Carnavale Resources Ltd (ASX:CAV) has established the potential for resource growth at the Kookynie Gold Project in Western Australia with further “spectacular” gold results of up to 184.9 g/t from the latest drilling campaign at the McTavish East Prospect.
Reverse circulation (RC) drilling has extended and in-filled a significant high-grade plunging gold zone at the prospect, with standout results including:
- 6 metres at 68.78 g/t gold from 134 metres in MERC066, including 2 metres at 184.9 g/t;
- 6 metres at 41.38 g/t gold from 181 metres in MERC053, including 3 metres at 78.1 g/t;
- 4 metres at 38.28 g/t gold from 158 metres in MERC058, including 1 metres at 128 g/t;
- 2 metres at 32.83 g/t gold from 228 metres in MERC060; and
- 7 metres at 6.92 g /t gold from 132 metres in MERC056, including 1 metre at 29.5 g/t.
The company’s RC and diamond drilling this year has defined the strong gold mineralisation to more than 700 metres along strike and 250 metres down dip, with mineralisation remaining open at depth.
Chip tray from MERC066 drill hole with individual gold grades.
Improving quality and continuity
“We are delighted to be expanding the high-grade gold zones identified by the previous RC drill program down dip and along strike with the current RC drilling,” Carnavale chief executive officer Humphrey Hale said.
“The close-spaced drilling improved the definition of these high-grade shoots and demonstrated continuity that has helped CAV to understand the morphology and style of the mineralisation at McTavish East.
“This has highlighted the potential to expand the high-grade zones identified in earlier wide-spaced drilling to the south of this zone.”
Recent drilling at McTavish East in yellow callouts. Red arrows are down dip opportunities to extend high-grade mineralisation.
Extending strike
Carnavale's aircore and RC drilling campaigns since 2021 has defined the trend at the McTavish East Prospect to more than 2 kilometres.
The RC program of 29 holes for 5,364 metres completed in August this year has extended the previously identified bonanza grade gold zone 700 metres to the northeast.
The company plans to extend RC drilling to the southern part of McTavish East to test for the same steep shoot geometry known to host bonanza gold grades.
The exploration company’s strategy in Kookynie is to discover high-grade, truckable resources of a similar size to the historical Cosmopolitan Mine, where more than 331,000 ounces of gold at 15 g/t were produced, that can be processed at an existing third-party nearby processing plant.