Surefire Resources NL (ASX:SRN) NL has started a 5,500-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at its wholly owned Yidby Gold Project in Western Australia’s Murchison region. The drilling program is targeting known mineralisation extensions, new high-priority prospects and will support a future scoping study aimed at advancing development of the gold project.
The program will test mineralisation along strike and at depth across multiple prospects — Yidby, Fender, Marshall and the Money anomaly — while also collecting samples for further metallurgical analysis. Follow-up diamond drilling is planned to support scoping-level studies.
“We are excited to be back drilling at Yidby with a well-defined, data driven campaign while gold prices remain at unprecedented high values,” managing director Paul Burton said. “This solid RC programme is significant as it will enable Surefire to initiate a Scoping Study for mining and gold recovery to unlock the economic value of this area for our shareholders.”
Location of the 100% owned Yidby Gold Project in a highly mineralised greenstone belt.
Target prospects and focus zones
The drilling program will target:
- Yidby Prospect: Known for high-grade gold intercepts such as 10 metres at 10.10 g/t gold including 1 metre at 82.5 g/t from 150 metres, the Yidby gold zone extends over 900 metres and remains open along strike and depth. Structural interpretations and BoxScan data suggest potential for larger-scale systems.
- Fender Prospect: Hosts continuous gold zones associated with subvertical porphyry intrusives. Notable intercepts include 20 metres at 0.4 g/t and 32 metres at 0.32 g/t. Drilling aims to extend mineralisation northwards.
- Marshall Prospect: Situated 150 metres west of Yidby, the prospect features broad zones such as 60 metres at 1.04 g/t including 4 metres at 10.4 g/t. Drilling will test northern extensions.
- Money Anomaly: First-pass drilling will assess this 1.5-kilometre-long geochemical gold anomaly. Structural and magnetic interpretations suggest a dilation zone conducive to mineralisation.
Location of prospects and anomalies at the Yidby Gold project.
Structural setting and mineralisation potential
The Yidby system lies along the Mt Gibson–Mt Magnet shear zone in a folded greenstone belt, a common host for large-scale orogenic gold deposits in Western Australia.
Mineralisation is associated with demagnetised zones along fold limbs and shear-adjacent porphyry intrusions, highlighting potential for repeated mineralised zones.
The gold mineralisation at Yidby has the following significant features:
- Located within a folded greenstone sequence within granite basement, adjacent to a regional shear zone – a feature analogous to most Yilgarn gold deposit settings.
- The shear zone is extensive and part of the major Mt Gibson to Mt Magnet shear zone.
- The folding is apparent in detailed Airborne magnetics showing broad and tight fold closures, with a high degree of fracturing, faulting and mafic intrusions.
- Gold mineralisation appears associated with demagnetised areas in fold limbs and fold axes, adjacent to the main shear zone.
Scoping study and metallurgical support
Data from this drilling will underpin a planned scoping study. Earlier metallurgical tests delivered high cyanide leach recoveries (97.6–99.5%) and gravity recoveries of up to 67%. Additional column VAT leach testing yielded 66.3% recovery over 69 days and suggested previous assays may have underestimated gold content. Screen Fire Assays are planned to further validate coarse gold presence.
Further diamond drilling is planned to collect bulk ore samples to support ongoing metallurgical evaluation and scoping study modelling.