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Mining

ASX:BGD

Barton Gold goes hi-tech with new Tarcoola exploration work

By Colin Hay - August 7, 2023

Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) has moved quickly to take advantage of a recent highly successful capital raising with the commencement of new hi-tech seismic program at its Tarcoola gold project in South Australia.

The company recently confirmed that $4.73 million it had raised in an oversubscribed institutional placement and separate oversubscribed share purchase plan would be dedicated to a new round of exploration activities at the historic Tarcoola site.

To kick off that new search of the Tarcoola area, the company has called in leading global hard rock geological imaging company HiSeis to conduct a major regional seismic program.

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The Tarcoola project is located on ~1,640 sq km of tenements and is the site of the brownfields open pit Perseverance Mine which was operated during 2017 and 2018.

Barton managing director, Alex Scanlon, said the company is looking to obtain a higher resolution model of the near surface (0-500m depth) structure across a ~15km long zone prospective for repeats of the Perseverance Mine’s mineralisation.

Tarcoola upside to be tested

In the early 1900’s the Tarcoola Goldfield was South Australia’s major hard rock gold producer, with numerous historical high-grade workings producing some ~2,400 kg (~77,000 ounces) gold bullion recovered from ~64,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of ~37.5 grams per tonne of gold between ~1900 and ~1955.

Previous high-resolution aeromagnetic surveys and a regional 2D seismic reinterpretation completed during 2020 identified a new regional interpreted 3D structural model and the new seismic work will follow-up that highly prospective for repeats of the deposit model.

The company believes the area is historically under-explored with little modern drilling and still provides significant discovery potential.

Significant target corridor

Together with additional geophysical analysis the company has identified a new ~15km long target corridor for repeats of the high-grade Perseverance Mine mineralisation, which it is now testing.

“This program continues our systematic approach to building a new regional geological model across an exciting field of priority targets,” Mr Scanlon said.

“With improved near-surface structural resolution we will then be able to drill test structures more precisely for potential shallow repeats of the Perseverance Mine’s high-grade mineralisation.”

“We expect to be drilling our best targets by the end of 2023, continuing through 2024 as we pursue Tarcoola resources growth as the basis for potential ‘Stage 1’ accelerated development pathways.”

Cashed up and ready for action

Barton Gold enters this new period of activity in a strong financial position, with its coffers not only boosted by the funds raised from its very successful capital raisings, but with significant input from work carried out on its Central Gawler mill.

A Central Gawler Mill cleanout and preservation program recovered an estimated 10+ tonnes of gold bearing materials, including total saleable gold concentrates of ~7.4 dry tonnes grading at an average ~5,000 grams per tonne gold, for a contained metal value of ~1,190oz gold worth ~$3.4m at current Australian dollar gold prices.

The company is now evaluating other stockpiles of materials located adjacent to the Central Gawler Mill and the Tarcoola gold project’s Perseverance mine for processing and recovery opportunities.

“2023 is set to be a transformative year for Barton, and the June quarter has set the tone with a 189,000 ounce upgrade at our ‘Stage 2 Expansion’ project and an institutional placement to accelerate ‘Stage 1’ development pathways,” said Mr Scanlon in a recent unveiling of the company’s June quarter results.”

“The quarter end also marks an important corporate milestone for Barton, which celebrates two years as an ASX-listed company. We have considerably outperformed our IPO Prospectus budget for the period, with cash more than $5m higher than forecast owing to optimised exploration activities and asset monetisation initiatives.”

“This performance is driving international awareness of Barton’s strategy, an expanding shareholder register, and increasing corporate momentum as we target further ‘Stage 1’ and ‘Stage 2’ Resources growth during 2023. We are also looking closely at potentially increasing gold concentrates production from existing stockpiles.”