Artemis Resources Ltd is planning a substantial drilling program to test high-priority gold exploration targets at Carlow tenement within the Karratha Gold Project in the North Pilbara gold province of Western Australia.
Artemis expects to begin a diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling program in early February, testing several compelling targets within a 4-kilometre-long northwest trending zone centred around the company’s Carlow mineral resource estimate (MRE).
While close to the Carlow resource, the targets to be drilled in the current quarter have never been tested. The Carlow MRE of 704,000 ounces gold equivalent (AuEq), includes 374,000 ounces of gold and 64,000 tonnes of copper, and remains open.
Artemis tenements in Pilbara region with Carlow Tenement hatched
In strong position to drill
“As a result of the excellent work completed by the Karratha exploration team during 2024 and following the announced capital raising in December, Artemis is now in a strong position to undertake drilling of some exciting targets at the Karratha Gold Project”, said recently appointed managing director Julian Hanna.
“Exploration in the following months will be focused on the Carlow Tenement which hosts a significant gold-copper resource at Carlow and covers a wide range of exploration targets within a wide, prospective corridor with minimal previous drilling.
“I look forward to working closely with the very experienced and committed team at Artemis and updating shareholders with results from the drilling in due course.”
Having recently raised $4 million via a share placement, the company is well-funded to drill priority targets around Carlow and progress other promising gold targets.
Planned work
The first of the planned drill holes will test the large Marillion electro-magnetic (EM) conductor 500 metres east of the Carlow resource, near the base of the Andover Intrusion.
Diamond drilling will then test the potential for significant extensions to the Carlow resource, down plunge from previous high-grade gold intersections.
Marillion is a large, highly conductive electro-magnetic (FLTEM) anomaly modelled by the company’s consulting geophysicist as a 500-metre-long, circa 11,000 siemens conductor with the top at around 350 metres vertical depth.
Marillion is undrilled and the source of the conductive anomaly is unknown.
Carlow resource long section showing high-grade gold intersections in the East zone and proposed diamond drill holes. Marillion EM conductor is projected south onto the Carlow section.
Drilling is planned to start in early February with the first drill hole designed to test the centre of the Marillion EM anomaly for possible sulphide-hosted mineralisation.
Artemis says Marillion may represent an extension of the Carlow gold/copper deposit offset more than 500 metres by a fault, or represent a possible sulphide accumulation at the interpreted base of the Andover Intrusion which is mapped in outcrop near Marillion.
RC drilling is then planned across the Titan Prospect, 2-kilometres northwest of Carlow, as an initial test of widespread high-grade gold occurrences at surface.
Titan was the subject of several surface rock chip sampling programs during 2024. These programs delivered very high-grade gold assay results from selected samples of quartz/ironstone veins and gossanous chert outcrops in several areas at Titan.
Assays from outcrops of chert and quartz/ironstone veins include 51.8 g/t of gold and 41.4 g/t of gold, with nine other samples assaying greater than 4 g/t gold. There is no known drilling of the surface gold occurrences.
Titan Prospect - outcrop of brecciated and banded chert (approx. 5 metres wide) with thin stockwork iron oxide veining.
Artemis says that surface gold occurrences at Titan may be associated with a large gravity-low feature surrounded by chert outcrops, interpreted major faults and thrusts.
The known surface gold occurrences appear to be associated with a 2-kilometre-long gravity-low feature in the centre of the Carlow Tenement, the source of which is unknown.
An initial program of shallow RC drilling at Titan is planned to start in the current quarter, subject to access approvals over some areas.
The RC program is planned to test down dip from the surface gold occurrences, test the central gravity-low feature and provide geological and geochemical data to support deeper drilling programs.
Carlow resource – conceptual open pit study
Artemis has planned for a conceptual open pit study to be carried out by an independent consulting group based on the existing October 2022 Carlow MRE.
The total mineral resource at Carlow includes an Inferred open pit resource of 7.25 million tonnes at 1.3 g/t gold for 296,000 ounces of gold, contained within an optimised pit shell.
New opportunities
While the Karratha Gold Project remains Artemis’s core asset, the company is working to identify other high-quality exploration targets with potential for the discovery of major mineral deposits.
Priorities are for targets which can be acquired and tested at relatively low cost.
Artemis recently applied for an exploration licence — the Cassowary Intrusion 440 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie — to cover an interpreted intrusion with potential for IOCG copper-gold mineralisation.
Once the tenement is granted, exploration will test the potential for IOCG-type copper/gold mineralisation which may be associated with the intrusion. A high-resolution magnetic and gravity survey will probably be used to assist drill targeting.