Forrestania Resources Ltd (ASX:FRS) is planning its maiden drilling program at the Bonnie Vale Gold Project in Western Australia’s prolific Eastern Goldfields, which it expects to commence later this year.
“With gold at ~A$3,700 per ounce and in an area surrounded by producing gold operations, there couldn’t be a better time or place to be exploring for gold,” said Forrestania Resources chair John Hannaford.
The proposed drilling will target the extent of the mineralisation at depth and along strike at the project’s Ada Ann prospect, within exploration licence E15/1632, which is just 10 kilometres west of Evolution Mining 5-million ounces of gold Mungari Gold Mine.
The program will also assess the potential for an additional zone of gold mineralisation around an area of historical drill spoils that returned strong results, including 49g/t gold.
The planned drilling follows a promising review of historical exploration data where past drilling returned significant, shallow gram-per-metre intersections at Ada Ann, with mineralisation open in all directions.
In addition to drilling Ada Ann, Forrestania has planned more geochemical work across the project area to infill and complement existing, anomalous results. The company hopes to further define regional exploration targets and, in the long-term, undertake exploration drilling.
“A prolific region for gold discoveries”
“The Eastern Goldfields district is a prolific region for gold discoveries; Bonnie Vale lies along a highly prospective mineralised belt with Evolution Mining’s Mungari and Cutter’s Ridge gold mines to the east and north, respectively. However, the area is highly under-explored,” said Hannaford.
“Ada Ann is a high-order exploration opportunity. Our field work has sampled several mineralised, historical drill spoils with results up to 49g/t gold, in a new area immediately to the east of previous drilling at Ada Ann. The focus will be drill testing Ada Ann as well as this new high-grade, mineralised area. prospect and extending the existing gold zones.”
Bonnie Vale project area (E15/1632 and E15/1534) with selected gold operations and simplified geological interpretation with government magnetics. Evolution Mining’s Mungari lies some 5 kilometres east of the project area.
Ada Ann prospect
Forrestania has completed its technical appraisal of the Ada Ann prospect, updating its database with historical data, and compiling data from WAMEX reports and field/reconnaissance trips.
The company believes this is the first time that the data relating to Ada Ann has been systematically collected and interrogated.
The Ada Ann prospect showing down-hole max gold assay data from historical drilling and the location of the cross section (A-A’); notable down hole intervals are also highlighted.
Bonnie Vale North prospect
Forrestania has also completed multiple field and site visits to the neighbouring Bonnie Vale North prospect (tenement E15/1534), which lies within the greenstones of the Eastern Goldfields Super Terrane.
The highly prospective Kunanalling Shear Zone strikes roughly north-west through the project area, presenting strong, regional exploration potential for gold mineralisation at the tenement.
The Kunanalling Shear Zone hosts multiple gold occurrences, historical operations, resources and current deposits. These include Evolution Mining’s Castle Hill operation, which has a reserve of 21.4 million tonnes for 615,000 ounces at a grade of 0.9g/t of gold.
Historical geochemical results at Bonnie Vale North showed a number of samples greater than 20 parts per billion (ppb) gold, up to a maximum value of 74 ppb gold. These anomalous values prompted the company to complete a targeted geochemical sampling program that returned significant gold geochemical anomalies, coincident with and along the Kunanalling Shear Zone.
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