Brightstar drilling unveils further gold at depth in Murchison

Brightstar Resources has unveiled further high-grade gold at depth from recent extensional and infill drilling at the company’s Lord Nelson deposit, which is part of its wider 1.5-million-ounce Sandstone hub in Western Australia’s eastern Murchison region.

The 14-hole, 3700-metre reverse circulation drilling program confirmed high-grade gold continued at depth within the company’s $2500 per ounce optimised pit shell design.

The additional gold encountered at Lord Nelson within its designated pit shell parameters is positive for a potential resource upgrade for the deposit. The infill drill spacing is sufficient for future upgrades to sit within the indicated resource category.

Lord Nelson sits 30 kilometres southeast of Sandstone and has a solid gold resource of 291,000 ounces grading at 1.6 grams per tonne (g/t), with 263,000 ounces defined within the optimised pit shell.

The latest drill results consist of multiple thick gold intervals, including 40m going 1.89g/t from 178m with a 15m section running at 3.07g/t, 22m grading 2.38g/t from 228m depth and 22m at 2.05g/t from 216m.

Several higher-grade hits of 4m at 4.97g/t from 212m, 8m grading 5.06g/t from 170m with a 1m interval at 17.89g/t, and a 3m slice at 6.03g/t from 183m rounded out the impressive numbers.

The results from our first drill program at the Lord Nelson deposit within our Sandstone gold project are significant, highlighting the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation and the robustness of the current mineral resource.

The Lord Nelson deposit is one of many that begin from surface within the 1.5m-ounce at 1.5g/t gold project at Brightstar’s Sandstone hub.

The deposit is hosted at the northern tip of a large granodiorite intrusion more than 3km long and up to 800m wide.

The granodiorite has intruded into mafic rocks to the west, considered to be the hanging wall, and intrudes into ultramafic rocks to the east that make up the footwall.

Mineralisation is predominantly hosted within the granodiorite intrusion, a coarse-grained plutonic rock. Significant gold was unearthed in the area during previous drilling, making it a key focus for Brightstar’s resource growth effort. Multiple intersections have yet to be followed up and present as high-priority targets.

Former ASX-listed mining firm Troy Resources trolled Lord Nelson’s ground from 2007 to 2010 and produced 207,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 4.6g/t by mining an open pit.

The nearby Lord Henry deposit sits at the southern end of the intrusion and has a 98,000-ounce gold resource grading 1.4g/t, with 90,000 ounces in a separate $2500 per ounce optimised pit shell.

Troy also mined the Lord Henry deposit for three years, producing 48,000 gold ounces at 3.6g/t from open pit mining.

Additional extensional drilling in the southern portion of the resource intersected further gold and is expected to be included in future resource updates.

Prior to Brightstar’s ownership, metallurgical test work was completed at Lord Nelson on the oxide and transitional material and revealed gold recovery levels of 94 per cent.

More recent cyanide leach testing on the primary mineralisation within fresh rock produced a stellar gold recovery level of 96 per cent.

Management this year plans to undertake an 80,000m drill program to upgrade and expand the existing resources across multiple deposits within the Sandstone hub.

It has directed the drill rig to its nearby Vanguard camp, where it will target along strike and down plunge extensions. It is also planning to run infill drilling in key areas at the high-grade Vanguard North deposit.

Last week, Brightstar took a major step forward in its bid to become a multi-mine gold producer and received all the key regulatory approvals to launch underground mining at its high-grade Fish gold project outside Laverton, in the WA Goldfields.

The government’s green light for the development clears the path for the commencement of work in April on the underground portal at the Laverton mining hub. First ore is set to be mined as early as the June quarter.

Brightstar has some impressive growth projects for gold, focusing on the precious yellow metal during a time of resurgent pricing that has sent it skywards to more than $4600 per ounce in Aussie dollars. It will make for some exciting times ahead for the up-and-coming company.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au