Riversgold Ltd (ASX:RGL) has begun air core drilling at the Northern Zone Gold Project in Western Australia, a farm-in with London-listed Oracle Power PLC (AIM:LON:ORCP) where RGL has an option to acquire 80% of the project.
About 25 kilometres from the gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie, gold here is a hosted within a porphyry intrusion, where previous drilling has revealed gold mineralisation over widths greater than 100 metres in true width.
RGL intends to test for supergene gold with this latest air core project – the tenure holds a conceptual exploration target of 200 to 250 million tonnes at a grade of 0.4 g/t to 0.6 g/t gold for between 2.5 to 4.8 million ounces of gold.
Second rig to arrive shortly
“Building on the momentum from last week's successful $1.85 million placement and our ambitious drilling plans, I am thrilled to announce the commencement of AC drilling at the Northern Zone Gold Project, located just to the east of Kalgoorlie,” Riversgold chair David Lenigas said.
“With a substantial gold Exploration Target (NYSE:TGT) centred around a large porphyry gold system proven to exceed 100 metres in true width from previous drilling, we eagerly anticipate the results of this program.
“Drilling efforts will accelerate further with the arrival of a second rig shortly.”
The company points to parallels between the Northern Zone Gold Project and Saturn Metals’ Apollo Hill Project about 175 kilometres to the north.
Saturn recently released a resource estimate of 105 million tonnes at 0.54 g/t gold for 1.839 million ounces of gold – PEA statements by the company lead RGL to believe both projects have potential for a sizeable low-grade heap leach operation.
Earlier, Riversgold completed a four-hole diamond-drilled program at the Northern Zone Project, validating the exploration model and confirming style, widths and grades with the results.