Mining

ASX:BGD

Barton Gold steps on accelerator in drilling campaign at Tunkillia

By Colin Hay - October 16, 2023

Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) is accelerating its expansion drilling campaign at the Tunkillia gold project in South Australia with its three-rig drilling program operating in tandem.

The company’s ongoing growth drilling at Tunkillia has passed more than 10,000 metres of total drilling, with approximately 9,900m of RC drilling and approximately 700m of diamond drilling now successfully completed to date.

Metreage drilled has really gained momentum since the arrival of a third specialist drill rig earlier this month as Barton looks to grow the already significant 1.15 million ounces of gold at the 223 deposit and test satellite gold zones at 223 North, Area 191 and Area 51.

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Targeted drilling advancing quickly

Managing director, Alex Scanlon, said RC drilling at the 223 North, Northern 223 and Central 223 areas is complete while the priority RC drilling on the 223 Deposit extension targets is advancing quickly, with both RC drilling rigs now moving to undertake a further approximately 3,000m of additional drilling.

The company is now preparing to undertake approximately 1,500m of RC drilling at Area 51 following the completion of activities at Southern 223. RC drilling will also test a regional target southeast of the 223 deposit.

That work to the southeast of the 223 deposit is targeting potential southern extensions or repeats of this style of mineralisation along the western margin of the Yarlbrinda shear zone.

Supporting resource upgrade

“With three rigs, we are drilling between two to three thousand metres weekly depending upon ground conditions,” Mr Scanlon said.

“We are accelerating extensional drilling with the goal to support another near-term 223 deposit resources upgrade, followed by results during early 2024 for surrounding Tunkillia growth targets.”

Combined RC and DD drilling at Tunkillia is also targeting conversion of one or more satellite gold zones to new JORC mineral resource estimates during early 2024.

Extensive drilling campaign

Barton commenced its aggressive new Tunkillia diamond drilling campaign in late September and has made good progress to date.

A major focus of the current program is the testing of satellite exploration opportunities alongside a currently active reverse circulation (RC) resources growth drilling program.

The area at the 51 target will be assessed for its potential to infill the geological model with higher quality information focused on a central zone of broad (approximately 50m wide) mineralisation which graded over 40 gram-metre and included 17m at 3.2 grams per tonne gold (from 77m) in hole TKB43.

Significant golden footprint

Tunkillia’s total “golden” footprint has already grown significantly under Barton’s ownership, including the discovery of three new satellite gold zones since November 2021.

Located around 70km south/south-east of the Tarcoola project, Tunkillia is sited on an approximately 1,360 square kilometre tenement package.

To date, Barton has identified more than 20km of untested strike at the project and is excited about the potential of a major “kilometres-wide Kalgoorlie style shear zone” it is chasing there.

The company believes Tunkillia hosts multiple advanced ‘line of lode’ targets on the western and eastern demagnetised margins of the Yarlbrinda shear, located in the vicinity of the 223 deposit.

The 223 deposit was discovered during 1996, and since around the year 2000 the majority of drilling in the area has been focused on infill drilling of that deposit.

Shallow historical drilling has also uncovered the potential for extensive mineralisation and has identified multiple local satellite targets. This historical drilling is now set to be tested with the new program.