Askari Metals hits shallow high grade gold at Burracoppin

Assay results from Askari Metals’ drilling at its Western Australia Burracoppin gold project have confirmed several high-grade intercepts with a broad low-grade gold halo seen in many of the other holes. Additionally, the company has identified a new prospect east of the current system. Askari plan to follow up this area which has the potential to positively change the size and the scale of the Burracoppin project significantly.

Askari recently completed its inaugural 2000 metre reverse circulation drill program at its Wheatbelt Burracoppin copper project. While targeting a slew of historical high-grade drill results, its drill rods vectored in on gold mineralisation beneath a line of old artisanal mining shafts.

Seventeen holes were drilled in four main areas targeting local strike and different extensions of historic mineralised loads.

Standout assay results include 4m at 4.27 grams per tonne gold from 25m, 2m at a dazzling 7.88 g/t gold from 25m and 1m at stunning 14.6 g/t gold from 22m at Benbur West.

At the Christmas Gift prospect, the drill bits turned up 3m at 3.57 g/t gold from 20m and 1m at a glistening 7.4 g/t from 40m.

Askari says several holes consistently hit gold over 1 g/t indicating a potentially large gold endowment at Burracoppin.

The company’s flagship Burracoppin gold project is approximately 20 kilometres east of Merredin in WA’s eastern Wheatbelt region. Interestingly it is only about 25km south-west of Ramelius Resources’ Edna May gold mine which has racked up more than one million ounces in recorded production and produced 26,632 ounces in the June quarter this year.

The Burracoppin area is underlain by Archean granite-gneiss-greenstone terrain with minor aplites and pegmatites which intrude the high-grade metamorphic rocks. North-south trending gold-bearing quartz veins crosscut mafic dyke and the host sediments and the region is gently folded. Interestingly, iron-rich laterites which cover the Archean rock sequence also carry gold mineralisation.

According to Askari, historical gold production in the 1930s came principally from shallow artisanal workings from high-grade gold veins. These shallow shafts have only been partially tested by past exploration. Data from the Geological Survey of WA archives shows the shafts were developed over gold-bearing quartz veins that generally coughed up more than half an ounce to the tonne gold.

Significantly, the recent drilling has established the overall strike length of the mineralisation between Burgess Find in the north and Benbur in the south is about 650m, whilst the Easter Gift prospect is a further 1.3km south of Benbur. This suggests the total potential strike of the mineralisation is almost 1.7km from north to south - longer than previously estimated.

The Lone Tree prospect in the southeast part of the project area is another 850m to the southeast of Easter Gift and importantly represents a separate mineralised structure which was only discovered during phase one drilling programme and as such, has not yet been adequately drill tested. Two scissor holes drilled through this new prospect returned 4m at 1.0g/t gold from 14m at the top of the hole and 1m at 1.19 g/t from 59m from deeper down.

Askari plans to follow this area it says has the potential to positively change the size and the scale of the Burracoppin project significantly.

These results very encouraging and highlight the potential for further mineralisation associated with the historic workings and on separate structures in the project area. We are busy analysing the data in more detail, in conjunction with geophysical interpretations and other data sets follow up exploration design will commence soon and promises for a thrilling next phase of work.

With a tidy portfolio of copper-gold projects in both WA and NSW, Askari is well placed to take advantage of the current strength in metal markets.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au