Red Rock Resources PLC (AIM:RRR) said diamond drilling has begun at the Berringa Gold Mine, a former high-grade producing gold mine, in the Victorian Gold Mines near Ballarat, Australia.
"We have now begun our diamond drilling campaign targeting three high-priority targets within the historical Berringa Gold mine. This has been some time in the planning as we refined and interpreted our 3-D model derived from old workings and data,” said Red Rock chairman Andrew Bell in a statement.
There is a planned 1,000 metres of diamond drilling with an estimated five drill holes and three priory targets to test for the extension of previously mined gold mineralisation, the company said.
Expedited assay testing arrangements are in place with batch sampling process expected to deliver first assay results in early 2023, it added.
“The key thing to remember in the Goldfields, which are typified by nuggety mineralisation, is that anything over 0.1 g/t (grams per ton) may be regarded as mineralised, and as recent results in a neighbouring tenement showed, a sampling of one half of a core may yield little gold, while the other half core on sampling may yield over 20 g/t,” Bell said.
“We are drilling at this stage for structure and drilling out a structure to try to delineate a mineralised body at a typical 6-8 g/t gold grade would be a later stage," he added.
Work is being carried out by joint venture subsidiary New Ballarat Gold and Red Rock Australasia, the company's 100%-owned subsidiary. The drilling is expected to cost roughly A$350,000.