Riversgold Ltd (ASX:RGL) is back on the drills at its Northern Zone Gold Project, 25 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The new campaign, to be conducted on a nominal 25-metre grid, has been designed to extend promising results from the maiden reverse circulation (RC) and aircore campaigns, which revealed shallower supergene gold mineralisation.
Targeting shallow gold
Drilling will target the shallow, up-dip portion of the mineralised system, following a significant intersection of 18 metres at 4.14 g/t gold from 36 metres in the initial drilling phase.
This new, two-week phase will target the identified fault, believed to be a controlling feature of mineralisation, involving some 1,500 metres of drilling to depths between 60 and 70 metres.
The Northern Zone Project has a conceptual exploration target of 200 to 250 million tonnes at a grade of 0.4 g/t to 0.6 g/t gold, amounting to 2.5 to 4.8 million ounces of gold.
This target is based on historical and recent drilling data, including results from 53 historical drill holes and seven drilled by Oracle Power PLC (LON:ORCP) in 2021.
Expectations exceeded
RGL chair David Lenigas said: “It is great to be back out at Northern Zone so quickly after the recent success of our maiden RC and aircore campaigns that exceeded our expectations by revealing shallower supergene gold mineralisation.
“This new phase of drilling will target extensions to the first RC drill hole RGL drilled that intersected an impressive 18 metres at 4.14 g/t gold from 36 metres (NZRC001).
“We will also target an identified fault, believed to be a controlling feature of mineralisation in the area.”
Riversgold's exploration strategy draws parallels with Saturn Metals Ltd's Apollo Hill Gold Project, 175 kilometres north of Northern Zone.
Saturn Metals’ project, with a resource estimate of 105 million tonnes at 0.54 g/t gold, serves as a benchmark for Riversgold’s aspirations for Northern Zone.
The Northern Zone Gold Project is readily accessible via the Bulong road and boasts flat topography with open scrub, lying on 40-50 metres of transported overburden.
The project involves an 80% earn-in agreement with Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) Power, including a four-hole diamond drill program that confirmed the mineralisation model.
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