Barton Gold (ASX: BGD)(OTCQB: BGDFF) has released an updated mineral resource estimate of 19,900 ounces within 80 metres of the Perseverance mine open pit floor at its Tarcoola project in South Australia.
The upgrade follows arecent drilling campaign of 26 holesfor a total 1,688m and takes the total estimate for the Tarcoola project to 540,000 tonnes grading 1.7 grams per tonne for 29,500oz gold.
Approximately 45% of the resource falls into the indicated category and includes 9,600oz contained in lower-grade existing stockpiles next to Perseverance.
Regional strategy
Managing director Alex Scanlon said the upgrade builds on Barton’s regional strategy of combining large-scale, bulk open pit mineralisation with nearby higher-grade blending feed to realise the benefits of economies of scale and to potentially support a Stage 1 processing operation leveraging the existingCentral Gawler Mill.
“This is an excellent starting point for the second phase of our strategy [and] we will continue to incrementally build these resources while testing priority regional targets for new mineralisation,” he said.
“With an existing fully-permitted mill [at Central Gawler], even minor pit extensions can offer high-value ounces.”
Tarcoola history
The historical Tarcoola goldfield produced 77,000oz of gold at shallow workings from 1893 to 1955 with an average grade of 37.5g/t.
The small open pit mine at Perseverance produced ore grading up to 4g/t for two years from 2016, however relatively little work has been achieved since to evaluate the goldfield’s architecture or locate prospective ‘repeats’ of shallow, high-grade mineralisation.
Since 2022, Barton has been rapidly growing the neighbouringTunkillia gold projectto a mineral resource estimate of 51.3 million tonnes at 0.91g/t for 1.5 million ounces.
A preliminary scoping study is underway to test a prospective 5Mt per annum processing model and to identify key cost drivers for subsequent optimisation.
Higher-grade mineralisation
Barton is now evaluating the Tarcoola goldfield for potential higher-grade mineralisation.
The company drilled 26 holes into the Perseverance pit floor in December and April to confirm high-grade extensions of mineralisation grading up to 12g/t gold as well as new structures below the open pit.
These are believed to be analogous to the structure which hosts Perseverance.
Mr Scanlon said it is the first time in the goldfield’s 130-year history that all known historical gold occurrences can be put into a consistent framework.
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