laboratory.
Gascoyne said the initial drill results were expected in the next ten days, with the active drill programme expected to provide regular updates in the coming months.
“It is fantastic to . . . have three drill rigs [running] at Dalgaranga, focusing on exploration and ongoing resource growth and conversion, as well as development-related drilling,” said Gascoyne MD Mike Dunbar.
He added that the feasibility study was going “full steam ahead”, with most of the key consultants engaged and working to complete the study before year end.
“One area which we are currently focused on is the project permitting, with the aim of getting all of the regulatory approvals submitted within the next three months. This will provide the relevant government agencies with sufficient time to assess the development proposals and ensure that permitting is kept off the critical path for development,” noted Dunbar.
Meanwhile, Gascoyne had also completed a detailed aeromagnetic survey over the entire project area. The new survey was flown at 50 m spacings at a flying height of 30 m, which Gascoyne said provided a “far superior dataset” compared with historical surveys.
“This new data will aid the identification of structural trends known to host gold mineralisation, extensions of these trends and the definition of additional trends,” said the company, adding that the data had been processed and that the initial interpretations had assisted in fine tuning the exploration drilling currently under way.
In addition to the aeromagnetic survey, Gascoyne had also completed an ultra-detailed surface elevation survey, which would provide detailed contour data for feasibility and construction engineering.