Brightstar Resources Ltd (ASX:BTR) has started drilling at the Menzies Gold Project as it strives to increase its 965,000-ounce gold bounty in the Leonora region of Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.
More than 5,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling is planned across several locations targeting extensions to high-grade intersections returned from mineralised structures in and around the historical Lady Irene and Aspacia mines.
An intersection of 39.3 metres at 4.27 g/t gold from 159 metres in hole LIRD003 was returned from Lady Irene, which is about 7 kilometres northwest of Menzies.
At Aspacia, around 1.5 kilometres west of Menzies, unmined development face samples range from 22.0 g/t to 150.4 g/t gold.
“Excited” to begin
Brightstar’s managing director Alex Rovira said: “We are excited to commence drilling at several locations in our Menzies Gold Project.
"At Lady Irene, we are following up some amazing hits including a 39-metre intercept, whilst at Aspacia we are looking to build confidence in our geological model which suggests the high-grade 30 g/t Aspacia lode features repetitions both in the hangingwall and immediately to the south of Aspacia.
"Aspacia presents an opportunity to delineate high-grade, near-surface ounces.”
RC drilling program areas at Lady Irene and Aspacia on local geology.
Kingwest merger
In May 2023, Brightstar completed a merger with Kingwest Resources Ltd which saw the strategic consolidation of Brightstar’s Laverton Gold Project and Kingwest’s Menzies Gold Project.
Hosted in the prolific Eastern Goldfields and proximal to significant regional infrastructure, Brightstar has a JORC mineral resource of 21 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t gold for 965,000 ounces.
Open pit production at Lady Irene until 2001 resulted in 6,500 ounces grading 4.77 g/t while underground production at Aspacia up to 1982 saw 10,731 ounces produced grading 37.1 g/t.
Lady Irene drilling
In particular, Brightstar is targeting resource additions to Lady Irene in the RC program, with drilling focused on +4 g/t gold high-grade pods and targeting mineralisation intercepted in LIRD003.
This is expected to deliver further information on lode geometry including strike and plunge continuity beneath the Lady Irene South Pit.
The potential for underground mining exists but Brightstar envisages that geological knowledge gained from this program will be utilised to target structural repetitions for future open pit resources along the Northern Trend.
Along this trend, Brightstar controls more than 7 kilometres of essentially untested and fertile strike length between Lady Irene and Selkirk.
Aspacia program
At Aspacia, the company has strike and dip extensions to the main Aspacia lode in its sights, together with defining the Aspacia West lode which was the target of underground mining in the late 1970s.
Several drill holes will target the Pandora lode which is interpreted to be the southern strike extension of Aspacia at surface, with potential to replicate the Aspacia lode at depth which included face grades to 150.40 g/t.
Aspacia is along the same trend as the 192,000-ounce unmined Pericles resource about 1.5 kilometres away and 500 metres west of Selkirk-First Hit, which recorded historic production of around 205,000 ounces.
It may present an opportunity for a combined underground operation encompassing Aspacia, Selkirk, First Hit and other smaller deposits which are all within a 500-metre radius.
Brownfield targets
RC drilling will also follow up high-grade hits of up to 2 metres at 31.7 g/t gold from 41 metres and 6 metres at 3.41 g/t from 147 metres in the Lady Shenton-Lady Harriet ‘link zone’.
These brownfield targets including Westralia, South Dump and Golden Dicks in the ‘link zone’ will be assessed with focused RC drilling.
"We are also following up some prospective geology and high-grade mineralisation between the Lady Shenton and Lady Harriet mines in the ‘link zone’, with three separate zones identified for follow-up drilling,” Rovira said.
"The mineral resources within Menzies presents a significant opportunity for Brightstar to commercialise and assist funding larger-scale development endeavours underway to create a genuine WA gold producer with meaningful scale through the existing processing infrastructure and resource base.”
Brightstar’s Laverton & Menzies gold projects.
Laverton program
Further drilling is planned at Brightstar’s Laverton Gold Project, with the drilling crew to mobilise to Laverton after the Menzies program is completed in July.
These combined drilling programs are expected to generate strong news flow over the coming months, in conjunction with the planned start of mining operations at Selkirk in August 2023.
Brightstar owns the Brightstar processing plant, which is on care and maintenance, a 60-man accommodation camp and non-processing infrastructure, located 30 kilometres southeast of Laverton and within 60 kilometres of the company’s 460,000-ounce JORC resource within the Laverton Gold Project.
The Menzies Gold Project includes the high-grade gold field which has historically produced 787,200 ounces at 18.9 g/t between 1895-1995.
Later in 2023, Brightstar will commence mining operations at the Menzies Project via a Profit Share Joint Venture with BML Ventures Pty Ltd.